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Heat flared in his eyes, telling me he did.
Hannah gasped, and this time her neck swiveled so fast between the two of us I thought she might hurt herself. “Wait! What? You two… did it?”
I let out a huff of laughter and arched a brow in Cal’s direction. “Maybe that’s something you and Hannah can talk about for the rest of the afternoon—how deep that hatchet has been buried.”
“Wait!” Hannah stepped between the space that separated me and Cal, hands on her hips as she glared at both of us. “You guys slept together?”
“Yep,” I answered easily.
“Does this mean you’re seeing each other now?”
“Nope,” I said.
“Maybe,” Cal replied with a smile.
“Not even a little,” I shot back. “Cal brought food over to seduce me because I’m not ugly anymore, and I let him.”
“Why?” Hannah’s eyes were filled with curiosity and confusion.
I shrugged. “I was curious to see what the fuss was all about. He lives up to expectations in that regard.” I leaned in and wrapped Hannah in a hug because she loved hugs and it was the perfect distraction. “It’s fine, Hannah. It was a one-time thing and now things are back to normal. See ya later.”
I retraced my steps across the yard, a satisfied smile on my face.
“You and I will talk about this later,” Hannah called out.
I knew I couldn’t avoid the inevitable barrage of questions Hannah would fire my way, but it was enough to know that Cal would be the one interrogated mercilessly for the next hour or two.
Cal
“You slept with Teddy.”
It wasn’t a question, and based on the gleam in my sister’s eyes, she didn’t need me to answer. But she expected me to, anyway.
“Hannah, I’m not talking about my sex life with you.” I wasn’t squeamish when it came to talking about sex, but this was my sister. “You’ve made it clear over the years you have no interest in who I sleep with.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Doesn’t sound like much sleeping went on, so spill. This is Teddy we’re talking about. Details, mister.”
I could be firm with Hannah and tell her it was none of her business, but she might have the answers I needed to change Teddy’s perception of me.
“She started it.” That wasn’t the best opening, and based on her eyeroll, Hannah agreed. “Seriously. I showed up with dinner to get to know her better, thinking we could be friends.”
“And Teddy just seduced you?”
I nodded. “She did, pulled her shirt right off. What was I supposed to do as a red-blooded man who loves nothing more than a gorgeous woman?”
She had been more than gorgeous that night, but I shook the thoughts away. It wouldn’t do to get a boner in front of my sister.
She rolled her eyes at me as she made her way to the contraption that was supposed to smoke fish for lunch. “It’s too bad you didn’t see what a stunner she would become when we were kids. Maybe then she could stand being in a room with you without fleeing.”
I blinked. “You noticed?”
“I’d have to be blind not to notice, Cal.” She let out a huff of laughter that held zero amusement. “She’s been my best friend practically my entire life, and she went from crushing on you to being in love with you for about a week or two, and then I couldn’t even get her to come hang out with me at our house.
“Suddenly, she preferred her place even though it was packed with her brothers and their friends all the time. If it couldn’t be her house, it was anywhere that wasn’t our house.” Hannah sighed, lost in the past for a moment. “If I hadn’t kept after her, we probably wouldn’t be friends today.”
Ouch. Even though she wasn’t trying to make me feel guilty, I felt terrible. “Do you have any idea why?”
“No, she won’t tell me, even though we tell each other everything.”
“Everything?” That seemed like a recipe for disaster.
“She just told me about sleeping with you, didn’t she?” Hannah raised a brow, challenging my skepticism.
I shrugged. “Teddy only told you about that to make my life difficult. Everything, really?”
She nodded. “Everything. Except what turned her crush to hate.”
I knew Hannah would look at me differently once she found out, but she would forgive me. I knew she would. And maybe, just maybe, she could fill in the blanks for me.
“I kissed her about a week before her sixteenth birthday. She was looking cute in a short denim skirt and I was a little bit drunk, probably after a fight with Kara, and there she was, smiling up at me like I was the coolest, hottest thing in the whole damn world. So, yeah, I kissed her.”
“Jerk,” she growled at me before turning her attention back to the fish.
