AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You women are going to be the death of me,” he mumbles, sounding defeated.
Layla claps, satisfied that she was able to get her husband in line, and jumps out of his lap. “Now that that’s settled, how about you go check up on our babies while the girls and I make something for dinner.”
Alaric reluctantly gets up from his seat and does as he’s told, removing himself from the kitchen in search of the twins who are playing in the living room. Layla never takes her eyes off him as he leaves, but the minute she’s sure he’s not within hearing distance, she turns around to face Cara and me, her easy-going expression nowhere on her face.
“I don’t know what you girls are up to, and something tells me that it’s best I don’t,” she explains strictly, “but you have to promise me that whatever you’re up to, you’ll be safe. If you can’t promise me that, then I’ll strut right back into that room and tell Alaric that you’re not going anywhere. Am I making myself clear?”
“Crystal,” I reply.
“Good. So you’ll be safe? You’re not going to go skydiving or drag racing or some nonsense like that?” she demands. Sometimes I forget how protective she is since Alaric is worse.
“Nope. Nothing remotely that dangerous. Right, Cara?” I demand.
My best friend just nods, because what else can she say? It’s not like I gave her an itinerary of my plans for the next two weeks.
“Cara, I love you, but you have a terrible poker face.” My sister sighs, her shoulders slumping.
“I’m sorry,” Cara murmurs.
“Don’t be. You were able to convince my husband that my sister won’t be doing God knows what for the next couple of weeks, so that’s enough. And as for you, Zoey,” she continues, pinning me with her sternest stare. “If you get into any trouble, of any kind, I want you to call me ASAP. Is that understood?”
I nod.
“Good.” She walks over to me and places her hands on my shoulders. “Whatever you’re up to that caused you to lie to me and Alaric, I hope it’s worth it.”
“He is,” I say, the truth spilling from my lips before I have time to catch it.
“He?” She arches her brow.
I press my lips together, not wanting to say anything else since my big mouth did a pretty good job of giving me away already.
“And by he, are we talking about someone with devastating silver eyes who Alaric not so affectionately calls Ghost?” my sister asks.
My eyes widen in shock, and my throat instantly dries at my sister’s perceptiveness.
How does she know?
Gray was only at the house once, and then my father ordered him to stay away if he knew what was good for him. How the hell did my sister immediately think of him of all people?
“You think I don’t know what it means when a woman looks at a man the way you looked at Gray when he was here?” She giggles, finding my sudden speechlessness funny. She cups my chin in her hand and smiles tenderly. “Ah, sweet girl. The one time I looked at a man the way you looked at Gray, I married him.”
“That’s not what this is,” I reply, struggling to defend myself.
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t know what it is,” I answer truthfully. “But I need time to find out.”
“Well, you’ve got it. Two weeks, to be precise. I suggest you get to it then.”
I intend to.
CHAPTER11
Gray
Staring at the clock in my kitchen, I count down the seconds until it strikes midnight. Pissed, I rise from my chair, grab the extra plate of food off the table, and scrape its contents in the bin, all the while hating myself for instinctively making more dinner tonight in the hopes that Zoey would drop by and be hungry. I tell myself it’s a good thing that she didn’t, especially with how we left things the last time she was here.
I fucked her good and hard with my knife, praying that it would scare her enough not to want anything to do with me, but instead she came like a goddamn Fourth of July firework show, lighting up my gray life with so much color I thought I would go blind.
