My brother agrees to meet us for dinner, but I regret leaving Abby’s room the second we step foot outside.
“We should go back to your bed,” I say, catching her hand in mine and intertwining our fingers.
“I need to eat or I will be deeply unpleasant,” she says.
“We’ll order room service, eat in bed.”
“Easy for you to say; we’re not getting crumbs in your bed.”
“Okay, we’ll eat in my bed and go back to yours for the night.”
“And your brother?”
“Don’t even know him. Who? Fuck that guy.”
Abby’s chuckle tugs at my own lips. She’s irresistible in her navy-blue sundress with its thin little straps on her sun-kissed shoulders. Shoulders that I would like to sink my teeth into. I can’t stop looking at her. Can’t stop thinking about all the different places I’d like to kiss her, to?—
“Eyes on the road, Miles.”
I pull her in to me, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Her arm snakes around my waist.
“Fine, but you have to be closer to me then.”
“Your brother will?—”
“Don’t care. Let him wonder. The marks on your neck tell plenty of the story.”
“I tried to cover them.” Her hand flies to her neck and her cheeks pink. “I’d hoped my hair would hide the worst of it.”
She smooths her hand over her hair, trying to gather it closer to her neck, the glossy beachy waves succumbing to the humidity the longer we’re outside.
“Are you nervous?” I ask.
She glances up at me and then away. “I don’t know!”
“It’s just my brother.”
“I know, but, like…the last time I saw him we were actually dating and it was over a decade ago and I don’t know. I— It’s just a bit odd, I guess.”
“Is it possible you’re overthinking it?” I ask.
“Is it possible you’reunderthinking it?” she counters.
“I don’t underthink anything. I’m?—”
“Miles!” The voice of my younger brother cuts me off as we approach the Japanese restaurant. He walks out to meet us, and I unwillingly detach from Abby to hug Gray.
I swear he gets more solid every time I see him. He’s always been a bit lanky, but since moving to San Francisco, he’s been running and lifting and he looks less and less like that high school kid I left behind when I went to college and more like an adult. He looks like a younger version of me given that we have the same face shape, but he got our mom’s lighter brown hair and green eyes.
“Do my eyes deceive me or is an angel among us?” Gray says with a dramatic sweep of his arms in Abby’s direction. She fights a smile, blushing and greeting my brother with a hug.
“Are you seriously hanging out with this guy again?” Gray asks in a muted voice, but loud enough for me to hear.
“He wouldn’t leave me alone,” Abby says innocently.
“Oh, so he harassed you into hanging out with him again.”
“It’s worse. I’m actually his hostage.” She mouths the words “help me” to him dramatically.
