Page 77 of The One Who Never Left: Colter

"All clear," Sutton said.

“Is everything okay?” Jo asked.

“I think so,” she said.

But she still couldn’t let it go that what happened between her and Colter had still been a mistake—a mutual one. Private and entirely her and Colter’s business and absolutely nobody else’s. She had rehearsed that truth in her head all week, stacked it neatly, locked it away, and told herself it was enough.

Apparently, it was not.

Because the silence stretched. Vivi’s eyes narrowed just a touch. Jo’s mouth twitched like she was one second away from saying something—that most likely started and ended with a four-letter word.

Before Sutton could stop herself—before she could redirect, deflect, or lie—the words tumbled out of her mouth like they had been waiting for air. “Colter kissed me.”

The table went still.

Sutton squeezed her eyes shut for half a beat, already bracing for impact, because once the words were out, there was no shoving them back in. No pretending it had not happened. No pretending her pulse had not spiked, that her brain had not short-circuited, that she had not kissed him like it meant something she wasn’t prepared for.

She opened her eyes to find Vivi frozen mid-sip and Jo staring at her like she had just announced she’d joined a cult.

“And,” Sutton added weakly because, apparently, she was incapable of stopping while she was ahead. “I kissed him back.”

Immediate regret hit like a bucket of cold water.

“Shit. That was a mistake,” she added quickly, yanking the words back like they were her own misbehaving children.

Vivi and Jo sat silent, staring at her like she’d just confessed to stealing the moon. Then, like a synchronized signal, they pounced.

“You what?” Vivi pressed, tilting her head, suspicious and delighted all at once.

“You kissed him?!” Jo demanded, her eyes narrowed.

Sutton held up her hands, palms out. “It was a mistake! And for the record—totally inappropriate. We decided to go back to normal.”

Jo snorted. “Well, it sounds like normal is sticking your tongue down his throat.”

“Nope. We work together. Nothing more can happen.”

Jo made a sound that had Sutton wanting to crawl under the table. She knew that sound—she’d heard it a hundred times before: she’s lying, and she knows it.

Which brought her to lie number seven.

Her chest tightened. The words tasted bitter, because the truth simmering inside her wasn’t just about a fleeting attraction. Lynlee. His daughter. One wrong move and her carefully constructed world would collapse in an instant. She couldn’t even whisper the real reasons—not to them, not to anyone.

Vivi’s grin turned mischievous. “Is it the age gap? Because, who the hell cares. Daddies are the new bad boys.”

“It’s true,” Jo said, not even hesitating. “Older men know the difference between a G-6 and a G-spot, don’t need instructions, and have the confidence to actually listen. That’s not an age gap—that’s an upgrade.”

Sutton snorted, half-laughing, half-grimacing. “Age gap? That’s the least of my worries. There are, oh, about a hundred very legitimate, life-altering reasons why kissing him was a terrible idea.”

Vivi smirked, daring her to spill. “A hundred, huh? How about we skip to the good stuff. What are the top five?”

“Nope,” Sutton said firmly, wiggling away from their combined force of curiosity. “Not disclosing a single one, because if I did, your brains would explode. And trust me … some things are better left unexploded.”

Jo gave a short, humorless laugh. “Fine. But we’ll be watching. And judging. And waiting for the inevitable disaster.”

Sutton buried her face in her hands, muttering, “Disaster seems inevitable enough without your commentary.”

But as she peeked through her fingers, she realized she didn’t even care that they were teasing her. Not really. Because the part of her that wanted Colter, that part was already in too deep.