The Only One by Amelia Mae

This can’t be it. We’ve been best friends for years. We can’t just be… nothing.

Cindy
The summer before I left for basic training, I was determined to tell Luke Kane how I felt about him.
Maybe nothing would come of it. Maybe he’d laugh. Maybe he’d let me down easy. Maybe he’d tell me that we were perfect the way we were.
As friends. Best friends.
But… just friends.
Before I left Blue Creek forever, I needed Luke to know that I was in love with him.
But I never even got the words out.
Before I could say anything, Luke’s entire life was turned upside down and nothing between us was ever going to be the same again.
I got on a plane and left Blue Creek with a broken heart. And, ten years later, when I came back, everything else was broken too.

Luke
Looking into Cindy’s eyes that night, I felt like I was on top of the world.
My whole future was laid out in front of me. I was finally getting the hell out of a too-small town where everybody knew too much about everybody else.
And I was hanging out in the back of my truck with Cindy Lawless.
How had I never noticed how pretty my best friend was?
Had I always wanted to kiss her this badly?
Too bad fate wasn’t on my side that night.
Or for the next ten years.
But when Cindy Lawless walked into the bar one night, I realized something important. My feelings for her hadn’t gone anywhere.
Were Cindy and I finally going to get to be together? Or were we both so stuck in the past that we’d ruined our chances at a future?