Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
NORA
Cormac downloads the original Half-Life on his computer. He lets me be the player and sits beside me with Cookie curled up on his lap. She looks hopefully at our ice cream bowls as we empty them.
The hours seem to slip by, and suddenly it’s past midnight. I know I have to go, and it alarms me how much I don’t want to. It alarms me so much that I unceremoniously announce that I’m leaving.
“All right. You do look tired.”
I have to smile. “You should never tell a woman that.”
“You’re living proof that a person can look tired and beautiful at the same time.”
“Better,” I say as I get to my feet and collect the bowls.
He follows me into the kitchen, Cookie not even bothering to get up and trail him at this late hour. But when I try to rinse the bowls, he grabs my hand. “I’ll do it.”
A moment of silent awkwardness descends between us when I step away from the sink. I know it’s time to leave, he knows it’s time for me to leave, but it feels like I can’t just throw him a wave.
Cormac being Cormac, he calls it out. “Can I kiss you goodbye, or is that against the rules we haven’t set?”
I smile again, although my heart is thumping painfully now. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
It must be the complications, I decide. Our parents would flip a shit if they knew what we’d been up to in Apple Ridge last week, and I’d prefer not to be responsible for their joint heart attack.
“You can kiss me so long as no one’s watching.”
He adjusts his glasses, looking bemused. “I assume you’d be okay with me kissing you if José and Pansy were watching, considering this is all for their benefit.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s all for their benefit.”
He must like that because he gathers me into his arms. “So you’re saying you liked it when I fucked you in my kitchen.”
There’s a rush of heat between my legs, because yes, I did like it. A lot. “Don’t get a big head.”
“The cranium stops growing between the ages of twenty and thirty.”
I bury my head in his chest. “You’re such a nerd.”
His hand smooths over my hair. “Says the woman who spent the night playing Half-Life with me.”
“So maybe I’m a nerd too,” I mumble into his shirt.
“I can’t wait to tell Kenji you were secretly a nerd all along.”
I laugh. “Right. I doubt he even remembers who I am.”
He pulls back and looks me square in the eyes. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Did he want to go to all of those dumb parties too?” I ask, forcing myself to smile. I suspect he was about to tell me why he kept that note tucked away in his yearbook, but it felt essential to interrupt him. Because I’m worried I might know why he did it.
“Something like that.” He bends to kiss the top of my head. “Goodnight, Nora.”
“Is that all I get from you?” I ask, grinning like an idiot. “I thought you were going to kiss me properly, not like I’m someone’s grandmother.”
His eyes lighting up behind his glasses, he dips me backward, so low I could probably reach down and touch the floor, and kisses me so passionately my knees feel weak.
Unsurprisingly, I don’t go home for another hour.
The next day, he invites me back, and I come.
We have breakfast together, and then we garden with Nathaniel, who pays us with his garden’s bounty. Tomatoes and cucumbers, that is. Afterward, we make a salad and play Half-Life.
For some reason, all of that is far more concerning than all the sex we’re having.
On Sunday, I ask Hannah, Briar, and Sophie to meet me for an emergency summit at Dottie’s tea shop, Tea of Fortune.
When I arrive, the three of them are already congregated at a table in the back. But I have another stop to make first—Dottie and Ann are sitting at a table near the entrance, sipping iced tea.
I pause near them. There are dozens of questions I’d like to ask, including how and why they started the group chat with Cormac, but I say the first thing that comes to mind.
“Thanks for the ice cream, Ann.”
“Well, speak of the angel,” she says loudly, slapping the side of the table. “There you are, honey! We were just this moment talking about you.”
I glance at Dottie, who beams at me.
“I haven’t seen you since the wedding,” I say. I’ve stopped by the tea shop a couple of times to interrogate her about Cormac, but she hasn’t been around.
“And you’re a sight for sore eyes.” Dottie pats my cheek. “We’ve been busy these past few weeks, haven’t we, Ann?”
“What?” Ann says loudly.
“We’ve been busy.”
“Yes, ever so busy,” Ann agrees. Turning toward me with a smile, she says, “Honey, did you say you had the ice cream? I thought that boy was just humoring me. It does me a world of good to hear he kept his word. A real world of good.”
My mind flashes to Cormac licking and kissing his way up the inside of my thigh…
I clear my throat. “It was nice, yeah.”
I glance around. No one I know is present, other than my friends seated in the back. Hannah waves wildly, and I lift two fingers to indicate I need two minutes. She gives me one finger back. Given the finger she’s chosen, she’s either only granting me one minute, or she’s unhappy about the delay.
“I take it you’ve become friendly with Cormac?” I say, turning back to Dottie and Ann. Then I lower my voice. “He told me you know about our fake relationship.”
“Of course,” Dottie says. “And we would never breathe a word to your parents. Cormac made it very clear that he was concerned about them finding out.” She makes a show of zipping her lips.
“There’s something enjoyable about having a secret,” Ann says. “All that sneaking around. The stolen glances.”
Dottie clucks her tongue. “You’re making her uncomfortable.” Turning back to me, she asks, “But will you settle a little wager for us, Nora? Has he been rolling up his shirtsleeves? Ann is very concerned about that.”
“What was that?” Ann asks.
“His sleeves,” Dottie says, more loudly.
Ann gives Dottie a look of concern. “His name isn’t Steve. It’s nothing like it.”
“Heavens to Betsy, turn on your hearing aid.”
Ann scowls at her but flicks on her hearing aid before turning toward me. “Has he been rolling up his shirtsleeves, honey? I told him, very specifically, I said that’s one of your best features, son. You want to put your best features forward.”
My throat suddenly feels tight. “You’re the ones who gave him the makeover?”
Dottie angles her head slightly. “I wouldn’t call it a makeover, exactly. He wouldn’t use any of the foundation we gave him for under his eyes.”
I stifle a laugh. “But you helped him find new glasses and those collared shirts.”
“The sleeves,” Ann presses. “Those sleeves were the cherry on the sexy sundae.”
“Yes, he’s been rolling them up,” I confirm.
Hannah’s waving at me less patiently now, but I’m not ready to end this conversation. “Did he ask you to give him a makeover?”
“Oh, goodness, no,” Dottie says with a chuckle.
“We would never wait to be asked about that kind of thing. We saw a need, and we decided to fill it.” She lifts a finger.
“Now, he’s always been a handsome young man.
Anyone with eyes could see that. What he wanted was confidence and some window dressing.
So we told a little white lie about wanting to be in touch with him regarding your parents’ wedding present, and eventually we got him to work with us. ”
I smile at her distractedly, my mind full of Cormac. He went along with their plan. But why? Was it because…
Don’t go there, Nora.
“I’ve…I’d better get back there.” I gesture toward my friends’ table. “You know how impatient Hannah gets.”
Dottie smiles. “Of course, my dear. You want to tell them all about your secret relationship.”
“Fake relationship,” I correct, feeling a crease form in my brow.
“That’s what I said. But don’t run off when you’re done. I want to do another tea leaf reading for you.”
She’s only done it for me once before, on the day I officially met Hannah, Briar, and Sophie—but she has never told me what she saw. I’m tempted to ask her now, but it feels like I’d be giving too much away.
Sighing, I wave goodbye to Dottie and Ann as I head toward my friends.
“Oh my God,” Hannah groans as I come closer. “Finally. I was beginning to think I’d need to drag you back here myself.”
“As if you could.” I lower myself down next to Sophie, who taps her shoulder against mine in greeting.
Hannah picks up a pastry from a plate in the middle of the table, no doubt personally delivered by Dottie.
She likes to spoil us every time we visit while she’s here.
Wagging the pastry at me, Hannah says, “Explain yourself, young lady. You’ve been MIA for a week, and don’t think we haven’t noticed. ”
I bury my head in my hands for approximately two seconds and then pull myself together. I’ve lied enough, and I already hate myself for it. It’s time to tell the truth.
“Sooo, I’ve spent all weekend with Cormac, and I fucked him on his kitchen counter. How are you doing?”
Hannah drops the pastry. “Holy shit.”
I bury my head in my hands again, while Sophie shakes my shoulder playfully.
“You’ve been holding out on us,” she says.
I suppose I have. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together because of the whole Scooby-Doo thing.”
“Scooby-Doo?” Briar asks skeptically.
“You know, unmasking Pansy. He’s been helping me.”
“Is that also why you fucked him on the kitchen table?” Hannah asks.
“She said it was the counter,” Sophie corrects.
I glance at her, and she gives me a soft smile. “I had a feeling. I could tell there was something between you from the way you two talk to each other.”
“Seriously? We always used to bicker. We still bicker.”
Hannah waves the pastry, which she reclaimed from the tabletop. “There’s another word for bickering, you know. Banter.”
“Maybe,” I concede, because secretly I’ve always enjoyed sparring with Cormac. There’s an energy behind our exchanges, an excitement, as if we’re playing a game that only the two of us know about. “He’s such a nerd.”
I feel a pang of guilt. Not because it’s a lie—he is such a nerd—but because I like it.
I like a lot of things about him.
I like his pain-in-the-ass dog, and his slutty little glasses.
I like the way that he says what he thinks, even when he probably shouldn’t.
I like the way his clever mind works, and the incredible inventions that have sprung from it.
I like that he chose to play the bass, out of all the instruments in existence, because he wanted to be the sturdy foundation of the music rather than the flashy face of it.
I like him more than I should, and I don’t want them to know.
“So, tell us everything,” Hannah says. “This is even better than that episode of the Shirtless Chef when he said you have to caress the bread like it’s a woman’s boob.”
I huff a laugh. “Yeah. No one’s kneading my boobs.”
I give them a quick summary of everything that’s happened between us.
I’m still speaking when a server arrives with a teapot and pours a cup for each of us.
Even though it’s much too hot for warm tea, I drink mine.
Dottie wants to read the leaves, after all, and she’s been so sweet to Cormac. That matters to me.
“So what happens now?” Hannah asks once I’ve finished.
“I don’t know,” I admit, feeling a familiar panic weave its way through me. “I guess we’ll figure it out as we go. We agreed that we’d take things as they come.”
“Or you’ll figure it out when your good friend reads your tea leaves,” Dottie says, bustling up to our table with such ideal timing I have to wonder if one of my friends texted her.
“What suspiciously good timing,” I say, raising an eyebrow.
She taps her forehead. “My third eye is very attuned.”
“Trust in the process,” Hannah says. “I doubted Dottie. But no longer. This woman is a genius.”
Dottie smiles and runs her fingers over the crystal pendant at her neck. “Thank you, dear. But the genius all belongs to the universe’s designs. I’m only an interpreter.”
Christ, if I didn’t adore this woman, I’d find an excuse to slip out.
“All right.” I push my mostly empty teacup toward her. “Let’s do this. If it’s bad news, tell me quickly. I’m all about the Band-Aid approach.”
Dottie laughs softly, then upends my cup onto the saucer, rotates it several times, and lifts it.
“Oh dear,” she says, sounding distressed.
“Shit.” Hannah leans forward. “What do you see?”
“It looks like a snake,” Sophie says with a dramatic intake of breath.
Dottie reaches for my hand and squeezes it. “I’m afraid that’s exactly what it is.”
“And I take it a snake’s no good?” I ask.
“Betrayal, dear.” Dottie sucks in her bottom lip. “I’m afraid dishonesty lies in your future.”
I try not to show them this bothers me. After all, I’m currently secretly fake dating my stepbrother while actually sleeping with him. I’m also doing my damnedest to break up José’s engagement. Dishonesty has basically become a way of life for me.
It’s only later, as I’m leaving, that I remember that I didn’t give my friends a single update about the José and Pansy situation.