I take a seat in one of the Adirondack chairs around the blazing fire, watching the embers dance in the stone circle.
She hands me a glass and brings hers to her lips as she takes the chair next to mine. “So, wanna tell me what happened that made you send out a distress signal at eight o’clock on a Thursday?”
I wince, pinching my lips together. “Shit. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Girl, that’s not at all what I meant. It’s just that you’ve never texted me this late, and it’s usually book club-related. To be honest, I’m glad you reached out. If I’m not doing mommy duty, I’m surrounded by men. It’s exhausting.”
“How are the girls?”
“They’re great, and you’re deflecting. Tell me what happened.”
I take a long sip of my wine and let the bittersweet flavor linger on my tongue. I hadn’t considered how I was going to explain the situation. This is Olivia’s brother-in-law we’re talking about. Do we know each other well enough to talk about these kinds of things?
A pang of sadness pierces me. This is the sort of thing sisters are for, but Clio didn’t stick around long enough to do all of the sisterly things, like give me any dating advice or swap clothes. I learned to do my own hair from an online tutorial, and I was woefully unprepared when I got my first period. I’ve felt her absence every day since she left. I still miss her, though I try not to think about it too much.
“It might be TMI,” I admit.
“We read filthy books and discuss our sex lives all the time.”
“True. But Jaxon’s your brother-in-law. Wouldn’t that be weird?”
Olivia splutters into her drink. “I knew it! You and Jaxon finally f?—”
I cut her off mid-sentence. “No! Well. Not exactly.”
Her face breaks into a wide grin, and she tops up both of our drinks. “Tell me everything.”
I’m not sure how I feel about the level of excitement radiating out of her right now, but I’m already in it. Might as well go all the way. “I saw Jaxon… God, no matter how I word it, it just sounds so indecent.”
“You caught Jaxon with his pants down?”
I nod from side to side and huff out a breath. “Technically, his pants were still on, he just… unzipped them.”
“Right. So, you caught him jacking off and then what?” Her matter-of-fact tone catches me off guard, but I don’t have time to dwell on it.
This is the part of the story that gets awkward.
“I might have… joined him from outside the room.”
“Damn. That’s kind of hot. Manual or assisted?”
Is she talking about sex toys?
“Manual… I guess.”
Olivia leans forward and drapes her arm across her lap like this is the juiciest gossip she’s ever heard. “Then what happened?”
“He caught me.”
“Did you at least finish?”
I roll my lips together and scrunch up my nose. “We both did. He said my name.”
Her mouth drops open on a silent squeal. “Said it or screamed it?”
This is way more detail than I was prepared to share. In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose. “More like… groaned it.”
She clinks her glass against mine. “Go, Callie. That man is obsessed with you.”
