Chapter 30
thirty
“Everyone’s going to know now,” I murmured as I curled into Josh’s chest, still breathless, still not quite believing what had just happened between us.
Josh’s fingers trailed gently up and down my spine, grounding me in the aftermath. “Don’t worry,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my hair. “I’ll be right by your side. I promised, didn’t I?”
One by one, we started pulling ourselves back together—pants tugged on, sweaters smoothed out.
I tried to move efficiently, but my gaze kept drifting back to him.
I couldn’t help it. I stared at the freckle tucked in the slope of his shoulder, the slight dimple above his hipbone, the curve of muscle along his lower back, which I made a mental note to revisit when we weren’t hiding upstairs during a family Christmas party.
Josh caught me staring and smirked. “Not tonight though.”
“Not tonight,” I echoed with a sigh, though I didn’t look away. “Think anyone’s noticed we’ve been gone?”
“Eh,” he said, shrugging as he buckled his belt, “not unless they’re paying attention. Though I’m pretty sure my mom already knows.”
I straightened, surprised. “What?”
He shot me a knowing look. “She keeps slipping your name into every conversation. Like, ‘Is Brielle still writing her newsletter?’ Or, ‘Brielle likes those cookies, remember?’ It’s been … frequent.”
I frowned. “You think she knows?”
“I think anyone with eyes could tell how completely in love I am with you.”
The air caught in my throat. I stared at him, lips parted, suddenly less concerned with how my sweater was still half untucked and more concerned with the fact that I might melt into the floor.
We definitely didn’t have time for another round, but when his eyes crinkled with that sparkle, playful and sincere, I felt myself wanting to throw caution—and my jeans—to the wind.
I shook my head, grinning. “Where’s your belt?”
He glanced around.
I spotted it on the other side of the room and tossed it toward him. “Here.”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
“For the belt or for the sex?” he teased, eyes glinting as he threaded it through the loops.
I raised a brow. “Are you thanking me for the sex?”
“Oh, I’ll be thanking you for that for the rest of my life—if you’ll let me.”
I blushed furiously, trying to regain any shred of composure I had left. “We really need to go downstairs before people start wondering if we died.”
Josh nodded, but the way his eyes lingered on me said he wasn’t ready to stop looking just yet. “Do you see my shirt?”
“Um.” I looked around on the floor. I was still tucking my sweater into the front of my jeans when I heard the last few footsteps come down the hall and push open the door.
“Bri? Are you in there? Brenden said—"
And froze.
Gina stood there, mid-step, her face slack with shock. Her eyes bounced between us—from my flushed face to Josh’s still-unkempt hair to the barely concealed guilty expression we both wore.
Then her gaze locked on me.
Her chest rose visibly, like she was trying to inhale enough air to make the moment make sense.
“What …” she asked slowly, voice pitching high at the end. “What am I looking at right now?”