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She stepped away from him, wagging a flirtatious finger. “Don’t thank me. Just tell me when the next time will be.”
“As soon as possible.”
She kissed his cheek then wiggled into her flip-flops and grabbed her cell phone on the way upstairs. He’d barely gotten to the bathroom and turned the water on before his brother came storming down the steps.
“Did I just see Sam doing the walk of shame?”
Mike took his toothbrush out of his mouth. “Don’t call it that.”
“But that’s what it is. You fucked her.”
“Don’t say it like that either.”
Jimmy threw his hands up and spun in a tight circle. “What the hell, man? I told you not to—”
“First of all, Samantha is an adult. She can make her own decisions. Second of all, don’t come here acting like I’m some asshole who wouldn’t treat her right. You honestly think I would hurt her?” With a roll of his eyes, Mike bent over the sink and went back to brushing his teeth.
“I don’t know. You never… She isn’t… It’s not…”
Mike spat into the sink and glared at his brother.
“You know I don’t think you’re some asshole,” Jimmy said, adding quotation marks over the word. “I’m a little surprised, is all.”
Mike finished brushing his teeth then splashed water on his face. “Why are you here anyway?”
“To work out. You forgot?” When Mike glanced at his brother with one eye closed, water dripping from his nose and eyebrow, Jimmy lifted his finger accusatorially. “Youforgot.”
It was true. He’d clean forgot. With Sam in his bed, he lost track of time, space, his whole being. How was he supposed to remember a workout with his brother when she stole every last bit of his rationality the night before?
Though, he gave it quite willingly. His head and his heart.
And he was fucked.
“Sorry.” Mike brushed past Jimmy to go back into his room, rummaging through his drawer for a T-shirt then thought better of it. Instead, he tugged on a pair of black shorts over his boxer briefs.
“So, you guys really did…?” Jimmy gestured to the unmade bed.
Mike scanned the pillow on the floor, the comforter long gone, the sheet slung around the bottom corner of the mattress, and he didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
His brother nodded a few times, his bottom lip tucked between his teeth, sucking air between them to make little squeaking noises as his eyes glazed over, thinking. He’d never grown out of that habit he had as a kid.
Mike began to set up the workout area, and after a few moments, Jimmy followed, setting his water bottle down by the bench. “So, you like her?”
A minute passed, a minute Mike needed to measure his emotions and words before he paused in adding a plate to the bar. He met Jimmy’s eyes. “Yeah, I like her.”
Jimmy scrubbed his hands down his shorts. “Okay, good.” He held up his forearm. “But don’t hurt her.”
Mike bumped his forearm against his brother’s. “I don’t plan on it.”
* * *
Sam pacedthe length of the kitchen, holding her cell phone out in front of her, typing and deletingSOSthree times. She wanted to tell the girls, wanted to unload everything about last night. She needed to squee about how gentle Mike was with her, and yet how domineering he could be. There was no good reason not to excitedly type it all up, every last detail about how, after they had sex, he’d tugged her down next to him and she didn’t fight him. Sam wasn’t a cuddler, but she didn’t mind, not with him. He had taken off his prosthetic to get more comfortable, and they had squeezed in close together. She didn’t mean to fall asleep, but it didn’t take much.
And then this morning. God, she was desperate to tell someone, anyone—even a stranger on the street—about how perfect it was. And still…
If she spoke the words out loud, that would make them true. She’d have to admit to not only herself, but to someone else, that she didn’t know how to do this. She’d done the easy, uncomplicated hookup thing so many times before, she could write a book on detachment. And nevertheless, she was lost with Mike. Lost in a sea of emotion, uselessly paddling against the current.
She had eight weeks until she left for Texas. There was no time to be sentimental. No time to explore what these feelings meant. Hell, she didn’t even know how to start facing these feelings. Or if she wanted to.
