“Yep. So you got out of having to tell your roomie you’re sleeping with me. Lucas already told her.”
“How do you know I didn’t?”
“Did you?” Silence, then a small snort from him. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
A sigh from me. “What time, asshole?”
“Six. See you out front then. A dress would be nice.”
“I don’t do dresses.”
“Do one tonight.” Before I could argue, he disconnected.
Right as Lily walked in.
As we got ready for our—still so weird to think about—double date, I brought Lily up to speed. I was careful to downplay it, but she was staring at me pretty closely.
“So…you’re…”
“Sleeping together?” I finished for her. “Yes. A couple of weeks now. Really, it’s no big deal. Just casual hookups. Convenient, really, because of the whole Caro thing. We’ve both been spending so much time out there, who would I even get a chance to sleep with?”
She studied me, then shook her head and continued to apply her makeup as we shared the mirror in the bathroom. “That part is weird, too—Stick being a caregiver to Caroline Stratton.”
“It’s all weird. I’m just trying to…” I didn’t finish my thought, wasn’t really sure how to.Not fall in love with him? Keep my father happy? Give some peace to a woman I respect?
“What?” Lily asked, leaning close to the mirror to put on her mascara.
I was straightening my hair, something I hadn’t done in a long time, probably since fall semester. I hated that I was actually primping for this thing. And Ireallyhated that I had asked to borrow a dress from Lily.
I had a couple of my own, but they were funky, retro, gauzy things I’d picked up at a flea market in Baltimore last summer.
Tonight I wanted…armor, I guess. And looking like every other girl at Bribury was just what I needed.
When I didn’t answer Lily, she didn’t push. And she didn’t ask any more questions, just quietly finished getting ready, leaving the bathroom before me.
When I came out, a knit, wrap-style dress in a deep jade green was lying across my bed, with pumps placed beside it.
“Thanks,” I said, and she smiled at me, then started dressing. She was wearing a version of a Little Black Dress that hung on her lean, lithe body like the designer had intended.
Lily and I were the same height, same shoe size and, in some ways, the same clothing size. But where she was long and lean, toned from her swimming, I was curvy and lush (Stick’s word—I’m usually not as kind). The green dress technically fit, but it wasmuchmore body hugging than I typically wore.
“Wow,” Lily said when I zipped up the dress and stepped into the heels. “You look amazing.”
I waved her compliment away, then remembered Caro chastising me about taking a compliment during one of our many talks. “Thank you,” I said, smoothing my hands over my full hips, liking the feel of the material. “So do you,” I added. It was true. Lily was a beautiful girl. The simplicity of her black sheath, with her hair up and simple pearl post earrings—very striking.
She checked the time on her phone. “Ready?” she asked.
“I guess,” I said.
She smiled at me. “God, Jane, it’s just a dinner date, not a firing squad.”
“I know,” I said. And really, I wasn’t sure why I had this feeling of…dreadabout the whole evening.
As we rode the elevator down, it hit me. With Lily and Lucas in the know, with us going out to a public restaurant on an actual date… It wasrealwith Stick now.
No more only the two of us (and Caro and Dotty—they had to know what we were doing in the guesthouse…and the garage…and against the wall of the main house on our way to the guesthouse).
It wasn’t just our own little cocoon, snug as Yvette’s cockpit.
