“And you don’t want us to be anything more, right?” he asked, his tone hurt.

Crap, she thought. She hated when he put her in this position. “I can’t lie to you, Brent, I care for you, just not in the way you want me to. It would be cruel of me to let you believe otherwise.”

The hangdog look on his face broke her heart a little bit more, as it did each and every time the topic came up.

He sighed, stood, and took their empty plates to the garbage can, dumping them inside. She knew he was trying to regain his composure, laugh this off as nothing more than a guy trying, but it still saddened her. She wished she were able to fall madly in love with him. They would make a lot of people happy if she did. Unfortunately, she would not be one of them.

“Brent, we’ve been over this, and I know how you want me to feel.” She could feel tears welling up, and she didn’t want to cry. Not that day. She had more important issues, but then she reminded herself that his friendship and his feelings were equally important. What to say? “We’re friends now, and that’s all I can give you.”

Should she tell him that she’d actually perused a few online dating sites looking for a date? No, that would be too hurtful.

“And I’ll accept that, Lauren. You know that, but I’m not getting any younger. I thought I’d have a couple of kids by now, you know? A wife, too,” he added, a sad smile softening his features.

She wanted to tell him that if he’d focused his attention elsewhere, he might have achieved his goal already. He’d had girls crawling all over him in high school and pushed them away. She’d gone to college and was sure he’d done some dating, and who knew what more, but in Brent’s mind, he wasn’t going to accept the fact that she wasn’t the one for him. He needed to get her out of his system and move on. She just wished Brent could adopt this attitude. Maybe she would call Madison, her best friend, tonight and see if there was someone she could fix Brent up with—of course, without his knowing she’d been behind the hookup. Another thing to add to her list.

In high school, Madison had always loved a good matchmaking challenge, and she did even now, after she’d married Scott Murphy ten years ago. They had been college sweethearts, and one only had to watch them together to know they were still madly in love.

Wanting to steer the conversation elsewhere, Lauren said, “I think life tosses us in so many directions, it’s impossible to predict where we’ll be tomorrow.” She took a drink of her tea and stood. “Lunchtime is over, that much I do know. It was so sweet of you to think of me,” she added.

Brent nodded. “Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying. So what about tonight, do you want me to stop by the house? I don’t have any plans, unless there’s a bank robbery or something, and we both know the chances of that happening here in Fallen Springs are slim to none.” He smiled.