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What? More sweat, this time her erratic heart beat joining in as well. “Brinley’s, um, she’s not my girlfriend.”
A small smile played on her mom’s lips. “But you want her to be, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Annalise giggled like a small child. “God, yes. More than anything in the world. Are… are you okay with that?”
“Like I said, I really like Brinley. She’s exactly the type of person I always pictured you with.”
“Except female.” Annalise snorted.
“Male… female… that part was up in the air.”
“What do you mean?”
Her mom stopped washing the dishes and turned toward her. “Honey, I’ve known you liked girls since sixth grade. Does the name Odette Bard ring a bell?”
Annalise cackled. Seriously? “Am I the only one who didn’t realize this?”
“Maybe.” Her mom smirked and went back to cleaning the dishes. “But can we talk about the more important part here?”
“What’s that?”
“Brinley. Does she know how you feel? Have you talked to her?”
“Not yet. I’m scared.” Annalise hated how fragile her voice sounded, but she couldn’t help it.
“Scared of what?”
“Her not feeling the same way.”
Now it was Annalise’s mom who cackled. “Are we talking about the same girl? Because there’s no way you could ever convince me that the girl who was just helping me with the dishes isn’t madly in love with you.”
“Okay, now I know you’re just being ridiculous. Even if she likes me, there’s no way she loves me. That’s crazy.” Still, the sound of that word, and the thought of Brinley feeling that way about her made Annalise’s heart soar. Love. She liked the sound of that.
Her mom tapped her temple. “Mothers always know. Trust me.”
Annalise wanted to trust her, but believing her would only make it that much harder if the words weren’t true. And how could they be? Brinley had spent her life avoiding relationships. There’s no way she had let herself fall in love with Annalise, even if Annalise was pretty sure… Nope. Not thinking about this now. If I think about it too much right now, I’ll go crazy waiting for her test to be over.
As they finished up the rest of the dishes, they moved from the topic of Brinley and made small talk instead, which Annalise was thankful for. When they finally went back into the family room, they found her grandma, dad, and Brinley in the middle of an intense game of poker.
Still, Brinley’s eyes immediately found Annalise’s. “You should have warned me these two are card sharks. Soon, I’m not going to have any money left.”
Annalise sat down beside Brinley and snaked an arm around her waist, a new level of confidence instilled in her after the talk with her mom. “Watch out for my grandma. She cheats.”
“I knew it.” Brinley threw her cards onto the floor and laughed. “Every time you acted like you were having a sudden coughing fit, you were totally looking at my cards.”
Annalise’s grandma threw a hand onto her chest as if she was offended by Brinley’s accusation. “I can’t believe you would say such a thing about an old woman.”
Watching Brinley interact with her family only made Annalise’s desire to get her alone even worse. She leaned in close enough so only Brinley could hear and whispered in her ear. “You want to get out of here soon?”
Brinley bristled at the question, but asked if they could spend a little more time with Annalise’s family.
It turned out a little more time actually meant three hours, and by the time they got back to Annalise’s apartment, she had lost all self-control. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Annalise pushed Brinley back up against it and had sex with her right there.
“Wow. Merry Christmas to me,” Brinley said as they both struggled to catch their breath. “Speaking of which, I got you a little something.”
“I got you a little something too, but please don’t get excited because it’s actually kind of lame.” Annalise had questioned the idea she came up with multiple times, but she hoped Brinley at least appreciated the thought behind it. She honestly wasn’t sure.
“Whatever it is, I know I’ll love it.” Brinley gave her a quick kiss on the lips then slipped past her and went into her room. When she came back out a minute later, she was carrying a small gift bag. “It’s nothing big, but when I saw it, I immediately thought of you.”
