A couple minutes later, she walked by and expanded into every crevice of my brain. She was all I could think about.
She still hadn’t texted me back.
“So, there’s a woman?” Derrik asked. “Is she the reason you’re finally moving to Chicago? Dad said you’re getting a condo.”
My toes curled as I worked on convincing myself that Derrik didn’t actually know anything and couldn’t read my mind.
Before I had to answer, Mike responded. “This guy? There’s no way.”
“I don’t know.” Derrik had to have the most irritating voice. “Apparently, your dad was quite the playboy before he met your mom.”
Mike and I made disgusted noises in unison.
To my utter relief, Derrik changed the subject. “Can you imagine our dads doing this right now?”
I snorted. My rigid, manly dad, barefoot in a robe at a spa would have been enough to threaten his masculine identity.
“No,” Mike chuckled. “Anyway, our perception of Gene might be more...I don’t know, limited. We just learned yesterday that he took ballroom dancing in college.”
Derrik made a huh sound. “Seriously?”
“Mmhmm,” I hummed.
“Why?”
Sighing, I was struck with a wave of emotions that thinking of that time in my life always conjured. Dad had just died, and I had decided to transfer from Cornell to State in order to be closer to my mom and brother. He was just starting his senior year of high school, and Mom was clearly struggling in the house alone. So, I adjusted my plans to be there for them.
But I couldn’t be what they really needed.
I was a Band-Aid for a bullet wound.
“I transferred so close to the beginning of the semester, and I needed an elective that wouldn’t have homework. Then I liked it and did another semester.”
There was a beat of silence, before he said, “I had no idea.”
Settling even deeper into the plush white cushion on my wooden lounge chair, I attempted to be present with my brother and cousin.It was next to impossible with flashes of my night before with Sadie and then the depressing disappointment of waking up without her.
“The hike definitely would have been the wrong choice. Gene already worked up a sweat last night,” Derrik joked, and my heart leapt into my throat.
Swallowing, I unclenched my clammy fists at my sides. Logically, I knew there was no way he could be talking about me and Sadie. It wasn’t like she was going to tell him.
I sure as hell didn’t.
But considering all I remembered from last night was her stepping fully dressed into the shower, and arching into my touch, and moaning as I filled her, I couldn’t imagine what the hell he was talking about.
“What?” I choked out.
“Your late-night activities.”
The masseuse’ work was completely undone as all of the tension went back into my shoulders.
“Again, what?”
He sighed as if I was the one being a pain in the ass. “You know, when you got back from the gym and interrupted my conversation with Sadie.”
“I didn’t interrupt.” My voice came out gruffer than I intended, but Mike was speaking at the same time. “That’s right, I wanted to ask you how that went. She’s pretty cool, right?”
“She’s hot—” Derrik cut himself off, clearly remembering that it was pretty rude to proclaim a woman hot in a public space. More quietly, he added, “She was fillin’ out that dress.”
