She nodded. “You can watch the rehearsal if you want.”
“I’m not going to get interrogated by your family?”
She laughed. “I mean, they might be a little bit interested that you’re here. Considering I’ve never … Well, you know. I’ve never brought a man home before. Though they don’t know why.”
“So your family doesn’t know that you …”
“Oh, no. That’s horrifying. Can you imagine?”
“I don’t know. I just … It’s not like we talked about it in my family, but I guess assumptions are made past a certain point.”
“Exactly,” she said, her syllables crisp. “Assumptions are made past a certain point. And I have quite the reputation.”
“You mentioned last night that you were happy to let men all lie about it. But they know they’re lying.”
“Sure. But they don’t all know that the other guy is lying. They think everyone but them is telling the truth. That’s how ridiculous rumors grow. And that’s how my whole reputation grew.”
“Why didn’t it bother you?”
“I get it. I’m supposed to be bothered by it because I’m a woman, and there’s all kinds of slut-shaming undertones to talk like that usually. But the version of myself that I’ve always been in public is so much braver than I am. And I think part of me liked that. To imagine that there was a version of myself who could do all those things.”
He sort of understood that. Because it was a lot like the way he had split himself apart to try to fit into two very different families. To try to hurt different people.
It was easy to lose yourself when you did stuff like that. But that was something he wasn’t ready to talk about. And maybe it was best if neither of them said it.
“Can I have some coffee?” she asked. She looked soft. And he wanted to kiss her. Instead, he just turned and got her a mug, poured her a cup.
She curled her fingers around it and started drinking slowly. “Thank you.”
“It’s your house. Your coffee.”
“I know. But you made it for me. Nobody’s ever done that.”
Of course they hadn’t. He hadn’t spent the night with a woman before, and she hadn’t spent the night with a man. Except they’d had a literal sleepover a couple of weeks ago now, and he had made her coffee then. For some reason, the memory made his heart feel just a little bit tender.
“You know, adult life isn’t middle school. You don’t have to pretend.”
She took a sip of her coffee. “We both know that isn’t true. Look at how hard Austin worked to be taken seriously. To get people to recognize what a good guy he is. This town is absolutely still middle school. In a lot of ways.”
“I guess so. But maybe it’s time that other people were ashamed about it, instead of us.”
“I guess that’s kind of the whole point of all this, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.” He let a beat pass. “Except, what happened last night wasn’t about that. I just want to be clear. It wasn’t about making anyone jealous. It wasn’t about the campaign. It was just about us.”
“You know, I know that. Because, actually, what I know about you is that you’re a pretty decent man, Flynn. Regardless of what they say.”
“And what is it they say?”
“That you’re an outlaw.”
“Well. Both things can be true,” he said. “I can be an outlaw and a pretty good guy.”
She ducked her head, and he could see that she was blushing. He wanted to have her again, but he didn’t know the protocol with virgins, and he suspected he should probably give her body a break.
“This is going to happen again,” he said.
“Totally,” she agreed easily. “There’s no way the two of us can keep spending time together like this and not do that again. It was great. Sorry for not saying that already.”
