Not knowing when he’d leave made it easier. It wasn’t until the clock was running that I had to reconcile my reality of small bites of time with Will.
“That system wouldn’t stop someone who wanted to get in here,” he said. He hitched my tote over his shoulder and took my hand. “You’d have the exact same level of security with a dead bolt.”
“Lovely,” I murmured. “Another unjustifiable expenditure. That’s precisely what I need right now.”
“What you need is a break,” he said. “You’re going to relax next week in San Diego. Hell, you might fall in love and decide to stay there.”
At the top of Joy Street, I stopped to face Will. “Fall in love with San Diego? Or…something else?”
Will smiled and pulled me against his chest. “Let’s find out.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
SHANNON
“I’m on toyou,” Lauren said, leaning into my shoulder.
She showed up at my office late this afternoon wearing a bold, bright smile, slammed my laptop shut, and informed me we were going out. Apparently, barking orders ran in the family.
“What was that, Drunk Girl?” I asked.
The tavern down the street from the office was one of my favorites, and since I wasn’t alone in loving The Red Hat, the place was packed. Matt tagged along, and was on the other side of the bar watching basketball.
“I said I’m on to you,” she laughed. “I know what you’re up to.”
I’d been preparing for this. After everything that happened over lunch, it was obvious Lauren had a good idea—if not the full idea and most of the details—which bare-chested military man was in my apartment, and she was going to kill me with kindness until I confessed.
“Oh, so you’re aware that I’ve been dropping engagement ring hints all over Patrick?”
Her eyes widened and she held up her finger. “We’ll come back to that one in a second.” She propped her hands on her hips and shot me a sharp look. “I hear you’re leaving town tomorrow. What’s the story, morning glory?”
This was the part I hated: keeping things from Lauren. She confided her secrets in me, and I dropped more than my share on her. She arranged my father’s burial when I was too distraught. She changed my brother’s life in too many ways to name. She brought Will into my life, and now…I wanted to tell her. This was like a jar filled with summer fireflies, buzzing and beating the glass to get out and live in a wide, open space, and my fingers were loosening the lid.
“There’s not much of a story, Lo. Seriously, it’s just—”
She waved her hands in front of my face and grabbed my shoulders. “Did you hear that?” she asked.
“What?” I couldn’t hear anything over the dull roar of crowd noise and music.
She made an exaggeratedly impatient face and jostled my shoulders. “You just called me Lo.”
Shit.
“You know who calls me Lo?” she asked.
I shrugged and studied my wine. White, chilled, average quality, not strong enough to get me through the beating she was going to issue any minute now.
“My brothers, most notably, my brother Will. My parents call me Lolo, and Wes, too. Everyone else calls me Lauren, or Miss Honey. Only Will—the one with the bone frog tattoo on his arm and the anchor on his chest—consistentlycalls me Lo.”
“It’s cute,” I said, sliding my phone out of my suit coat and studying the newest emails waiting for me. “It fits you.”
“It really doesn’t, but let’s deconstruct that one another day.” She squeezed my shoulders and hell, Drunk Lauren was strong. “Will is Scheduled Sex. You’ve been seeing him between deployments since…since when, Shan?”
There was an expression one of my torts professors liked to throw around—three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead—and I laughed out loud at the thought of it. This wasnevera secret. Riley, Erin, and Nick all knew the second night we were together. Everyone knew I was going somewhere and seeing someone. Tiel could draw his tattoos from memory.
There was no secret here, and there was some relief in that revelation. A shiver moved through my bones, and I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh or cry. “Will is Scheduled Sex,” I confirmed. “And I’ve been seeing him since your wedding.”
“You’ve been keeping this from me for more than a year and a half?” she cried. “Shit, I didn’t think you’d admit it so quickly. Tell meeverything,you dirty little slutbag.”
