Moonlight Cove by Sherryl Woods Page B

going to tell me why you wanted to talk to me?”
    She sighed. “It’s Mack,” she said, then added in frustration, “It’s always Mack. The man is going to drive me insane.”
    Will couldn’t keep himself from chuckling. “I think the effect is mutual.”
    Susie waved off the comment. “Come on. Mack’s oblivious, and lately it’s been even worse than usual.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She paused and faced Will. “Can I be honest with you?”
    “Of course.”
    “And you won’t go running to Mack?”
    “Absolutely not.”
    “Okay, then,” she said, and drew in a deep breath. “I’m crazy about him. I have been for years.”
    “Now there’s a news flash,” Will said before he could stop himself. He met her gaze and smiled. “I’m sorry. You’re not telling me anything I haven’t known before.”
    She sighed. “I figured. I guess I knew it wasn’t a secret, but I kind of hoped I could pretend seeing him was no big deal. That way, if he walked away, which he’s eventually bound to do, my pride would still be intact.”
    “Why are you so certain he’d leave you?”
    “Because that’s what Mack does,” she said pragmatically. “He leaves. He thinks he’s just like his father, the sleaze who left before he was born. He’s spent his whole life proving it to himself by dating one woman after another and dumping every one of them. I think there were even a few along the way that he actually liked, but he didn’t stick around long enough to see if the relationship would work. I watched him do it all through high school and college. Even though I had feelings for him, I vowed it wasn’t going to happen to me.”
    “So you decided to be his friend,” Will concluded.
    Susie nodded. “Men might leave women, but they usually keep their friends. Just look at you, Jake andMack. You’re like the three musketeers or something. I wanted that kind of relationship with Mack, one that would last. I figured if it was easy, with no demands or expectations, maybe he’d relax.”
    “And finally notice you?” Will suggested gently.
    Susie nodded, her expression miserable. “A while back, when Shanna first came to town and got involved with Kevin, she told me she thought Mack was crazy about me. I actually started to get my hopes up. I figured, hey, if an objective observer noticed something, then maybe it was true.” She sighed. “But nothing changed. Now I don’t know if it ever will. It’s like we’re locked in this pattern and we’re both too scared to risk changing it.”
    She gave him a hopeful look. “Do you think it’s possible to ever break out of the friend mold? Or have I doomed myself by making such a big deal of the fact that I’d never date Mack?”
    Will thought about her question. “In some ways, I do think it’s harder to go from being friends to being something more. If the friendship matters, no one wants to take the risk of changing things.”
    “Tell me about it,” she said gloomily.
    “But here’s the thing,” Will told her. “If you don’t ask for more or expect more from Mack—if you just stick with the status quo—will you ever be truly happy? Sometimes you have to take the risk of losing it all to get what you really want.”
    Susie blinked at the question, then grinned. “That sounds a lot like the pot calling the kettle black,” she said. “Have you ever asked yourself the same thing about Jess?”
    Will frowned. He’d asked himself that very thingjust days earlier. He wasn’t about to discuss it with Susie, though. “I thought we were talking about you and Mack.”
    “We can spend a couple of minutes on you, while we’re at it,” she said. “It’ll make me feel better to focus on someone else’s mixed-up love life.”
    “Not necessary,” Will said adamantly. “You’ve told me why you and Mack got stuck in this nonrelationship thing, and I get it. Up until now you’ve been content to leave things alone. What’s changed?”
    To his dismay,