Sensing this wasn’t the time for flippancy, I said, ‘She’s at my house. She called me last night when she couldn’t get through to you.’
Another prolonged silence. ‘She calledyou.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you brought her to your house.’
‘Yes.’ I sighed. ‘Look, if you don’t believe me, come round and see for yourself.’
Wait.Was I really going to let this stranger know my address? I’d already broken my rule with Fallon… and this was her best friend. What was the harm? Apart from the fact that she sounded completely insane…
I reeled off my address before my common sense kicked in.
‘Oliver?’
‘You’re not gonna threaten me with more spiritual warfare, are you?’
She paused, ‘Thank you. I know how much it must have taken from her to call you when she was that afraid. So… yeah, thanks for not being a dick.’
The sudden serious tone made me falter. I cleared my throat. ‘I’m sure if I looked really hard, there was a compliment in there somewhere.’
‘Best not to look too hard then. I’d hate for you to be disappointed.’
Rosie hung up—leaving me with a smile pulling at my lips.
When I reentered the living room, the air was tense. George was crying out every time Fallon used a slick move and overtook him, which was fairly often, based on the enraged flush staining my brother's skin.
Predictably, Fallon’s blue car crossed over the finish line first, making George stand up and toss the controller onto the sofa. Fallon’s head tipped back as her laughter rang around out. A knot in my stomach tightened as I watched her.
‘I told you I was unbeatable,’ she said, doing a cute little dance—wiggling her butt on the sofa and waving her arms above her head.She was so fucking adorable.George narrowed his eyes at her, but I saw a flicker of begrudging respect behind his frustration.
Tearing my gaze from her, I patted him firmly on the back, sighing heavily. ‘It’s alright, bro. You can admit you’re getting on a bit. Mario Kart is a young person’s game.’
His eyelids turned to slits as he glared at me, shoving myarm off him. I laughed making my way to the sofa, settling down next to Fallon. Her face brightened for a split second as I got comfortable, before she cleared her throat and turned her focus back onto the screen.
‘I’m not getting fucking old.She’scheating.’
Fallon scoffed. ‘How am I cheating?’
George flung his arms out, searching for the words to explain how she’d consistently beaten him. ‘You’re…’
‘Yes?’ She tilted her head, waiting.
When he couldn’t find the right words, George exhaled a frustrated breath, ‘Screw this—I’m going to make a coffee,’ he said, marching back to the kitchen taking a detour and heading to the guest bathroom instead.
‘I’d ask him to make me one too, but I think that might be pushing my luck.’ Fallon muttered to me out of the corner of her mouth.
‘Doesn’t matter, I ran out of coffee.’
The look of pure horror on her face made me chuckle. ‘You’ve not even been here a day and you’ve cleaned me out.’
She sniffed indignantly. ‘I don’t drinkthatmuch.’
I shot her a look that clearly said I was calling her on her bullshit.
‘Don’t worry about him though, he’s always been a baby when he loses.’ I picked up the discarded controller and flicked through the menu.
Feeling Fallon’s gaze on me, I turned my head to the side, finding her staring at me with a baffled look.
