I bit back a smile at the creative analogy. It was quite accurate if I was being honest.
“A bath? Really? Dickweasel,” Shiloh muttered utter her breath, but I could see her fighting a laugh.
“See? See?” Cole pointed animatedly at Shiloh, looking between all of our faces. “You just proved my point. Your potty mouth could certainly use a bath.”
Jae laughed and nodded in agreement.
“To answer your question, yes. She’s always had claws. And I was definitely afraid of her when we first met. I think the first words out of her mouth were calling me a fucktrumpet…or maybe it was fuckwit?”
“Seriously?” Lottie asked with shock. “She cussed you out the first time you met her?”
Jae and I shared a look and shrugged.
“It wasn’t personal,” I said, smiling at Shiloh. “That’s just…Emory.”
“No way,” Lottie shook her head. “I thought she was like, sorry, but really uptight and prudish. I thought we were the ones to corrupt her. I mean, she didn’t even say ‘shit’ for, like, I don’t know, maybe six months after we finally started hanging out.”
My jaw dropped. I looked between her group of friends and Shiloh for a moment.
“Wow. I dunno what to say to that. I mean, that’s just not the Emory we knew,” I said with an awkward chuckle.
Everyone looked to Shiloh for answers, and I squeezed her thigh, feeling her muscles tense beneath my fingers.
Thankfully Jae spoke up. “Anyways…if it weren’t for this guy and his love-at-first-sight crush, I wouldn’t have ever stuckaround to find out that she’s actually only as scary as a three-legged chihuahua.”
I could tell that her friends were a little confused as to why Shiloh had been so reserved and shy with them, and not with Jae and me. And I couldn’t blame them. It was definitely strange to think that my Shiloh had been so docile when she met this group of friends. My stomach soured at the thought of what made her act that way. Had it been a result of her time in the gang? Or was she simply scared and hiding, new to WITSEC and just trying to survive?
If they didn’t know that Shiloh spoke so colorfully, what else didn’t they know about her true personality? How much of herself was she allowing to show as Emory?
“Can we please fucking stop with the stray animal comparisons?”
Shiloh punched Jae straight in the stomach. He keeled over dramatically.
“Shut up, shitlicker. You’ve got a whole-ass twelve-pack. I know that shit didn’t hurt.”
“And how would you know that?” Jae smirked, sitting up right to feign a yawn as he not-so-subtly raised his shirt, exposing his cut abs.
“Howdoyou know that?” Cole asked curiously.
“He’s allergic to shirts,” Shiloh said with an eyeroll.
“I can do as I please when I walk around my own home, thank you very much. You don’t have to look,” Jae snarked, struggling to not laugh.
“Don’t make me go for the throat again,” she said, brow raised in challenge.
Jae quickly sobered, slapping his hand protectively over his throat.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t hurt me,” he whined.
Shiloh sat back, smiling softly as she squeezed my hand and motioned towards the scoreboard. It was my turn. I stood up, earning a stinging slap on the ass from Shiloh that had me turning around to pin her with an unserious glare. I guessed some PDA wasn’t off the table. I flicked her nose, and she smirked, wishing me luck. I chuckled and nervously wiped my hands on my jeans before selecting a ball from the ball return table.
Of-fucking-course my first attempt ended up in the gutter. I was forced to turn around and face the crowd.
“Maybe I should get the bumpers?” I joked, trying to ease the nerves I was feeling. Why the hell did I suddenly care if I was good at bowling?
Thankfully that earned me some laughs and Hannah lamented that she probably needed them too. I managed to get the ball further down the lane this time, but it still ended up in the gutter. I returned to my seat with a sigh, Shiloh leaning in to whisper into my ear.
“A for effort, baby.”
