He glanced at the floor, summoning the strength he’d need to walk away—this time for good. “I can’t do this. I really thought I could, but I can’t.”

“What can’t you do, Luke?”

“I can’t come here and pretend to be your friend when that’s not what I want.”

She winced, and her eyes shone with tears.

Luke hated that he’d caused her more pain. Like she hadn’t already had more than enough.

“I understand,” she said stoically. “I hurt you so badly. Why would you want to be my friend anymore?”

Luke uttered a softly spoken swear that was so far out of character for him, he could see he’d shocked her. “That’s not it. You apologized, and I meant it when I said I forgive you.”

“Then why can’t we be friends?”

As if attached to a string controlled by someone other than him, Luke’s hand reached out to caress her soft cheek. “Because what I want from you goes far beyond friendship, and you’re not ready for that.”

“Luke,” she whispered, gripping his wrist. She turned her face into his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm.

A tremble zipped all the way through him. Nothing had ever electrified him the way her touch did. With great reluctance, he withdrew his hand. “I’m sorry. I wish I had it in me to be around you and not want more, but I can’t do it.”

“When it first happened,” she said tentatively, “the accident… I never imagined I’d get to a point where I’d be ready…to try again. With someone else. But now, it’s been more than a year, and it doesn’t seem quite so impossible to imagine anymore.”

“Syd,” he said, shaking his head. “I look good to you because I’m familiar, because you once had feelings for me, but I couldn’t bear to be your rebound guy or your transition guy, or whatever I’d be.”

She finally dared to glance up at him, and what he saw in her eyes and on her face made his heart stagger. “Just because things ended the way they did between us doesn’t mean I didn’t still have feelings for you, and I would never use you to prove a point to myself or anyone else. You mean too much to me, and after what I did to you once before…” Her voice faded.

“What’re you saying?”

“I don’t want you to go.”

Luke told himself to get the hell out of there while he still could, but somehow his legs didn’t seem to get the message.

She rested her hands on his chest. “I don’t know for sure that I’m ready for what this might be. All I know is I don’t want you to go.”