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“Stop what?”
“Smiling at my misery.”
I ignore him. “Wait, what exactly did she say?”
He barrels toward me, tickling my side instead of answering. “You’re such a fucking brat.”
“No, stop! Stop!” I cry, unable to stop my laughter as I try yanking his hands off of me. “Please, Mack!”
He finally relents as we fall back onto the pillows. My mouth hangs open as I try to catch my breath. Mack’s smilesoftens as he brushes some of my messy hair back away from my face. This bed is way too small for the two of us, so his face is right up next to mine. He’s so close I can feel his breath over my face.
“She wanted me to choose,” Mack whispers, making the moment feel more intimate.
“Choose?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“And you chose me?” I ask with a satisfied smile on my face.
“Shut up,” he says with a grin. “But yeah, I’d rather be single and have you than in a relationship and not have you.”
I want to shy away, but he’s right there in front of me. I blink a few times before meeting his gaze. “Same,” I say, my voice dropping so low it’s barely a whisper.
The corner of his mouth tips up before his eyes fall down to my mouth. I part my lips, unable to breathe. I’m not one to shy away in instances like this, but when it’s Mack, I lose all of my nerve. I can’t even move.
“Thea?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s going on in her-” We both look to the door where Declan is climbing in. “Oh. Oh my God! Fuck!” He puts his hand up in front of his face like he’s seeing something he shouldn’t be.
Mack isn’t even remotely close to me anymore. I’m not even sure how he got all the way over there. He must’ve jumped for real. I try not to take it personally, but there’s that sting in my heart.
“I thought there was an intruder, but it turns out it was just Thea,” Mack says, not exactly lying.
“We’re watching a movie,” I add on, holding up my phone with Netflix already playing whatever show I left off on like we were in the middle of watching it.
Mack eyes me, and he seems grateful for my cover story like we have something to hide. We don’t even have anything to hide. Nothing happened.
But what if Declan didn’t interrupt? What would have happened then?
Declan seems to buy the story enough, but he doesn’t sound fully convinced. “Me too. I heard people laughing. Thought the drunk college kids from down the beach were using our treehouse to play pretend house.”
There’s a lingering tension like that’s what Mack and I were doing in here. I clear my throat, trying to make my voice sound more innocent. “Want to join? It’s been a long while since I’ve been in the middle of a Carver sandwich.”
The timing of the joke was not ideal, and now both of them are looking at me like they committed a crime. I try to play it off. “That was a joke.”
The awkwardness doesn’t really settle as Declan backs down the ladder. “I’m going back to bed,” he says like he’s going to pretend he never even found us out here.
Mack remains as far away from me as possible, making no move to come closer, so I smile at my hands for a moment to cover my disappointment. I smile back at him like nothing ever happened. “Well, knowing Trevor, they have to be finished by now. Might as well sleep in a real bed.”
I scooch to the end of the bed and stand, not waiting to go back in the house. “You coming?” I ask as I start heading down the ladder.
“Yeah, I’ll be inside in a few minutes,” he says.
“Okay, goodnight, Carver.”
“Goodnight, Thea.”
