His pleasant post-orgasm haze evaporated in the face of his bemused sister, who stood on his stoop looking frazzled and vaguely annoyed. “Liv?” he prompted. “What’s up? Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied slowly, her dark gaze sliding over him. “Sorry to drop by unannounced, but you weren’t answering your phone.”
He shifted his weight to his other foot, fingers tightening on the edge of the door he held to stop it from swinging all the way open. “I’ve been busy.”
It must have come out shiftier than he’d hoped, because her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Busy, huh?”
“What did you need?”
The unsubtle hint did its job for the moment. She refocused and blew out a breath, her shoulders straightening. “I’ve got a surprise thirty-six hour shift starting at midnight. I was hoping you’d be able to feed Jenga her breakfast and dinner tomorrow.”
“Sure, I can do that.”
“I just didn’t want to leave for my shift without confirming, then come home on Friday to find she’s eaten the sofa, you know?” With the main issue out of the way, Liv didn’t seem to be amenable to distraction any further. She was standing on her toes, trying to peer around his shoulder searching for anything of interest in her line of sight. He responded by swaying in the same direction to block her view.
“Of course,” he smiled. “I understand completely. Did you need anything else?”
He should have known the opening would have been irresistible to her. “Who’s here?” she asked outright. “Is it your girlfriend? Can I meet her?”
His voice dropped to a warning whisper. “She’s not my—absolutely not.”
“Hi!” Olivia called. He scrambled to clap a hand over her mouth so fast he almost punched her in the jaw. She dodged him with the reflexes of an expert older sister. “I’m Olivia, Des’s sister! It’s nice to not meet you!”
“Your car’s running. You better take care of that, you nosy asshole.” He shoved at her, but the lighting up of Olivia’s face made him freeze with dread. A tentative glance over his shoulder confirmed his unfortunate suspicion; Cami had poked her head around the corner.
She looked a little more aware of herself now, at least. Less fresh-from-bed than Des himself. He sighed, then smiled at thewide, hesitant blink of her eyes. There was no getting out of this now, so the least he could do was make it as comfortable for her as possible. He stepped aside to swing the door open a bit wider, allowing her to see Olivia on the doorstep, then lifted an arm out for Cami so she could slide into the space next to him.
She took the offered space, tucking in next to him as she offered a hand for Liv to shake. “Hi, I’m Cami.”
“Olivia. It’s so nice to meet you, Cami.” Liv’s eyes had gone wide and shiny with excitement and kept flickering over to Des as if to saySee? It’s so easy to date someone appropriate.Except she didn’t know the half of it, and neither did Cami.
He needed to tell her. About everything.
But for now, she was next to him, and not looking to have him castrated, and he was going to enjoy that while it lasted.
“You as well,” Cami said, with a pretty, genuine smile. Something inside him squeezed pleasantly, seeing Cami interact with his sister. It almost made him wonder how well she’d get along with his parents. He’d never wondered anything like that when he was with Madilyn, but he supposed that wasn’t surprising. Their relationship was very different, far more likely to trigger stern looks and sidelong glances than Cami herself with her bouncy blonde hair and friendly face.
But then, Madilyn had been more of a ‘relationship’ than Cami. A forbidden one, sure, but a relationship, with dates and discussions of the future and all that went hand in hand with that, in spite of Madilyn’s husband.
“I don’t know what Des has told you about me,” Olivia leaned forward conspiratorially in a way that made him want to close the door in her face, “but I assure you, none of it’s true.”
Cami laughed. “Do you want to come in?”
“Liv was just leaving,” he interjected. “She left her car running and everything. It’s impacting the environment terribly.”
Olivia rolled her eyes but did step back out of the path of the door. “I do have to get going. I didn’t mean to interrupt your date.”
“Great, bye.” He started to close the door. Liv shoved her hand out to block it, and he rolled his eyes. Cami vibrated with laughter next to him.
“You should come to dinner, though!”
Damn it.
“Des is coming to dinner on Saturday night with me and our parents. They’d love to meet you, Cami.”
Cami went still against his side. “Uh.” Her hesitation was just as obvious as his, and he couldn’t help but wonder guiltily if she was uncertain only because she could sense his own ambivalence. Perhaps she would have jumped at the invitation otherwise. The last thing he wanted her to think was that he was ashamed of her. “I don’t know if that’s?—”
“We’ll talk about it,” he finished for her. Hopefully that would be enough to get Olivia off their backs, then maybe he’d be able to straighten things out with Cami before she committed to suffering through dinner with the Drs. Blake.
