I’d held off on saying those three words out loud because Jocelyn, try to fake it as she might, was skittish. I fucking hated it, but that was the truth. She didn’t trust men or relationships, or both, but regardless, she was stuck with me. I was going to tell her as soon as her ass walked out of that bathroom. She might try to call this something else, but I knew better. And I knew her feelings for me ran just as deep.
“Heaven’s above,” Jocelyn yelled from the bathroom.
Laughing out loud, I yelled, “It’s called a pee-gasm, babe. Told you waiting would make it better.”
A knock at the door sounded, and I left the bed, still chuckling. I could hear Jocelyn panting through the bathroom door. Dressing in a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, I jogged toward the front door where more knocking sounded.
Without even glancing through the peephole, I pulled it open and came face to face with a man I hadn’t seen in a damn year.
Not since the night he lost his leg.
“Corey.” My first reaction was to pull him into a bear hug, but the surprise-turned-thunderous look on his face stopped me.
Corey didn’t say anything at first. Instead, he stepped back and looked at the number on the door. He then turned back to me, and his gaze narrowed even further.
My face tightened as I ground my teeth. This wasn’t the reunion I’d wanted but fuck it. The truth was the only thing I was about to reveal.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I know what a pee-gasm is,” Jocelyn said as she rounded the corner from the hallway. “Oh, shit.”
She had the deer caught in headlights look while still dressed in my T-shirt and only my shirt.
“Maybe you should change,” I said, stepping back to let Corey in.
She moved her wide eyes from her brother to me, back to Corey, and nodded.
“Instead, how about one of you tell me why he’s here at seven o’clock in the morning, and you’re dressed like...that,” Corey, still in the hallway, demanded as he pointed at Jocelyn.
“Keep your voice down,” I said, almost growling. He was my best friend and her brother. Still, even he couldn’t speak to Jocelyn like that. Not in my presence.
“What the fuck?”
“Corey,” I started. “I’ve called you at least a hundred times in the past year.”
“To tell me you're screwing my sister?”
“Watch it.”
“Corey, calm down, we’re just—”
“We’re together,” I said, cutting Jocelyn off.
“Nah.” Corey shook his head as if trying to wash away what I’d just said. “I came here to see what the hell has been keeping you from Mama’s for weeks, and this is what I find?”
He gave me a disgusted look before turning and heading down the hallway toward the exit.
“Corey,” Jocelyn called, but I stopped her with my extended arm.
“What are you doing? He’s leaving,” she pointed out.
I turned and closed the door, shutting us inside. “I saw, and we both know where he lives.”
My voice was calmer than I felt.
“I should go after him.”
“And tell him what?” I folded my arms across my chest. It was time she and I had this out. Corey would be next.
