Chapter 7 #2
Which another part of my brain notes is maybe a red flag since he is supposed to be into my sister. I want her to be with a guy who is all about her.
But we’re going to ignore that part too.
I’m also ignoring the part of my brain that tells me I actually know neuroanatomy, and there are not this many parts of my brain.
“Oh, well…we’ll get a schedule when we go downtown tonight.”
“We’re going downtown tonight?”
“We have to go down and sign up to compete. It’s a whole thing. A kick-off event. Everyone has to sign up, and they introduce the competitors to the town.”
“Oh. Yeah, we should do that.”
We should. That will make this official.
I will be required to spend time with this guy.
I’m feeling like a really bad sister right now because that gives me butterflies.
This is such a bad idea.
“But the thing is,” I say. “The schedule is really erratic. There will be events scheduled at certain times, but they also have surprise challenges where they just text us and tell us that we have to meet somewhere, or go do something, and then report to a central location. We’re not going to know when those might come in. ”
He chuckles, and the curl of heat in my stomach simply cannot be ignored.
“You’re kidding.”
I lift a shoulder. “The word mayhem is right in the title.”
He nods. He’s still smiling and dammit…my attraction to him is not my fault.
Probably.
I really need Andi and Nora to confirm that, though.
“So, Autre is forty minutes away, give or take,” he says. “That could be complicated.”
I nod. He’s not wrong. “Last year, Violet and Sam got a text at six a.m. saying they needed to gather all of the ingredients to make sugar cookies and then report to the community center kitchen for a bake-off. At that time of day, no stores were open, and a lot of people were in bed, so if Bruce hadn’t already had everything available, they would’ve been in trouble.
One pair had to make no-bake cookies. They did get points for being resourceful. And one team frosted graham crackers.”
“Did that count?”
I nod. “Half the points. For the decorating. But another team just didn’t get any points because they couldn’t pull it all together.”
He lifts a brow. “Wow. Brutal.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“And how long did they have to get to the community center?”
“An hour.”
He blows out a breath. “I guess I need to get a hotel room.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Harley says as he comes into the kitchen carrying a handful of silverware and a few glasses. “There won’t be any hotel rooms available. Everything is booked up.”
With another person in the room, I am now able to step back from Josh. It’s like the magnetic force between us is broken. I should probably feel relieved about that, but I don’t. Which is a huge red flag.
Another huge red flag.
Then I think about what Harley just said. Dammit, he’s right.
“Yeah, things probably filled up weeks ago.”
Josh’s eyes widen. “This really is a big deal.”
Harley laughs. “Course it is. Nora doesn’t do anything small.”
“Well, he can just stay in one of your bedrooms,” I say to Harley.
Bruce comes into the kitchen carrying more dishes. “Sure, but it would be a lot easier if he just slept in Violet’s room.”
I freeze, turning back to the sink.
It definitely would be easier. We could be called to do a challenge at any moment. Every minute could count because most of the challenges have a time limit.
The problem is that Violet’s room is at my house.
“I don’t want to inconvenience anyone,” Josh says.
“You won’t. That will be more convenient. If you want to win this thing, every minute matters,” Bruce says, rinsing off the dishes he carried in.
“Well, okay. You all have keys to Violet’s place?” Josh asks.
Hartley chuckles. “We do. But you can just go with Thea.”
Josh looks at me. I take a breath. “Violet lives with me. She has since February, when she and Sam broke up, and she moved back here from New Orleans.”
Understanding dawns on his face. And for just a moment, I think maybe he thinks this isn’t a great idea either, and maybe for the same reason I do.
Does he feel the heat between us? That could be good. Then he’ll understand why we have to resist it.
It could also be bad. We need to not have heat between us. It will be a lot easier to ignore if I’m the only one feeling it. If it’s just a figment of my imagination. Or it’s just my attraction to him, and it’s not reciprocated.
“Oh, well…” He trails off, clearly not sure what to say.
But I am a grown-up. I am a single mom. I am doing Merry Mayhem for my sister. With her new boyfriend. This is not weird, this is not a problem, I can handle this.
“It’s fine. In fact, it’s a great idea. Like Bruce said, every minute matters.”
His shoulders relax a bit. “Okay, well then, thank you. I need to run back to Autre to get some stuff. I don’t have any other clothes here.”
Harley and Bruce seem to have just now realized that the front of his shirt is dripping wet.
I’ve been successfully ignoring the way the cotton has been clinging to his chest and abs.
His very firm, clearly defined through the wet shirt chest and abs…
Okay, I’ve been mostly successfully ignoring that.
“We have some clothes for the boys upstairs. I can get you through tonight. But you can run back to Autre after the kick-off event,” Bruce says. “That won’t be too late for you, will it?”
“No, that’s fine,” he says. Josh looks back at me. “As long as you don’t mind me coming in late?”
I shake my head. “Ruth is on school break, so she likes to stay up late. And now that I don’t have any patients scheduled in the morning, I don’t have to worry about getting up early. Unless we get some kind of Mayhem challenge.”
“Come on, I’ll get you a new shirt,” Bruce says, turning on his heel and heading out of the kitchen.
Josh casts me a glance.
“We’ll leave for the kick-off event in about twenty minutes,” I tell him.
“Sounds good.”
He follows Bruce out of the room, and I take a deep breath.
No, it doesn’t sound good. It sounds like this could be very complicated, and I’m a bad person. Or at least a bad sister.
Because I watch my sister’s boyfriend’s ass as he leaves the room with my grandfather.
Merry Mayhem is already living up to its name, and it hasn’t even kicked off yet.