Page 90 of After Midnight

When I step onto my back patio, she pushes off from the wall of the pool, floating on her back in the water.

“This is amazing,” she says, her arms drifting at her sides, helping keep her afloat. “I wish I had a pool.”

I put the plate down on the table, then reach for my shirt, tugging it off over my head. I’m already wearing swim trunks, and I ease myself into the pool, careful not to splash Remi.

“You can use mine whenever you want,” I say.

She smiles, still floating on her back. “Careful. I might be here all the time.”

My lips tug up. I reach for her, scooping her off the surface of the water, holding her in my arms now like she’s a princess and I’m her knight.

“I’ll make you a key,” I say softly.

Remi tips her head at me, the sunlight reflecting off the water and her sunglasses. Then she leans in and kisses me. Her lips taste like pineapple juice, and with one brush of them against my mouth, my muscles soften, and the last remnants of adrenaline finally leave my veins.

chapter 41

Remi

IT FEELS GOOD TO BE home, back in my space and my bed. But it doesn’t feel the way it used to. There’s an emptiness to it now that used to feel full, a quietness that I never used to notice but that has become impossible to ignore. It’s not the space, really, but the absence of Sebastian within it. And even though he’s just a text or a phone call away, I still feel the gap between us, the desire to be able to touch him, to smell him, to watch the way he moves through rooms and see the way sunsets are reflected in his eyes.

Vegas is different without him. I’m different without him.

There’s a knock on my door, and I pull myself out of my thoughts and go to answer it. When I peer through the peephole, I find my sister standing on the other side, arms loaded with two bags overflowing with junk food, a big floppy bun pulled up onto the top of her head. A smile tugs on my lips as I unlock the door and swing it open.

“Riley,” I say, tipping my head at her, one hand perched on my hip. “What are you doing here?”

She holds up the bags. “We’re having a sleepover.”

“A sleepover? You know I just got back from Cali, right?”

“Yup.” Grinning, she bumps her way past me, wriggling into the condo. “That’s why I’m here. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

I’m tired and gloomy and not really in the mood for a sleepover, but maybe that’s the exact reason I need one.

Sometimes, I think Riley might know me better than I know myself.

So, with a smile and a shake of my head, I close and lock my door, then go to join her in the kitchen as she unloads the bags onto the counter.

Later that evening, Riley and I are lounging on the couch together, Gilmore Girls playing on the TV in my living room. We’ve got face masks on, and our hair is pulled up in buns, coconut oil soaking into it. Whenever we have sleepovers like this, they always turn into mini pampering sessions.

Riley is barely paying attention to the show. She’s turned toward me on the couch, one leg pulled up to her chest, her eyes focused on me. She’s wearing the T-shirt that Seb got the guys to sign for her, cozied up in the soft cotton as she stares at me from the other end of the couch.

“So,” she says, and there’s a forced casualness to her tone that I know means she’s about to pry, “how was Cali?”

Just because I know it’ll annoy her, I shrug one shoulder casually and say, “Good.” Then I sip my sparkling water—which I now can’t drink without thinking of Seb—and turn my gaze back to the TV.

Like I expected, Riley lets out a sharp breath of annoyance, then jabs me in the thigh with her toes. “Rem, come on. You’re literally dating a rock star and just spent a whole weekend with him and his band. You’ve got to give me more than that. Please?” She jabs me with her toes again, being the absolute nuisance that little sisters can be. “Please, please, please, ple—”

“Jeez, okay!” I bat her foot away with one hand, trying to feign annoyance, but my smile betrays me. Riley grins as I grab the remote control and turn the volume down on the TV. Then I wiggle around on the couch to face her fully. “What do you want to know?”

I swear her eyes start to sparkle. “Everything.”

So, I tell her everything—minus the sexy stuff. Riley listens to me with rapt attention, her blue-gray eyes accentuated by the green face mask smudged around them.

“I can’t believe you actually got to meet LGC,” she says, a wistful tone to her voice. “What were they like? What was Lucas like?”

Lucas has always been Riley’s favorite. She used to have posters of him on her bedroom walls. In fact, I think she only took them down a year or so ago, when she got her first high school boyfriend and didn’t want him to see how obsessed she was with LGC’s rhythm guitarist.