“Oh, come on, Aubry. You never had sex while you were in school?”
“I did. And had one relationship that ended badly, so I focused on school instead of guys.”
Mia nodded. “I understand that. That’s why I’m not having a relationship. I have my business to think about and that’s occupying most of my thoughts.”
“Your one true love?” Aubry gave her a wry smile.
“Yes. That’s it exactly.”
“Then it makes sense for you to have sex with your best friend.”
Mia looked down at the women doing their manicures. They were good at their jobs, because they were focused on their tasks and, while Mia was sure they were listening in, their facial expressions betrayed nothing of their thoughts.
“It’s working for both of us right now. Nathan is just about to start the football season and he has a lot of pressure on him, too. Keeping things simple between us is the best way to go.”
Aubry’s nails were finished, so she leaned back in her chair. “Sure. As long as neither one of you gets emotionally involved.”
“Right. And that’s not going to happen. We both know what we’re doing.”
Aubry let out a soft laugh.
“What?” Mia asked.
“Oh, nothing. I’m sure you totally have it together. Just like Tucker and I did.”
Mia frowned. “Hey, that’s not funny. You two are married now.”
Aubry gave her a knowing smile. “Exactly. And so are Grant and Katrina and now Flynn and Amelia are engaged. Oh, and of course Barrett and Harmony are getting married today. And you know what the common thread was binding all of us together?”
She didn’t want to know the answer, but she knew she had to ask. “What?”
“None of us wanted to get involved. None of us were in the market for love or a relationship. And none of us planned on falling in love.” Aubry held out her hands. “Look at all of us now, Mia. So you know, best-laid plans and all.”
Mia lifted her chin. “That’s not going to happen with Nathan and me. We’ve been friends for a long time. How we feel about each other is different.”
“Uh-huh.”
She did not like Aubry’s tone. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that once you introduce sex into a relationship, it changes everything.”
Her manicurist had just finished with her, and the team was taking a break before pedicures, so Mia shifted in her chair. “That’s exactly what I told Nathan. Only my reasoning for keeping sex out of our relationship was because I was afraid to lose our friendship.”
“I don’t think that should be your biggest concern. But I do understand it. I know how close you and Nathan are. If it were me and I had a guy friend as my BFF, I’d be hesitant to have sex with him, too. Because like I said, sex changes everything.”
Mia sighed. “Dammit, Aubry.”
Aubry laughed. “Sorry. But it’s true. It changes the entire dynamic of your relationship. However, I will say this. If anyone can manage it, it’s you, Mia.”
“Thanks. I’m going to try my damndest.”
She thought about—or more like worried about—what Aubry had said. In fact, she pondered it all through her pedicure. By the time she was on the table for her massage she was a tight bundle of tension and the massage was more painful than enjoyable because she wasn’t able to relax.
“Try deep, cleansing breaths,” her massage therapist said. “In through the nose, out through the mouth.”
She did. She settled into the massage, determined to fall asleep if possible. But then she thought about Nathan, about all the things Aubry said and how things would change in her relationship with him.
She had been wary of introducing sex into their relationship, though she had to admit she was having a great time with him now that they had. The sex was amazing, and being able to see him more often, to touch him and be intimate with him had sparked desires in her that had lain dormant for far too long.
Nathan was an amazing lover, so generous, so passionate.
But at what cost? She was always going to worry about their relationship ending, about something going wrong between them.
Dammit. She could not relax. She even practiced her yoga breathing, tuned in to the gentle music, even tried to fall asleep. Nothing worked because she couldn’t clear her head. She was tense. Tense, tense, tense. She felt bad for her massage therapist, who Mia was sure took it personally.
Mia got up at the end of her session.
“I have a lot on my mind.”
Evita, her therapist, sighed. “I can typically work with that. I’m not sure why I couldn’t release the tight knots in your muscles.”
“It’s not your fault. But thank you. It was a lovely massage.”
She got dressed and left the room, hoping Evita’s next client was someone a lot more relaxed. She passed Harmony on the way out.
“How are you doing, honey?” Mia asked.
Harmony grinned. “I’m having a fantastic day. How was the massage therapist? I’m next with her.”
“She’s amazing and you’re going to love her.”
“I can’t wait. I’ll see you soon.”
Evita was going to have a great time giving a massage to the happy bride-to-be.
Mia went to her room and took a shower to wash off the massage oil, then slipped into a sundress. She went downstairs and found a group of women in the kitchen. There were small sandwiches and snacks laid out—her mom and Diane’s work, no doubt. Given the stress and activity of the day, her mom wouldn’t want anyone to get hungry. Mia grabbed a few carrots to nibble on and made herself some green tea. Maybe that would relax her.
She pulled up a chair next to Amelia.
“Did you get your massage?” she asked.
Amelia nodded. “It was heavenly. How about you?”
“Yes. It was perfect.” She wasn’t about to tell anyone how bound up with tension she was.
“What time is hair and makeup?” Katrina asked.
“According to the schedule, they should arrive around three.”
She picked up her phone. She had an hour to kill, so she took her tea and went upstairs to her room. She grabbed her planner and sat in the chair next to the window. The sun was bright, and the day was hot as blazes, but the air conditioning made the room perfectly comfortable.
She opened her planner and flipped to a blank page, then settled in to make some notes. But it wasn’t work that was on her mind, it was Nathan. Nathan and her, and their friendship.
She divided the page into two columns, titling one “Friendship” and the other one “Sex.”
On the Friendship side, she listed all the things that mattered to her: trust, length of their friendship, the fact she could count on Nathan for everything, that she could tell him all her secrets and that their friendship had, for the most part, been non-sexual, which had made it uncomplicated.
On the Sex side, she wrote “Fun, Adventurous, A Tension Release, Hot, Steamy,” and then smiled as she wrote, “The Best I’ve Ever Had.”
She tapped her pen against the paper. “Isn’t that the damn truth?”
On the Sex side she also wrote, “Complicates Things. What If It Ends? Could End Our Friendship.” And then there were the scary photographers, who’d been stalking them here and there. She still couldn’t make sense of what they wanted, but if word of their relationship got out, it could spell bad tidings for both of them. And then there was the family issue. She didn’t need her family nosing around her relationship with Nathan. With the season about to start, the last thing Nathan needed was to be at odds with one of her brothers.
Her brothers had always been protective of her. She had no idea how any of them would react to her seeing Nathan. Plus Flynn played on the same team with Nathan. So she added “Work Complication for Nathan” to the Sex side.
She sighed. So many unknowns. Which was why she put three underlines under “Uncomplicated” in the Friendship column.
She compared lists, searching for clarity but finding none. Of course their friendship would always come first. She could live without the sex. She’d done that plenty of times. The problem was, she was now having a sexual relationship with Nathan.