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He shook his head. “I’m going to try to forget you ever even thought about it.”
    She cringed at the judgment in his voice.
    He turned away again and Kacie Jo waited as he ran his hands through his hair before turning back to her.
    “Kacie Jo, God, I wish…” He trailed off. “I wish I could just forget who you are. But I can’t. I planned on walking you back here and showing what a colossal jerk I can be, but I can’t do that either. I look at you, and you’re this light. You have been all these years. And I have to be honest, Kacie Jo. I don’t need a temptress. I don’t need sex from you. That would scramble up the mess in my head in ways you can’t begin to understand. What I need is a friend I can count on. A friend to just listen to me and let me laugh. God, I haven’t laughed in forever.”
    Kacie Jo listened to Donovan speak. Half the words weren’t even to her at all, but she was the one there. She was the one listening.
    And as she listened, she realized her plans were washed up. How could she seduce a man who said sex with her would mess up his brain? The outfit, the makeup, the cake. All were pretty much wasted effort. Donovan needed a friend.
    Didn’t it just figure? She really wished he’d given her a taste of what a jerk he could be.
    “Well, honesty is a good thing I guess, Donovan.”
    Kacie Jo struggled with her conflicting emotions, and Donovan hoped like hell he’d done the right thing. He truly had planned on showing her how horrible a man with sex and only sex on his mind could be.
    But then he’d pulled her close and realized he was out of his league. He wanted to taste her, to hold her, to touch her everywhere.
    And he knew in that instant he couldn’t do it. She meant too much to him. The last few years she’d been an anchor of sorts, and he couldn’t blow that. If he gave in to his desires, even for one simple kiss, it wouldn’t stop there.
    So he opted for a partial truth. He couldn’t tell her everything. Couldn’t tell anyone how he’d let another best friend down, how war had ended in personal tragedy. How he’d watched as killers lit the fire that sucked the life out of him as surely as it killed its victim.
    But he could tell her one truth. He pushed away the emptiness as she gave up on him, but he couldn’t just let her walk away.
    “Wait.”
    Kacie Jo shook her head. “No, I don’t think I better stay right now, Donovan. I know you need a friend and I’m going to try to be that for you. But right now, I need to go.”
    Kacie Jo walked out of the kitchen, picked up his present and her purse and tugged on Eliza’s arm. “Let’s get out of here and leave these guys to their night.”
    She had to get out. Now. Before she cried or went back in the kitchen and showed Donovan Nelson just what he was missing.
    But she didn’t need to go back in the kitchen because Donovan had followed her. Great. Rejected for the whole world to see.
    She took a deep breath and turned to him.
    “So it was great seeing you again, Donovan.”
    He stood across from her, close enough for her to smell the spicy cologne he still favored. “You, too, Kacie Jo.” His words rumbled over her, and she tried to avoid his eyes. She didn’t want him to say anything else. Didn’t want to think about how an affair with her would hurt him.
    Instead, she reached over and gave him a friendly hug. And then she closed the door between her and her childish dreams.

Chapter Three
    Kacie Jo walked past the teacher-of-the-year plaque in her entryway and straightened it out of habit. She had plenty to think about, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to put those thoughts to words.
    Unfortunately, Eliza wasn’t going to be put off a second longer.
    “Kacie Jo, did we or did we not go over to Grady’s so you could have your way with Donovan Nelson?”
    She should’ve never said those words to Eliza. Now she’d never live them down. “We did.”
    “So?” Her friend’s question packed quite a punch