Chapter 7
Lydia
“Fuck, baby. Look at me. You’re so goddamn sexy when you come.”
“Luke,” Scarlett panted.
No amount of holding my hands against my ears could block out the sound of her chanting my brother’s name.
Sex didn’t generally bother me. As a city girl, I had seen people going at it on the subway or in bathrooms more times than I could count.
Not to mention that one time I managed to find myself in a legit sex club.
I was glad my brother had a healthy and active sex life.
He deserved it. I would even be a little jealous—if it weren’t 6:30 a.m.
I had been staying with them for almost a week, and every morning was the same.
Wyatt’s house, where Luke and Scarlett—and now me—were staying, wasn’t that big.
The bedroom I was staying in was right across the hall.
I had never been so glad to not share a wall, although it was hard to imagine how it would have made a difference.
A guttural grunt followed by a loud moan sounded, and the squeaking noises stopped.
I scrubbed my hands down my face, trying to erase everything I’d just heard from my mind and maybe go back to sleep for another couple of hours.
Footsteps padded down the short hallway a few minutes later, and the shower turned on.
Screw it. Looked like I was up now.
I threw on a pair of comfy sweats and a matching black sweatshirt and made my way out to the open-concept living room and kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee.
After he finished showering and got dressed, Luke caught me mid-yawn on the couch with a hot mug in my hand.
“You’re almost out of coffee,” I said in lieu of a greeting, holding up my mug for him to see.
“You’re up early,” he said. He grabbed a clean mug off the drying rack and used the last pod to make a cup for himself.
“Hm, I wonder what could have woken me up?” Sarcasm dripped from my voice as I shot him a death glare.
His lips pulled into a tight line, clearly trying to hide his smile. “Sorry about that. I’ll tell her to be quieter.” He grimaced at the end of his sentence like it was physically making him ill to say those words.
“It’s not her that I don’t want to hear. You be quieter.”
Luke just laughed. “Touché.” He sat down next to me on the couch, a nervous energy emanating from him.
It kind of sucked. Luke and I were really close growing up.
He used to let me hang out with him and his friends, especially if it was just him and Seb.
We would drive all around with no place to go.
Stop for ice cream and frappes before heading out to the broken-down docks to smoke weed.
We didn’t have that type of relationship anymore, and I knew it was my fault. And that kind of sucked even more.
“How’s things going?”
“Living here? Noisy,” I said.
“Ha. Seriously though, you okay? It’s been six weeks since you’ve been home. You haven’t mentioned making this permanent, and you haven’t mentioned leaving. I’m guessing you’re not with that guy anymore, what was his name?”
“Blake. And no,” I answered harsher than I intended.
His hand clenched around his mug, but he was otherwise completely cool, the tightness in his voice giving away that he’d picked up on my anger.
“What happened?”
“We broke up.”
“Lydia,” he warned, not liking my vague answer.
“Luke,” I mocked back at him.
“You can talk to me, Lyds. You can tell me anything. I’ve seen it all. I’ve had my own relationship troubles. I’m here for you.”
I played with the rim of my mug. If I wanted to rebuild my relationship with my brother, all of my brothers, I was going to need to make the effort. I had been vulnerable before though, and it didn’t work out well.
But this was different. This was Luke. If I had to start trusting someone at some point, Luke was the best first step.
“It wasn’t good,” I hedged with a small shake of my head.
“How not good?” His voice held a cautious edge.
“Lots of fights, lots of flowers. Lots of crying, lots of apologies. I needed to get out, so I did. And I just happened to land right back where I started.” That seemed like the right amount to say.
A part of me was still too ashamed to say the whole truth of it out loud.
Embarrassed that I fell for it. That I let someone treat me the way Blake did for as long as I did.
“And you’re good now?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m good. I can take care of myself. You know that. Plus, fighting with Seb every day helps me get my mojo back.” I smiled. “Best gift ever was getting me that job.”
He chuckled like I hoped he would. “I still don’t understand what your deal is there, but glad I could help.”
Luke drained the rest of his coffee before getting up and putting his mug in the sink.
“Okay. I’m off to work. If you need anything—”
I cut him off before he could finish his sentence. “Call someone else, yeah, I know.”
“Smart-ass,” he grumbled on the way out the door.
I smiled to myself. Sometimes it was good to be home.
* * *
I tied the bottom of the last pink balloon and paired it with one of the blue ones, attaching it to the back of one of the dining room chairs.
“What else do you need?” I asked Maeve. She seemed to be in charge of the coordination, directing Scarlett, Claire, Sheila, and me to what needed to get set up.
“I think we’re good. Oh, can you get the cheese plate out of the fridge and set it up on the counter?”
“You got it,” I said. I went to the fridge and found it stocked with items that weren’t there this morning.
Platters of food, pitchers of different drinks, casserole dishes, finger sandwiches.
There were things everywhere, and of course, the prepared cheese plate was under half of it.
I moved some of the things onto the counter to make room and tried to finagle some other dishes around to pull it out.
I had some sort of a mashed sweet potato dish in one hand, the heavy cast iron bending my wrist uncomfortably, while I tried to tug the plate free without knocking the container of dip to the floor. “Come on, you stupid…”
“Not even the food is safe with you, is it?”
The casserole dish was lifted from my hand before I could even turn my head. Seb reached into the fridge and pulled out the dip that was blocking the plate, giving me free access to finally get it out.
“Food is perfectly safe with me, as long as it cooperates and doesn’t get in my way.”
He looked me up and down, his eyes the color of caramel. “Not everything is afraid of getting in your way. Some might even step in front of you just to get your attention.”
My pulse skittered like I was eighteen again. His deep cologne tickled my nose, and I didn’t like it.
He smelled delicious. I just didn’t like that I liked it.
I pulled the tray out without breaking eye contact from him. His mouth tipped up as he swiped his tongue over his bottom lip.
“I’d be careful where you step. A bomb like me, you never know when I’ll explode.”
I turned with my plate, and Seb blocked my path. Logically, I knew he was screwing around, but my lizard brain immediately felt trapped between him and the fridge. I stepped back, sucking in air, my heart suddenly beating faster.
His eyes softened, his face lined with concern as he stepped aside.
“Lydia, you okay? I was just fucking with you.”
I swallowed down my visceral reaction and schooled my features. “What are you on about? People are showing up, Seb. I’m trying to finish my job. Move.”
“I did, little wild. You just haven’t walked away.” There was that stupid smirk again. Smaller than before, not quite reaching his eyes.
I turned in a huff, putting the platter on the counter and catching Scarlett’s eye. She looked between Seb and me meaningfully, so I narrowed my gaze to get the point across.
Absolutely not. Sure, he smelled fantastic. He was funny and annoyingly charming in some people’s opinions. But he was still the guy wo had played me for a fool.
Luke and Scarlett decided to keep the gender reveal party small, only inviting immediate family and a couple of close friends.
There probably wasn’t twenty people total.
Instead of the cake idea that was originally tossed around, Scarlett had sent the results to a company that made nesting dolls with the final doll being the gender of the baby.
I had made a plate of food and was leaning against the counter when I felt his eyes on me.
Seb sat across the room in a chair, his stare trained on me.
He wasn’t smiling and laughing with the rest of them—and Seb was always laughing, even when I was giving him attitude—and I didn’t like having his attention on me with that serious expression on his face.
I kept his eye contact like it was a battle, when in reality, I couldn’t look away if I tried.
He stood up quickly, making his way over to where the food was laid out, right toward me.
“Why are you hanging out over here? There are plenty of people to talk to. You don’t have to stand here by yourself,” he said, making himself a plate of food.
“And you don’t have to come over here and lecture me, yet here we are.”
He stood next to me by the counter, shoulder to shoulder, and shoveled a large bite of potato salad into his mouth. When he finished chewing, he took a breath, and I knew he had something else he wanted to say.
“What’s your problem, Lydia? You too good for us small-town folks now that you’ve been in the big city for over a decade, living out your dreams?”
“You know that’s not it, Seb,” I said harshly. “Do you think it’s easy being back here where everywhere I look, everywhere I go, there is someone else who probably high-fived you and laughed about how you managed to be the first guy to get in my pants?”
His jaw clenched, but before I could blink, his cocky smirk was back. He didn’t bother looking at me, instead still facing out toward the rest of the gathering.
“If I remember correctly, and trust me, I do, you weren’t wearing any pants for me to get into.”