Laura Drewry Interview Coming on Friday At 7pm: Today and Excerpt for HOW FOREVER FEELS

Laura Drewry

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Maya McKay’s heart is as big as Jack Rhodes’s shoulders are broad. Their chemistry is out of control, but it could never work between them because Jack is more than just best friends with her cheating ex-husband—they’re like brothers. Maya, the sensitive, practical florist, has given up on love and is ready to settle for like. But now that Jack’s around again, he’s stirring up old feelings—and turning Maya’s fantasies into irresistible reality.

Jack blew his chance with Maya years ago when he stepped aside for his best friend, Will, and he’s still kicking himself about it. Maya was promised forever once before, and she got burned. But when Jack realizes that second chances aren’t going to fall out of the sky, he seizes the moment—and the woman he’s always loved—to show her how forever truly feels.

“From the guy in the gray T-shirt at the end of the bar.” Grinning, Shelley set a white frothy drink, complete with a pineapple wedge and tiny blue parasol, in front of Maya then moved on to her next table.

With scarcely a glance at the piña colada, Maya and all three of her friends immediately craned their necks toward the bar.

“A piña colada?” Regan snorted. “Come on, buddy.”

“I know him,” Ellie muttered. “Why do I know him?”

Jayne just gaped. “He’s huge.”

Being the shortest of the four of them, Maya had to push away from the table and stand up to be able to see around and over everyone in the packed pub.

“Oh my God! Jack?”

“Who’s Jack?” Jayne’s question hung unanswered, because Maya was already dodging and weaving her way around waitresses and other tables.

Ducking under Shelley’s lifted tray, Maya came around the corner of the last table just as the guy sitting there stood up, shoving the chair hard into her hip. She tried to right herself but ended up crashing into the corner of the wall and spiraling off like she was in some kind of pinball game.

Grasping and flailing, and with the floor racing up to meet her, Maya was saved by two big hands that caught her under the arms and righted her.

Jack.

Without a word, Maya thrust her hands straight up over her head, snort-laughed, and gave a dramatic bow as everyone cheered.

“And that’ll be a ten from the Canadian judge,” Jack announced, using his beer bottle as a mic, “for sticking the landing with such grace and style.”

“Thank you, thank you very much.” Another quick bow, then she turned and walked right into Jack’s open arms.

“Hey, Snip.” He laughed quietly, and his huge frame swallowed her up until her feet dangled just below his kneecaps.

“What are you doing here?”

His chest rumbled with a low chuckle. “Someone had to be here to catch your sorry ass, didn’t they?”

Maya pulled back far enough so she could see his face. “Oh, God. Will’s not here with you, is he?”

“Nope—I’m solo.” He set her down slowly, then perched on his stool, bringing them closer to the same level, his hazel eyes wide, his brow lifting slowly. “You look . . . great.”

“Thanks.” She laughed lightly as she leaned her hip against the stool next to him. “But I think we can both agree anything would be an improvement over the last time you saw me.”

“I don’t know about that.” He shrugged. “You looked pretty good then, too.”

Ha! She’d looked like a crazy person and they both knew it, but considering she’d been going through her divorce from Will at the time, she hadn’t really cared.

“So what’s going on? Are you in town to visit Will?”

“Partly.” His grin vanished as he twisted his jaw to the side and blinked down at his beer for a second. “I’m sorry, Snip. I didn’t know about him and Stella, but I swear I could’ve killed him when I finally found out.”

Maya snorted. “Yeah, you and me both.”

“And then . . . jeezus . . . I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do. I mean, shit, it’s Will we’re talking about.”

“I know, which is exactly why we’re going to stop talking about him right now and agree to disagree on the fact that he’s a complete asshole and deserves to rot in hell.”

It was a feeble joke at best, so she couldn’t really blame him for not smiling back at her.

“Oh come on, Jack, it’s done, it’s over. Dickhead . . . sorry . . . Will . . . has moved on and so have I.”

“Have you? Moved on I mean.” Finally a smile, hesitant as it was. “Should I be watching out for some big hulking dude who’s going to kick my ass for buying you that drink?”

“Yeah, right.” Jack was six three, with the shoulders of a linebacker and arms the size of tree trunks, so there weren’t many guys who had what it took to kick his ass. “No hulking anyone, just my girls over there and they’re pretty friendly.”

His gaze flicked past her briefly. “I don’t know, that one in the green sweater looks like she could take me.”

Without turning, Maya laughed. “Ellie. And you might be right on that one. Are they still staring?”

“Oh yeah.” Jack’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “I don’t think any one of them’s moved since you shoved them all out of the way and leapt over the table.”

“I didn’t leap!” Heat raced up Maya’s neck and across her cheeks until she finally had to laugh and look down at the floor for a second. “Okay, I might have leapt a little, but I haven’t seen you in . . . what . . . two years, so a little leaping wasn’t completely uncalled for.”

“Yeah, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” His gaze never wavered as he took a slow sip of his beer. “How are you doing? For real, no B.S.”

“I’m fine, really.” She waved away his concern, because for the most part she was fine. Sure, she still had moments every once in awhile when it hurt—that was normal in any divorce—but those moments were few and far between now. “I can’t believe you’re here. Thought for sure I’d seen the last of you when I left Will.”

“Yeah, well . . .” He chewed his bottom lip for a second, then shrugged. “It was pretty easy to avoid you when there were three hundred kilometers and the border patrol between us, but when I saw you sitting over there . . . I don’t know . . . I figured after all this time, the very least you deserved was the chance to tell me to go screw myself for deserting you the way I did.”

“Hmm. Tempting.” She pinched a couple peanuts out of the bowl on the bar and tossed them in her mouth, all the while grinning up at him, at that face she’d missed so much. “I never felt like you deserted me. We all did what we had to do.”

She might be Jack’s friend, but Will was like his brother, and when push came to shove, Jack’s loyalty had always been to Will and the rest of the Carson family. She’d known that from the first day they met, and she’d never expected him to change, which was why his next words made her choke on her peanuts.

“He never deserved you, Snip.”