Chapter 10 You Smell Like Sex
Silas
Bailey grabs for my shirt, thrusting it at me. “He can’t see me from the door, so I’ll just stay hidden.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” I pull my shirt on just as Hunter knocks again. Echo is meowing at the door, desperate to see her second favorite person on earth. “I’m coming!”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Bailey snorts a laugh.
“Not funny,” I toss back as I rise to my feet, but I am smiling.
I pause and straighten my shirt, flatten my hair, and rub my face.
Then I take a deep breath and open the door, sticking my foot out to keep Echo inside.
I wrestle like a soccer player with a ball until I manage to maneuver myself outside while keeping my cat inside.
She lets out a very loud yowl when the door clicks closed.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” I’m breathing hard and have to straighten my shirt again from shimmying through the door.
Hunter gives me a once-over, his eyes narrowing. “Do you have company?” He sounds incredulous, which—rude. I have company sometimes.
“Uh . . .” My brain scrambles for literally anything resembling a coherent thought.
He jerks a thumb over his shoulder at Bailey’s rental car in the driveway. “I saw the strange car, but my god, man, it’s ten thirty in the morning. Who is it? I don’t recognize the car so it can’t be a Herevian.”
“She doesn’t live here.” Truth. Technically.
He squints at me, then drops his voice conspiratorially. “Was it the blond forty-two-year-old accountant from Hinge? Because I swiped right on her too—”
“Yes!” I snap my fingers, maybe a bit too enthusiastically. “Her. Definitely her.”
Hunter’s eyebrows climb toward his hairline. “Really? Damn, you work fast. I thought she was in Albany.”
Shit. “She . . . drove down. Last night. For . . . reasons.”
“Reasons.” Hunter’s mouth twitches like he’s trying not to laugh at me. “At ten p.m. on a Saturday night. To Here. Population: two thousand.”
“She really likes . . . small towns?” I’m the worst liar in the history of lying. “And pizza. We got pizza.”
Pro tip: When your best friend shows up unexpectedly and his sister is half naked in your kitchen, “she likes pizza” is NOT a convincing cover story. But it’s all I’ve got, so here we are.
“Right.” Hunter is definitely laughing at me now.
I run my hand through my hair and look at Hunter, really look at him.
He looks like shit.
“I thought you were going to the city?”
“I was, yeah, but apparently Bailey’s not home. Wait, how did you know I was going to the city?”
“Uh, that’s where you went last time you got in a fight with Morgan, so I just assumed?
” Ugh. I hate lying to Hunter, but I definitely can’t tell him Bailey is here.
I’m willing to take the punch, but I can’t do that to Bailey without us having a conversation about it.
Hell, we need to have a conversation about us.
She was ready to bolt this morning, and that’s not how I want to leave it.
“Oh yeah. Well, I’m not exactly in a fight with Morgan right now. I mean, he’s not happy with me, but he’s more pissed at his brother.”
“Graham deserved it, I’m sure. I wonder what it’s gonna take for Morgan to finally see the light on Graham.”
Hunter blows out a breath. “Who knows. Anyway, you wanna grab lunch?” He lifts his chin toward my house. “You can bring your friend.”
The hope in his voice breaks my heart. “She’s not staying. Why don’t I meet you at Sweet Persuasions in an hour?”
He straightens, a grin peeking through. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
He holds his hand out for one of our complicated handshakes we’ve been doing since grade school—the one we invented in sixth grade and have never forgotten. It ends like it always does, in a hug.
I hold on longer than usual, because Hunter needs it. He’s always the one taking care of us, protecting us, making sure we’re okay. Even now, when he’s the one who just punched someone and is clearly having a rough time, he showed up to check on me.
My best friend. Who I just lied to. About his sister. Who’s currently hiding shirtless in my kitchen.
The guilt sits heavy in my gut, but I push it down. Hunter’s body softens in my embrace and I can feel him relax, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.
And then he pulls away and says, “You smell like sex,” and my heart stops.
If he kills me, right here on my front stoop, I’m pretty sure I deserve it.
When I go back inside, Bailey’s dressed again but lying on my kitchen floor, staring at the ceiling. Echo loafs on her chest, purring up a storm. My cat turns her head and glares at me, ears going back. She’s pissed that I didn’t let her say hello to Hunter.
Bailey doesn’t look at me.
I sink to the floor, crossing my legs underneath me. “How much of that did you hear?”
“Enough.” Her voice is carefully neutral—that flat tone she uses when she’s building her walls back up. “You’re meeting my brother for lunch?”
“Yeah.” I watch her profile, trying to read her expression. “Bailey—”
“It’s fine.” She scratches Echo’s chin, still not looking at me. “You should go. He needs you right now.”
The words are generous, but her tone is distant. Like she’s already left. She doesn’t move though, scratching Echo’s chin just right, and I’m pretty certain she’s staying put because of my cat. Not because of me. And I want that to change.
“When can I see you again?”
Bailey sighs. Echo shoots me another dirty look. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
Bailey turns her head to look at me. “Well, for starters, my brother thinks you’re hooking up with a tourist from Hinge.”
“Do you want me to tell him it was you?” I move to stand, patting the counter looking for my phone.
“No, don’t.” Bailey sits up, finally dislodging my cat who shakes herself and stalks away, irritated with the humans who are no fun. Bailey catches my sleeve and tugs me back down to the floor. “It doesn’t make any sense to tell him. You’ll just get punched—maybe—and what would be the point?”
“The point would be that you could come back and we wouldn’t have to sneak around.”
“When am I coming back?” She spreads her hands wide, and there’s something almost desperate in the gesture. “I might be coming up in the summer for a weekend, but I’m busy the next few weeks in the city—”
“I’ll come visit you.”
She looks at me like I’ve just suggested flying to the moon. “Why, Silas? What’s the point?”
The question lands like a punch. “The point is I want to see you again.”
“For what? More sex we have to hide from my brother? More lying to your best friend?” Her voice is getting sharper, more defensive. “This was supposed to be just one night. Just for now, remember?”
“I remember.” I do. I remember every word. “But maybe I want more than just for now.”
She flinches. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t make this more complicated than it already is.” She’s looking anywhere but at me now. “We live in different places. You have your life here, I have mine in New York. My brother is your best friend. This was always going to be temporary.”
She’s talking herself out of this. I can see it happening in real time.
I don’t know what the point is, except that I like Bailey. I’ve missed her more than I realized, and even though she loves living in the city and I love living in Here, I want to see her again. Fifteen-year-old Silas would absolutely kick my ass if I let Bailey leave just like that.
So I use the best argument I have in my quiver.
I grab Bailey’s ankles and yank her toward me.
She squeaks and slides on the linoleum floor, laughing, and I use the momentum to pull myself over her body so we end up toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose.
I plant a kiss on her lips. “During last night’s pillow talk, you told me your sex life was blah. ”
She rolls her eyes. “I don’t think I used those exact words.”
“Was last night blah?”
I’m in the cradle of her legs and I thrust lightly against her so she can tell how I felt about last night. Her eyelashes flutter. “It wasn’t blah,” she admits.
I kiss her again. “So let me come visit you.”
Her body melts underneath me as she gives in. “I guess we can get it out of our system.”
Get it out of our system. Like this is just physical. Like we can scratch this itch and move on.
She actually believes that.
I don’t correct her. Not yet. Let her think this is temporary, that we can go back to being Hunter’s sister and Hunter’s best friend after a few weekends together.
But I’ve wanted Bailey Price since I was fifteen years old. I’ve watched her from afar, convinced myself she was off-limits, talked myself out of it a thousand times.
And now that I’ve had her? Now that I know what it’s like to make her laugh, to watch her sleep in my bed, to see her lying on my kitchen floor with my cat on her chest like she belongs here?
I grin and help her to her feet, pulling her in for one more kiss. “Yeah,” I lie. “Just getting it out of our system.”
Bailey will never be out of my system. And I’m going to do my best to make sure that when Hunter eventually punches me, it’s because I’m dating his sister.
Not just sleeping with her.