“Yeah, but I need you to clean out the spare room tomorrow while you’re off.”
“Why? Are you nesting already? I thought that was closer to the end?” He splayed his hands over her belly, his eyes shining with awe.
“It’s not for the baby. Lydia’s going to be staying with us for a while.”
“Oh, sure. Okay. Just give me a day or two, Lyds.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” I asked. “You might not be able to tell her no, but you can tell me no if you want.”
“Who the fuck do you think we are?” Wyatt asked as he rummaged through his cabinets and made himself a bowl of cereal.
“Of course you can stay with me, Lydia. Just like Wyatt would let you stay here if he had the space,” Luke added.
“Same with Reid. You call him right now and see what he says if you tell him you’re looking to get out from under Dad’s feet.”
“I told her that, but she turned me down,” Claire added, unhelpfully.
“Fine. Whatever. I’ll go stay at Luke and Scarlett’s place. You don’t need to all gang up on me,” I huffed, making sure to keep the smile off my face.
I got back to my dad’s and almost didn’t recognize the person staring back at me in the bathroom mirror. Stripped of the heavy black eyeliner and thick mascara, my face was fresh and raw. It felt symbolic. Like a fresh start was really possible, maybe even here in Calla Bay.
7
Lydia
“Fuck, baby. Look at me. You’re so goddamn sexy when you come.”
“Luke,” Scarlett panted.
No amount of holding my hands against my ears could block out the sound of her chanting my brother’s name.
Sex didn’t generally bother me. As a city girl, I had seen people going at it on the subway or in bathrooms more times than I could count. Not to mention that one time I managed to find myself in a legit sex club. I was glad my brother had a healthy and active sex life. He deserved it. I would even be a little jealous—if it weren’t 6:30 a.m.
I had been staying with them for almost a week, and every morning was the same. Wyatt’s house, where Luke and Scarlett—and now me—were staying, wasn’t that big. The bedroom I was staying in was right across the hall. I had never been so glad to not share a wall, although it was hard to imagine how it would have made a difference.
A guttural grunt followed by a loud moan sounded, and the squeaking noises stopped.
I scrubbed my hands down my face, trying to erase everything I’d just heard from my mind and maybe go back to sleep for another couple of hours.
Footsteps padded down the short hallway a few minutes later, and the shower turned on.
Screw it. Looked like I was up now.
I threw on a pair of comfy sweats and a matching black sweatshirt and made my way out to the open-concept living room and kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee.
After he finished showering and got dressed, Luke caught me mid-yawn on the couch with a hot mug in my hand.
“You’re almost out of coffee,” I said in lieu of a greeting, holding up my mug for him to see.
“You’re up early,” he said. He grabbed a clean mug off the drying rack and used the last pod to make a cup for himself.
“Hm, I wonder what could have woken me up?” Sarcasm dripped from my voice as I shot him a death glare.
His lips pulled into a tight line, clearly trying to hide his smile. “Sorry about that. I’ll tell her to be quieter.” He grimaced at the end of his sentence like it was physically making him ill to say those words.
“It’s not her that I don’t want to hear. You be quieter.”
Luke just laughed. “Touché.” He sat down next to me on the couch, a nervous energy emanating from him. It kind of sucked. Luke and I were really close growing up. He used to let me hang out with him and his friends, especially if it was just him and Seb. We would drive all around with no place to go. Stop for ice cream and frappes before heading out to the broken-down docks to smoke weed. We didn’t have that type of relationship anymore, and I knew it was my fault. And that kind of sucked even more.
