“I should… I’m going to check on her while you’re cooking,” I say.
“Bring her to breakfast,” Tina says as I start through the door.
“Oh, god, no,” I say with a laugh, though I feel myself panicking as I say it.
I have no fucking clue how to get Andi out of this room.
The entire walk back to the pool house, I can feel the Matthews watching me as if they think the girl I brought back will just walk out and greet me. I notice that the white curtains are drawn across the double doors, and I’m curious if Andi got out of bed to do that in the last fifteen minutes.
She’s hiding behind the door when I close it, her eyes wide.
“Are they both up?” she asks.
“Ah… unfortunately,” I answer. My gaze wanders over her, noticing she’s wearing one of my t-shirts and nothing else. My brows raise. “Good morning to me,” I mumble before grabbing her by the hem of her shirt and hauling her into me.
My heart flees when I feel her smile against my lips. I wrap my arms around her waist, holding her tight as I bend her backward, and her arms slink around my neck to secure herself.
Kissing her makes me weaker than anything else.
“I have no idea how to sneak you out of here,” I tell her once we part, my hands wandering to her bare ass. “I let us sleep too late.”
“Can you distract Tina?” she asks.
“They know I have a girl in here,” I say. I point to my collar where her lipstick lingers, and her eyes widen.
"Also forgot to wear my mask out of here," I add. "So, they know whoever I have here has seen my face."
“Well. Fuck. Um…” She takes a step back and pushes her hair off her face. “James?”
“What about him?”
“I can pull my hair back and into one of your hoodies, get in the car with him like he’s taking me home, and he can drop me off down the street?” she suggests.
It’s not a half-bad plan.
“What will they say when they see you walking down the road back?” I ask.
“I’ll… I’ll tell them I wanted a walk,” she says, though her voice doesn’t sound very confident.
I elevate my brow in a questioning matter, and she lifts her shoulders and hands.
“I don’t know what else... I mean, I don't normally go on a random walk in the mornings of October, but I can tell them I was doing witchy shit,” she says.
I snap and point my finger her way. “Now, that might actually work.”
She chuckles in the cutest way, the light in her eyes so different from the night before.
I'm still not over it.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She crosses the space between us again and entwines her fingers with mine, our palms meeting. “No,” she admits. “No, I think… Maybe I should have taken a walk this morning to get out of my head.”
I push her hair back, my jaw tightening upon seeing the scrape on her cheek. “Maybe we should muff this up a little bit and tell them you fell on the sidewalk this morning?”
“Oh, god,” she groans. She tips her head in her hand. “I have no idea. I can’t tell them what happened.”
“I know,” I agree, though I wish she would.
