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“What’s up?” Her car door slams in the distance. “I have about five minutes until I have to be back in class.”
“I started a fling,” I tell her. “With Cassie’s neighbor.”
The gasp that comes from Ridley’s side of the call has me pulling the phone away from my ear. “What. The. Hell?”
“Yeah. But that’s not the worst part.” I gloss right over the fact that I don’t have flings. That I am the one who insists on planning everything. Ridley is the wild child and more likely to start a fling. “I smacked his ass after it was over.”
Ridley starts laughing in my ear, and I am not even done yet. “Before or after?” She wheezes. “Did he like it? Ooh, did he use a safe word? Was it pineapple?”
Thank God I am not there in front of her, or I’d be beet red and covering my face in shame. As it is, I cover my eyes like that will erase everything I’ve done.
“No.” My muttered response is barely audible, even to my own ears. “That’s not it, either.”
Ridley is still laughing, and no doubt has tears streaming down her face, all at my expense.
“I might have told him ‘good game, champ’ or something like that.” Now my absolute mortification is complete. There is literally nothing that can make it worse, except maybe for Cole to walk in right then. Thankfully, he doesn’t.
“Oh. My. Gods. You did what?”
“I’m not repeating it.” Honestly, it is bad enough that I know Cole is still downstairs in the house. I don’t want to repeat what I tell him to my best friend… Again.
“I need all the details. Every single one of them.”
“I have to go.” I don’t wait for her to say anything else. I’ve already hidden away for almost a half hour between the shower and the phone call. Cole had come over for a reason.
The floor-length mirror behind Cassie’s door shows my reflection, and I’m thankful that I actually have a few nice outfits with me that I planned on wearing to the conference. After smoothing some invisible wrinkles in the blouse I put on over a pair of skintight black leggings, I slip into a pair of flats and wrap my red hair into a simple twist at the base of my neck. Mascara is the only makeup I put on, mostly because I don’t know how to put anything else on my face without looking like a clown.
Cassie was always the one who knew what to do and how to wear makeup. Thinking about her makes my chest hurt, and I rub the pain, trying to get it to fade. Though I know better. Nothing will make it go away.
“I miss you,” I tell my reflection, as though it were Cassie that I’m talking to. “You should be here, and you’re not. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t talk to you about Cole. Or the craziness that just happened. And Ridley isn’t the same… Cassie, she’s not you.” When the image in the mirror doesn’t shift, doesn’t change into my sister, and I’m left staring at my reflection, I want to crawl into bed and never come back out.
I seriously think about it, too. Except Cole has seen me cry enough, and I know there is no way he’ll just go away if I never come out. All I’ve done since I met him is fall apart or get hurt or need to be rescued. I wipe away the unshed tears without smearing my mascara and pick up my phone and keys.
“You can do this,” I tell the reflection.
Cole is waiting for me downstairs, no longer naked, which bothers me even though it shouldn’t. The man looks like a god, covered in muscle, and I want to lick every part of his body. Absently, I bite my lip and try to think of what to say to him about slapping his ass.
He winks. “Good game, champ!”
When I gasp, he moves in for a kiss.
“You’re cute,” is all he says before he turns to the door. “Now, let’s go play some cribbage before Mimi decides that Emmett is her new favorite.”
His Mimi, it turns out, loves all of her grandchildren equally. Until she is alone with Cole.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were dating someone?” The older woman stares at me suspiciously while she taps a deck of cards in her hand. “You’ve never brought someone to dinner before.”
She waits until Emmett and Cole are distracted by an intense conversation to start questioning me, too. While they go on and on about some sort of military equipment and a business opportunity that Emmett has been thinking about investing in, Cole’s grandmother assesses me critically.
I look around, trying to get a little bit of help from Sori, but she is passed out on the couch with Laurence in her arms. His little fluff of dark hair is nuzzled under her chin and they both snore gently.
That leaves me alone to face the questions, which shouldn’t be too hard. I just don’t know what to say. Honestly, I have to give her credit. If I hadn’t been raised by a cop, a dispatcher, and grown up around a police department, I’d be shaking in my boots.
I catch Cole’s eye and nod to his grandmother with a wink, but he can’t get away from Emmett.
“We’re not together,” I tell her conspiratorially when Cole looks like he’s starting to panic across the room. “I’m staying next door while I take care of some things for my sister who passed away.”
In an instant, her suspicion clears, and the woman who’d insisted I call her Mimi like the rest of her family a few hours ago pulls me into a hug.
