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“Answer the question,” Jack growled, fingers gripping the towel tightly.
Brandi muttered, “For fuck’s sake…”
“No, we didn’t plan this,” I said bitterly. “I wouldn’t intentionally run into you even if someone paid me. This is all just an extremely unfortunate coincidence. Come on, Brandi. Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Jack said.
I turned. His eyes began to soften.
“If you cancel at the last minute, it’ll count against your account. And you’ll be charged a cancellation fee by Airbnb.” His bare chest swelled with a deep breath, then he let it out. “It’s fine.”
“What is?”
He gestured. “The guest house has been unoccupied most of the summer, to the point that I had to lower the price. You can stay. We’ll never have to see each other.”
I glanced at Brandi. She looked like she wanted to leave, but was giving me the final say. Which sucked, because I wanted her to decide for me. To say the words out loud.
I forced myself to speak. “Okay. We’ll stay. It’s only for a week.”
Jack walked past us and entered a code into the keypad. “The code is zero-six-four-six. The last four digits of the booking party’s phone number.”
Brandi sniffed. “The last four digits of my phone are zero-six-four-seven.”
Jack didn’t reply. He only pulled out his phone, scanned a few pages, then held it out for us to see. It was the Airbnb Host Page, which showed all the information on the person who had booked his guest house. The number listed on the information ended in zero-six-four-six.
“Oh.” Brandi’s face turned red. “I must have entered my information wrong.”
Jack opened the door and led us inside. It wasn’t a large space—there was a kitchen and living room in the main area, with two doors leading into other rooms. “Coffee machine works. There’s fresh grounds in the cupboard. Bathroom is that door. The other one is the bedroom, with twin beds.” He smiled at that.
“We saw the listing, thanks,” I said. “We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
He walked past me, smelling like salt water, sunscreen, and a hint of musk. Those scents immediately brought back memories from high school, and all the other interactions I’d had with Jack. A jumble of emotions filled me, powerful and confusing at the same time.
The door closed, and Brandi and I were alone.
She immediately sighed and sank into the couch. “Well that was awkward. You could cut the sexual tension with a butter knife and spread it on toast.”
“Sexual—what! No, Brandi!” I argued. “Jack and I hate each other. That was just regular old tension. Nothing sexual about it.”
“Whatever you say.”
I unpacked and changed into new clothes, while Brandi went out to get us food for tonight. She returned with an oven pizza, two bags of chips, and two bottles of wine.
I love my sister, I thought. She always knew exactly what I needed.
“Here’s the plan,” she said. “We don’t meet with the lawyer guy until Friday, so we have two days to get some other stuff done. I think we should go to our mother’s store tomorrow and take stock of everything. I have no idea what we need to do there, so that may take a day or two. Then we meet with the lawyer, and we’ll have a better idea of everything else after that. The hardest part, dealing with the house, is no longer an issue for us. Silver lining, huh?”
“It’s nice knowing that we don’t have to deal with that,” I admitted.
“With all of that handled, we should be out of here in a week. No need to extend our stay at Jack’s guest house.” Brandi sighed. “Am I missing anything?”
“I think you covered all of it.” My phone vibrated with a text message, so I checked it.
Liam: Hi! This is Liam Campbell.
Liam: More specifically: the Liam Campbell from the fire station. And from high school eight years ago. Kiwi Liam.
Liam: Kiwi is a nickname for New Zealanders. You probably know that, but just trying to be clear!
