He wasn’t entirely wrong, but Judah started to protest anyway, then stopped. “I really am a lousy brother, aren’t I?”
“We’re just living different lives,” Akiva said generously, shrugging. “But yeah, I hope this means we’ll be closer now. You definitely could not have picked a more convenient girl.”
The idea of “picking” Ari made him want to laugh, as if shewere a casual choice and not a force of nature that crashed into one’s life with all the subtlety of a tornado. “You’re welcome. But to be clear, that was a one-time thing.”
“I thought it happened twice.”
“All right, technically, it was kind of a three-time thing”—he ignored Akiva’s shit-eating grin—“but that’s it. No more plans to see her until Liana’s wedding in August, and I don’t think we’ll end up in any bar bathrooms together again.”
“Okay, but”—they’d reached their destination of Akiva’s building, and he gestured upward—“she happens to live in my building, right here. You could go see her… right now.”
“Come on, Kivi, no.” ButGod, did he want to.
“Have you considered… yes?” Akiva waggled his eyebrows. “Seriously, you should at leasttalkto her. And what are you even doing with the rest of your day?”
“I have alotof plans to ignore an ungodly number of emails and phone calls, thank you very much.”
“That’s pathetic. You’re coming upstairs.”
“She’s probably not even home,” Judah muttered, more to himself than to his brother.
“Only one way to find out!” Akiva quickly found 4F on the building directory and slammed down the buzzer. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the throaty voice Judah’d been hearing in his dreams said, “Yeah?”
“Hey, Ar—forgot my keys.”
Next thing Judah knew, they were being buzzed in, and he was following his brother into an elevator and letting him press both 4 and 5. He barely had time to think about what to say to Arielle when Akiva shoved him out the open door onto the fourth floor and hollered, “Good luck!” after him.
It was absolutely ridiculous that he was ringing Arielle Becker’s doorbell, as stupid an idea as he—or at least Akiva—had ever had.But his traitorous heart pounded with anticipation at seeing her, and okay, it wasn’t theonlyorgan interested.
Part of him hoped Liana would be home so he could just pretend to be there for Akiva’s key, then leave.
Part of him hoped Liana had moved out early, magically leaving Arielle with her own place and an inexplicable tendency to answer her door in nothing but the lace underwear his fingers had skimmed the night before.
“One sec!” Arielle’s voice called through the door, and only upon hearing it did it occur to him that she might not actually want to see him as badly as he wanted to see her. It wasn’t as if they were dating; he hadn’t so much as texted her since the party to tell her he’d been thinking about her. And then there was the somewhat humiliating fact that while she’d given him the night of his life at the bar, he hadn’t left her nearly as satisfied.
“Judah! What are you doing here?”
He’d been so deep inside his own head, he hadn’t even realized she’d answered the door.
He sucked in a sharp breath. Arielle Becker had been beautiful in a bridesmaid dress and hot as hell in her party clothes, but in a thin tank top and tiny sweat shorts, she was utterly life-ruining.Pipe down, he ordered the stirring in his jeans, irritated at how quickly and reliably he responded to her.
Then he realized she was waiting for an answer. “Oh, uh, Akiva asked if I could grab his extra key.” He listened for a second and heard no other sounds. “Is Liana home?”
“Nope, just me,” she responded, her full lips curving at the corners. “Still here for Akiva’s key?”
“Nope.” He wiped his palms on his jeans. “Can I come in?”
She laughed and let him inside. The apartment was nice—cute, feminine. The sequined throw pillows looked more like Liana’s contributions, but he suspected Arielle was responsible for theshelf of assembled Lego sets. He followed her through the dining space to the living room and watched her curl up on the couch, but he didn’t sit. “It was Akiva who buzzed up, though, so… does he know where you are?”
Judah shoved his hands into his pockets. “He does, yeah.”
“You can sit, you know. I promise not to bite. Unless you ask nicely.”
So help me God.“I’m good,” he said, flexing his toes in his shoes to subtly work off some nervous energy. “But yeah, I, um, I did tell Akiva that we… I mean, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have, but he told me the other thing—his big thing, which he said you already know—”
“The rainbow-colored thing?”
He didn’t expect the laugh that rolled out of him. “The rainbow-colored thing,” he confirmed. “He told me, and we’d been talking about you because he saw us talking at the party, and I’d lied, but…”
