Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
ACE
“What. The. Fuck?” I jolt awake to see Morgan hovering over me on the couch—but not just me. Ainsley is lying at my side with her arms wrapped around my torso and her head on my chest. Fuck! No, this was not supposed to happen. I knew I should have gone upstairs to my room when she fell asleep.
I shift myself from Ainsley’s hold, and that seems to wake her up. As her eyes flutter open, she sees Morgan looking down at us, pissed off and confused. Her back stiffens as she jolts up. I try to do the same to get off the couch.
“Man, it’s not what it looks like. I swear.” My breathing is erratic, not only from being startled awake by my best friend, but at the compromised position he found us in. Ainsley hasn’t said a word, frozen in place. Thank fuck she had the right idea to put her sweats back on before falling asleep.
Morgan runs his hand roughly through his hair. “Really? It doesn’t look like you were cuddled up on the couch with my baby sister all night?” He lets out a huff, waiting for one of us to respond. This snaps Ainsley out of her daze; I see the annoyance on her face.
“I’m not a baby, Morgan! Stop calling me that!” Probably the wrong thing for her to say first. I know I need to run damage control and fix this before he explodes on both of us and says something he can’t come back from. What I'm about to say will be opening a wound for Ainsley that hasn’t fully closed. I hope she knows I'm only saying it to get us out of the situation we’re in.
Please forgive me for this, princess.
“Dude, this is Ainsley we're talking about. Your little sister. We watched the rest of the movie last night, and must have fallen asleep. I've never and would never think of her like that. She's like a sister to me.” The words pouring out of my mouth taste like acid. I feel gross telling him I think of her like a sister, when everything we did and said last night couldn't be further from that. My gaze remains on Morgan; I can’t risk looking at Ainsley and seeing the same look she gave me last night after finally telling me why she's been so hell-bent on staying away from me. I see Morgan look back and forth from me to Ainsley, judging if what I am saying is true.
“Well?” He's looking at Ainsley for confirmation. As much as this hurts the both of us, I need her to back me up. We agreed nothing could come from last night, she knows this is the only option.
“Well what?” Her voice comes out more quiet than a few minutes ago. “You heard him. We fell asleep; it was an accident, and nothing more.” I can feel her staring at me, and I make the mistake of looking into her eyes. She understands this needs to happen, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for either of us.
I don’t think we one hundred percent sold Morgan, but he must get some sort of relief from our explanation. Shaking his head side to side, he lets out a huge sigh of relief. “Jesus! I almost thought I had to fuck up my best friend.” He means it. The level of protectiveness we both have for Ainsley is crazy. All the trust between us would evaporate if he found out what really happened. Our fate is sealed; we can be nothing more than friends.