AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Lil, I’ve seen you without pants a million times. It’s only me. Open up.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” My eyes dart between the door and Nico.
Oh, he’s going to absolutely hate me for this.
I pull my knees up to my chest, settle my feet on his hips, and with one giant push, I roll him off the bed. He thumps against the ground so hard, the bedframe shakes.
“Are you okay?” Ave rattles the door again.
Nico glances above the mattress. “Wh—”
I toss a pillow right at his face, hoping the wild look in my eyes is enough for him to understand the gravity of the situation. “Get the fuck under the mattress and stay quiet.”
He nods quickly, dragging himself under the small space beneath the bed.
I rush to the entryway, flip the lock, and swing open the door. “Dropped my suitcase.”
Avery looks polished as always: her cropped blonde hair tucked into a sleek bun at her nape, gold earrings on each ear, and a swipe of lipstick on her smile.
“I brought coffee.” She walks into the room before settling herself on my mess of bedsheets. My pulse climbs when I notice Nico’s shorts at the foot of the bed. “Where are your pants?”
“Couldn’t find any.” I rush over to her, kick the evidence of last night’s mistake under the mattress, and take the steaming mug out of her hand.
She eyes me suspiciously, strolls to my dresser, and pulls open the second drawer, revealing my neatly folded stack of bottoms.
It’s unreasonable to exist in a world where someone knows you as well as she knows me. I’m going to crush her when I tell her about Zoe Mona, if not with the secret, then definitely with the fact she didn’t figure it outbeforeNico.
“Did you get a tattoo?” She glances at the fine-line drawing of a lily on my right arm. I should’ve thrown on the sweater I was wearing last night when we arrived, but I guess I couldn’t hide the ink from her the entire trip.
I shrug. “Yeah, Nico and I got them in London.”
Fuck, I shouldn’t have said that.
A soft brush of skin tickles my foot, and I look down to see Nico’s fingers tapping away on my ankle. I give him a firm backward kick before my best friend returns to the seat beside me.
“You guys got matching tattoos?”
“Oh.” I should’ve put some concealer on this or something just until I get back to New York. “Nico copied the design before I had a chance to stop him,” I lie, not wanting to give the matching ink more weight than it already has.
It’s my namesake and a funeral flower.
That’s all.
“Sure.” Thankfully, Avery drops the questioning, but I can tell there’s more in her suspicious gaze. “You can explain that to me later. I want to know everything about your trip. Especially the parts you didn’t want to mention in front of the guys.” Ave gives me a knowing smirk.
On any other morning-after, in any other place, and in any different time, I would have spilled that there’s a naked man beneath my mattress.
But I can’t.
Because the man is her brother-in-law. If Luca gets wind it, this will turn into a bloodbath.
There’s no coming back from that.
“Where do we even start? I’m a little homesick. I’m sure I’ve put on like ten pounds with how much Nico’s been feeding me.” A cough sounds from beneath the bed, and I clear my throat loudly, hoping she didn’t hear it. “You don’t wanna go out into the living room?”
“Luca’s doing his morning yoga out there, so best to stay here before he tries to sell you on a thirty-minute deep-stretching session.”
We laugh, but not for long.
