Sean remained stiff in his seat until we were clear of the city and across the border into Wisconsin. Then, he cautiously placed his hand on my knee. I smiled as I covered it with my own, savoring the warmth of his skin.
“Missed you,” I whispered, literally biting my tongue at the responding giggle from the back seat.
“Abi, do you want me to drop you off at Mom and Dad’s and pick you up tomorrow morning?” Sean asked.
“Can’t I stay at your place since all of my stuff is there?” she asked tentatively. I groaned, wondering if we’d ever have a chance to be alone. “Or not.”
I turned to face her, sincerely feeling like a tool. “Abi, it’s nothing against you. I’m in a crappy mood and I have some shit I really need to talk to your brother about.”
“No, I get it. I can probably call Amy and stay at her place.” The bubbly, light-hearted girl from earlier was gone and I wondered what was going on in her world.
“No, it’s cool with me if you’re home as long as your brother’s good with it.” I looked over to Sean, hoping I hadn’t crossed a line. He didn’t look thrilled, but I knew he wasn’t going to tell her no. He very rarely did.
“You have to stay in the basement for tonight,” he informed her. I hoped that was because he didn’t want a repeat of when my dad overheard us. Because Ireallywanted an encore of what we were doing when that happened, maybe even more.
“Really, I don’t want to be an imposition. I’m sure you two have a lot todiscuss.” She tittered through the words, assuming my excuse about needing to talk to him was code for wanting to fuck like rabbits.
“Abi, when you’re a big girl, you’ll understand that sometimes two people talking means they’re going to use their words,” I teased. I wasn’t close to most of his family, but Abi was the little sister I never had and I had a lot of taunting to catch up on. “Seriously, it won’t be a big deal.”
“You know, one of these days I’m not going to sit here and take your shit, Mason,” she retorted. “Until then, you’ll keep getting a free pass because you’re cute and my brother likes you.”
“Abi!” Sean barked.
“Really? You’re going to get all pissy about me saying something when you were sitting there groping his leg a few minutes ago?” God, this girl didn’t hold back at all. It was refreshing. “FYI, Mason, Sean thinks you’re pretty damn cute, which I’ve been telling him for years. You twist him up in knots, but I think I’ve helped him get his head out of his ass.”
“Abigail Marie!” Sean shouted. I reached for his hand, pressing my lips together to keep from laughing.
“Good to know, Abi,” I responded. “I might have to get your number in case he gets all weird on me.”
It still bothered me that a small part of him still thought this was nothing more than an experiment for me. Yes, that was partly my own fault since I’d never told him that I was bi, but it hurt that he thought I’d risk our friendship if I wasn’t at least somewhat certain that we’d be good together.
“Mason!” Sean scolded. Oh, this was going to be fun. I leaned over to kiss his cheek. He pushed me away, and I squeezed his hand tight, placing it on my lap.
“Oh, come on. If you already spilled the beans, there’s not much point in being all reserved and shit.”
He shook his head and kept his focus on the road. It seemed he’d wisely realized there was no way he was going to win now that Abi and I had teamed up against him. My partner in crime dozed in the back seat, leaving us a chance to talk.
“So, what’s the prognosis?” Sean asked, looking at the brace on my right hand. I didn’twantto talk about this, but figured the sooner I got it out of the way, the sooner we could move on to more pleasant topics.
“Well, without boring you to death, they think it’ll be fine. I’m going to have to either drive back and forth or stay at my place most of the time because we’re going to start working on some exercises tomorrow morning,” I said. I didn’t tell him that I was trying to avoid taking my pain pills or that it hurt like a bitch.
“Fifteen days going to be enough to get you back out there?” he asked.
“Should be. And it’ll only be about a week after that and we’ll have the break, so then I’ll be able to rest it for a few days,” I told him.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Abi was sound asleep in the back seat. I watched her for a few seconds to make sure she wasn’t faking so she could eavesdrop on our conversation. “So, don’t take this the wrong way, but what’s up with the tagalong?”
Sean’s brow creased as he looked in the rearview mirror. The two of them were the closest of the siblings despite their eleven-year age difference, and I could tell he was worried about her. “She won’t tell me what’s going on, but she’s been off for about two months now. When I stopped by the house to get changed and wait for it to be time to leave tonight, she was clingy and asked if she could come with me.”
“And she gave you the pouty face and you caved, right?” I teased.
“Pretty much. Honestly, I’m hoping maybe she’ll talk to you, because she sure as hell won’t open up to me,” he huffed. That didn’t sound like Abi at all. They were as close as brother and sister, especially since she was so much younger. The fact that I was his only hope of finding out what was going on with her was disconcerting.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised him. “But not tonight. I have to get back tomorrow, so I plan on spending every possible minute with you tonight.”
“Look at you, getting all sappy,” he chided. He looked to me and my cock twitched at the heated look in his eyes. “Just so you know, that talking you said you wanted to do is also going to wait. I have plans of my own, and none of them require conversation.”
If we were alone in the car, I would have gotten a head start on Sean’s unspoken promises, but thanks to his lack of foresight, that’d have to wait a bit longer.
