“Would you like to have a sling?” I asked them as they frantically rubbed their faces under my chin and purred so hard their entire bodies vibrated.
I closed my eyes and just absorbed the sound. They could be little demons sometimes, but they had absolutely improved my life.
Lea finally wrote back just when I’d decided to abandon waiting for her and go make some dinner.
It’s an open class. You can do what you want, Vail. And I’m already on the hook for one favor. Good luck getting me to agree to anything else.
Why was my heart pounding reading that one little message? Why were my lips forming a goofy smile? Why did my body rush with giddiness?
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
I should absolutely not go to this Pilates class. I should avoid her until the wedding.
Easier said than done.
Chapter Seven
Lea
I wasn’t shockedthat she wanted to come to Pilates again, but it was kind of annoying. And confusing. She’d never wanted to hang out with me before. Were things different now that I was doing her a favor? It didn’t make sense.
James was absolutely no help.
“She’s into you. That’s the explanation.”
I rolled my eyes. “That is absolutely not true at all. I don’t even think she’s queer. I definitely saw her flirting with guys when we were younger.” At the time it had made me irrationally angry for some reason seeing her in the halls, leaning close to some guy and pretending he had something interesting to say.
From my experience, most of the guys in our school were so inflated by their family legacy and their wealth that they couldn’t talk about anything of substance. The only ones who were nice were bullied and shamed so badly that they walked around traumatized most of the time.
And I’d been coming to the conclusion that I had much more interest in girls anyway. Much,muchmore, but that was a secret I kept to myself for years. I’d sort of told my dad, but I didn’t think it had sunk in. If I ever dated anyone, I didn’t really talk to him about it, and I’d never introduced a woman to him. Didn’t see the point.
“Lea? You still with me?” James snapped her fingers.
“Right, sorry.”
I was hanging out in the kitchen with her as she poured drinks and put slices of pizza we’d ordered on plates. Delaney was working hard on a massive T-shirt order she’d gotten for an event, so she was busy working the T-shirt press that clanked in the corner of the living room.
We’d asked if we could help, but she’d waved us off so now we were going to force her to stop working and eat something.
“Baby! Time for a break,” James announced, and Delaney turned to us with bleary eyes.
“Sit. Eat. You can finish later.”
Delaney tried to protest, but not too hard when James pushed her toward the couch and set a plate of pizza in her hands.
It took her a few bites to come back from where she’d been in work mode, but she finally did.
“Oh my god, I’m tired,” she said, leaning back on the couch. “I didn’t realize until I stopped.”
“You can have some pizza and you can have a nap and I’m not talking any argument,” James said, her tone stern.
Delaney opened her mouth to argue, but James kissed her instead. Fuck, they were cute as hell. I could hardly stand it.
Delaney finished her pizza and did go off for a nap, so James and I stayed up and watched TV with a tub of Dubai chocolate ice cream between us.
“This is one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth,” I said.
James wiggled her eyebrows. “Is it?”
