I glanced down at my watch. “Colin is going to walk in any second.”
“Then we better be quick.”
“Cade Murphy, I swear to God?—”
The door opened again, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Colin strolled in with his guitar case slung over one shoulder, looking like he’d just rolled out of bed. Which, knowing my brother, he probably had.
“Hey, Stel. Power still out?” he asked, glancing around the space and noting the quiet.
“Yeah, for a bunch of us. Turns out a car slid on a patch of black ice and hit a pole.”
“Shit.” He headed straight back like he owned the place—which, given he’d invested a few thousand dollars, he kind of did—and grabbed one of the mismatched chairs, spinning it around to straddle it backward. “Bummer.”
“Yeah. Rhett Jennings said the guy’s okay, so …” I shrugged.
It sucked that we all had to make do until the electric company could get the power back up and running, but that wasnothing compared to a wrecked car before the holidays. Not to mention, it could have been significantly worse.
Colin glanced around the space, and his gaze landed on Cade sprawled out on the sofa. He jerked his chin up in greeting. “Dude. What are you doing here?”
My stomach dropped. Cade and I hadn’t discussed what we were going to tell people yet. Or evenifwe were going to tell people. Especially not my younger brother, who also happened to be Cade’s best friend.
The thought of Colin knowing we were sleeping together made my skin crawl—not because I was ashamed, but because I didn’t know what this thing between us was yet.
Right now, it was sex and hanging out and late-night texting that made my cold black heart feel a bit warmer. But more than that? I had no clue. And until I did, the idea of explaining it to my brother—of watching him process that his sister and his best friend were … well, whatever we were—felt like too much, too soon.
“Drinking your sister’s beer and being a nuisance,” I answered before Cade could, hoping my voice came out steadier than I felt.
Cade shot me a look, his eyebrow arched and the muscle in his jaw flexing. His head tilted slightly, a question written across his face.
I replied with a tiny purse of my own brows and a slight lift of my shoulders.
He rolled his lips between his teeth and then turned to Colin with an easy shrug. “Stella makes the best beer in town. Where else would I be?”
Colin snorted. “Fair enough.” He rested his forearms on the chairback, his attention zeroing in on his best friend. “Though I’m surprised your new girl’s cool with you spending so much time here.”
I froze, my hand halfway to the notebook I’d abandoned.
“What are you talking about?” Cade asked, giving Colin his full attention.
“Oh, come on. Don’t play dumb.”
“Humor me.”
My brother leaned back, counting off on his fingers.“You’ve been glued to your phone for two days. You’re smiling at random shit. You said you were going to the Winterberry thing to pick up a tree, but you came home empty-handed. And when I asked if you wanted to go grab a beer at The Anchor, you said you had ‘plans.’” He used his fingers to make air quotes.
“I have a life outside of you, Colin,” Cade said dryly.
“Since when? You never leave the house.” A slow, knowing grin spread across my brother’s face. “Except two nights ago, when you did and then didn’t come home until the morning.”
“Maybe I had somewhere to be,” Cade muttered.
“That’s my whole point.” Colin sat up straighter, pointing at Cade with his beer bottle. “You had tobeat your new chick’s place.”
Cade took a long, slow sip of his beer, and I watched him stifle a smirk.
Colin’s mouth fell open, his eyes going wide. “Holy fuck. I’m right, aren’t I? I was just giving you shit, but you actually met someone.”
