I wrapped Caitlyn’s new ink and went over the aftercare instructions before collecting the payment. Luke walked in just as she was leaving, still in his police uniform from work.
“Hey, Lyds.” He grinned, plopping his arm over her shoulder and dragging her to his side.
“Ugh, get off me,” she complained, pushing at him to no avail. “What are you even doing here?”
“Seb asked me to come by,” he said.
“He did?” Lydia wasn’t looking at her brother but rather at me. Maybe I should have checked with Lydia first. That was probably the right thing to do, but I was just thinking about my own relationship with Luke when I asked him to comeby. I shot her a questioning look as Luke said something that neither of us was paying attention to.
“Well, I’ll let you boys chat, I guess.” She slipped out of Luke’s hold and shoulder-checked him, or shoulder-checked his sternum. He shoved her back playfully. My entire body tensed in a protective instinct. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were both smiling, I would have warned him away from putting his hands on her.
Like they didn’t grow up with living room wrestling matches and sibling roughhousing.
“I’ll see you at home?” I asked.
Lydia took a step toward me but decided against it, turning for the door instead. “Yup, you guys have fun.”
The door closed behind her, and I had to drag my eyes away from tracking her to her car.
Luke laughed. “That sounded so domestic, like something Letty and I would say.”
“Yeah, we’ve gotten pretty close since she’s been staying with me.” I thought I’d ease into it a bit, get Luke warmed up so that when I told him that I was dating his sister, it would seem like it was inevitable, since that’s how it felt.
“I’ve said it before, but thanks again for taking her in and looking out for her. I know she’s a grown adult, but I don’t think she was in a good place when she came home. She needed some time to get her bearings, but she seems like she’s doing a lot better now.”
“She is. Yeah.” I rubbed my hands on my jeans. “Listen, I want to talk to you about something.”
“If you want to know when she’ll be out of your hair so you can get back out there, I talked to Wyatt earlier today. Whit was able to fix the leak in the basement yesterday, andReid was going to finish up the construction work today. Wyatt wants to do a walk-through and clean some stuff out, but Lydia should be able to get back in there by the end of the week. So don’t worry about it. It’s almost done, man, I promise. Even if Wyatt’s place isn’t ready, Letty and I are closing on the house in eight days, and she can take our room at Reid and Claire’s house.”
“She isn’t going anywhere.” My words came out harsher than I expected. I had to talk myself down before I tried again. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” My lungs filled on a deep inhale. “Lydia and I… have gotten close these past few months together.”
Luke’s face paled, the barely contained fire in his eyes trying to set me alight.
“Don’t do it, Seb. Don’t go there,” he warned.
I rubbed my hands down my face, dragging them through my hair. I didn’t have a chance to say anything before he jumped to conclusions. Accurate conclusions, but still, I would have liked the chance to tell him how I felt.
“Are you fucking my sister?” he asked, a mixture of bewilderment and venom in his voice. I wasn’t sure what the bewilderment was for. Sure, she was his sister, and siblings didn’t exactly look at each other that way, but he had eyes. He had to know she was stunning.
Luke took a step toward me, and I raised my hands in front of me, fending him off. “It isn’t like that.” I’d fucked a lot of women. With Lydia, it was different. So much more. So much better.
“So, you’re not fucking my sister, but you want to?” he baited.
“I never said that either.”
“Then what the fuck are you saying, Seb? I trusted you with my baby sister. I asked you to look out for her. I told her she was safe with you, because I thought she was. You would never go there with Lydia. That would be ridiculous.”
“Why? Why would it be ridiculous that Lydia and I got together?”
His eyes flashed. “That or if?” He took another step toward me, and this time, I didn’t try to de-escalate. No, I was ready to escalate this to whatever he wanted it to be. My hands fisted by my side, ready to take a swing at my best friend if he didn’t watch his fucking mouth. “Tell the truth. Did you sleep with Lydia?”
“That’s none of your business,” I gritted out. “Lydia is a grown woman. You said so yourself, she can make her own choices. And right now, that choice is me.”
“You strike out at the bar a couple of times, so you pounce on the easy target under your roof. Is that what this is?”
“I didn’t pounce on anyone.” My blood was starting to boil, my muscles coiling like a snake ready to attack. “Lydia and I have having been spending a lot of time together and…”
“So, this is my fault for asking you to take her on at the shop? For thinking that you would be respectful enough to her, given our history, that she could trust you?”
