AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterTwenty
Gideon
Skyeand I are in a dish towel snapping fight when Chloe buzzes to come up. It’s the perfect opportunity to flick her butt one last time with my towel when she turns her back to me and gets her key from the drawer to go down and let my sister in.
“I won.” I lean in from behind her and kiss her cheek.
“That’s cheating,” she argues. But she leans back into me, so I can kiss her again. Both of us have talked about what to do about this thing we’re doing—and we’re calling it the Jane thing—and what we tell Chloe. We’ve agreed not to tell Chloe. After all, as soon as Wamba is settled in Arizona and living the retirement dream, I’ll be the owner of The Hep Cat, and I’ll start looking for a more permanent spot to live. Skye and I won’t see each other nearly as much, though I do hope we’ll still hang out now and then, so the Jane thing will be over. No point in raising my sister’s hackles about it.
“I need to go let her in,” Skye says into my mouth.
“I know.”
But neither of us moves away. We’ve cleaned her apartment. She washed her sheets so when Chloe shares her bed during her visit, she won’t smell my cologne or anything in there. We’ve made sure there are no errant bras or briefs tossed somewhere they shouldn’t be. We even destroyed the evidence that we like to play silly games together. The scraps of paper where we’ve kept score while playing Rummy, the Tic- Tac- Toe games—everything is gone.
We look like polite roommates who might discuss books from across the apartment. Except we’re still in a lip lock when we hear Chloe’s voice right outside the door. Skye jumps away from me and swipes her hand over her mouth to get rid of any evidence. Smeared lipstick, maybe, although I’m pretty sure she was wearing a nude gloss, and I’m equally sure I sucked it off.
There’s a sharp knock on the door, and Chloe calls out Skye’s name as she pushes the door open. By this time, I’m on the stool at the end of the bar with my biography of Daniel Boone open under my hands. I think I’m on page 72, but it’s open to 129. I don’t care. I’m not reading anything but Skye’s body language right now.
Is she embarrassed to be involved with me? Is that why she made sure her mouth wasn’t wet with my kiss before Chloe came in? Or is she just worried about what Chloe will say?
Then again, since we’ve been together, I haven’t met any of her friends. Not even her book club girls who were asking her about that date with the guy from work. So maybe she’s good with burning up the sheets with me, but she doesn’t want anyone to know. After all, she’s got her head on straight and looking in the right direction, as my dad would say.
I don’t.
And, according to my dad, I’ll never amount to anything. I’ll never have a good life. Maybe not. Maybe I won’t be married with two kids and an SUV. Maybe I won’t have a four-bedroom home and a retirement plan to head south and play golf all day like he and Mom want to. I’d be okay with that. But he’s said it so many times, it makes me sick to think about it. A worthless, good-for-nothing bum can’t be happy.
I look at the wordsNever Blisstattooed on the inside of my arm.
The last couple of weeks have been the best of my life. With Skye. Every moment. And now we have to pretend we’re little more than strangers.
And one of these days, we’ll walk away from each other.
“Hey!” Skye tosses her keys on the counter and throws her arms around Chloe the second my sister lets go of her suitcase and lets her purse and backpack slide off her shoulder to the floor. “I was on my way down!”
“Your neighbor recognized me and let me in.” Chloe hugs Skye, and they rock back and forth like they’re in fourth grade instead of grown women.
“I’m so happy to see you.” Skye squeezes Chloe extra hard, and I look away. What if what Skye and I have going on somehow messes up their friendship?
“Gideon!” Chloe squeals as she hurries over to hug me. I slide off the stool and let my book fall closed. It reminds me of that first day I showed up here at Skye’s, and she lost her page in her book.
“Hey Sis.” I give Chloe a big hug. As much as I don’t get too emotional with women, I am never stingy with hugs for my sister or my mom.
“You look good.” Chloe draws back and studies my face like she’s shocked that Skye hasn’t killed me yet.
“Iamgood,” I say simply, because I can’t go into all the reasons for that.
“Awesome! I wanna see The Hep Cat,” she tells me. I’ll take her to see The Hep Cat, but my eyes lock with Skye’s across the kitchen. I don’t want to take Chloe into the room where I stripped myself down to nothing in front of her best friend. Where Skye Stafford really saw me and then kissed me and made love to me like I was someone special.
“Sure.”
“Great.” Chloe nods. She grabs for her things and turns toward the room where I’m staying. Makes sense. Probably where she usually sleeps when she visits Skye. I grind my teeth together to keep from offering her that room, telling her I’m happy to sleep with Skye. “Wrong room,” she says with a giggle.
Skye and I stare at each other silently when Chloe disappears into Skye’s bedroom. I thought it would be easy to keep my hands off her when my sister was here. Right now, I want to brush a curl back from her cheek and tuck it behind her ear. I can’t kiss her. I can’t do anything lewd right here, and I can’t even do something tender for her. Instead, I squeeze my hands into fists and look away as Chloe comes back out to join us.
“So, I was starving on my drive,” she announces. “I ate a burger in the car. Did you guys eat?”
We did. Skye made stuffed peppers, and I stayed out of her way and watched her cute ass in her skinny jeans, wishing I could peel them off her. And then we ate and cleaned together, and Skye made a comment about the Arch, which started the dish towel fight.
