“And who the hell are you to tell her that?” I countered.
He smirked. “Her older andwiserbrother.”
“Wiser about the subject of relationships when he’s never had one a day in his life,” Haley scoffed. “Make that make sense.”
“I don’t need to have had a relationship to know that all of the guys you date are fucking douchebags who don’t deserve the time of day from you, yet you can’t seem to help yourself when they throw a few pretty words in your direction.”
“Are you saying that as a big brother who actually believes that or a big brother who doesn’t thinkanyguy is good enough for his sister, no matter who they are?” I asked, my tone dripping with sarcasm because I already knew the answer.
“Both,” Wes spat.
I rolled my eyes. “Uh-huh.”
“I don’t even know how you got involved in this conversation,” he grumbled.
“You’rethe one who butted intoourconversation, not the other way around.”
Beside Wes, Gabe shook his head with a familiar exasperated grin as the two of us fell into one of our verbal sparring matches.
This was why it was so easy for us to hide the fact we were fucking from our friends. Because nothing about our dynamic had changed but that one aspect. He still got under my skin. I still pissed him off. We still argued for the sake of arguing. Weglowered and glared. We annoyed each other. But we also had sex from time to time. And they were none the wiser.
After trivia ended with us coming in first place, Haley took off, and Gabe and Wes went to play a game of pool. As I finished my drink, a thought crossed my mind. I glanced over to see Lucas smirking as he whispered something in Callie’s ear that had her blushing and giggling. I’d vomit on the spot if she wasn’t my best friend, and they weren’t so fucking cute.
“I hate to interrupt this disgustingly adorable public display of affection between you two…but, Lucas, I need a word.”
Lucas chuckled as he pulled away from Callie’s ear, and they both looked at me with lovesick grins. “Yes?” he asked.
“I demand to have Callie to myself on Friday night.”
He arched his brow with a smirk. “That so?”
“Yes,” I answered matter-of-factly. “You’ve beenhoggingher, and we’re long overdue for a girls’ night.”
“Yeah?” He leaned back in his chair and draped his arm over the back of Callie’s as he tilted his head with a grin. “And what’s in it for me?” I leveled him with a glare and an arch of my brow. “I was only joking. Calm down. If she wants to have a girls’ night, she certainly doesn’t need my permission.”
I nodded. “I knew I liked you.”
“Have at it,” he said with a smile before twirling a strand of her blonde hair around his finger. “But she’s coming home with me Saturday.”
I rolled my eyes with a good-natured grin. “Deal.”
Callie chuckled as she looked between us. “You two certainly know how to make a girl feel wanted and loved.”
I watched Lucas turn his head to look at her again and saw the way his eyes softened when they met hers…and something inside my chest tightened before I quickly forced it away.
It wasn’t that I was jealous—jealous wasn’t the right word. More like…envious. I was incredibly happy for Callie and Lucas. Truly, I was. After everything she’d been through, Callie deserved that happiness more than any person I knew. But watching their epic second-chance love story play out before my very eyes was just another reminder of something I wanted but didn’t have—that I’dneverhad.
And something about that moment felt like a sudden sign that I’d been right. That all-consuming kind of love they shared, that others in my life had…it just wasn’t meant for me.
At that point, I just needed to learn to accept it.
Friday afternoon, Callie and I walked inside her house carrying copious amounts of bags—mostly full of junk food—for our girls’ night. We raided the snack aisle at the grocery store, and then I made a pit stop at the bakery on our way back. Because it was no longer just a simple girls’ night.
I left work early and headed over to her place to pick her up and go to the store to load up on snacks. I didn’t expect to find herrunningdown the street a few blocks over from her house; I had to look around to make sure she wasn’t being chased because that was theonlyreason I could fathom her running at all.
I knew something was up, and when she got in my car and we started down the street, she told me she’d been running to clear her head. Then, she dropped the best bombshell on me. She made the decision that she was staying in Bayport.
I was so excited that I nearly gave Callie whiplash and almostcrashed my car. And our night went from a regular girls’ night to a whole-ass celebration.
