“Are you guys coming back in here?” Maverick hollers from the porch.
“Yeah, we’ll be right there,” Abby yells back. Her eyes are back on mine the instant the words leave her mouth. I know Riley is standing here, but with the intensity in our stare, it really feels like it is just the two of us.
“On that note, we should probably get inside,” Riley says, pulling on Abby’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Kane,” she says with that same smirk in place.
Abby gives in, following along behind her friend.
“Bye,” I mumble so quietly I’m sure she won’t hear me, but her head whips in my direction.
I can’t hear her, but her lips mimic the same word I just said to her.
Everything is quiet once they all disappear into the house. I try to figure out the source of Riley’s all-knowing look, but eventually, I give up. I guess if I’m supposed to know, it will hit me upside the head one of these days.
ABBY
“I think my retinas are going to burn off from staring at the two of you out there,” Riley says the second the front door closes. “There were sparks flying all over the place.”
I think maybe she’s done, but she continues. “Also…” Her eyes dart around, clearly looking for Mav, but he already snuck upstairs and into his room.
I can hear his favorite audiobook about snakes playing quietly through his closed door.
“He was eyeing you like you were a glass of cold water after a solo trek across the Sahara,” she adds.
I debate how much to tell her. There’s no way to deny the chemistry she clearly saw between us. I can’t even hide it from myself, so why would I be able to hide it from her?
“I slept with him three years ago,” I blurt out quietly.
Her head jerks back, eyes widening. “What? I thought they just moved to town.”
“They did, but… It’s a long story.”
She slides her coat off, tossing it on the dining room table. “Well… you’d better find a place for us to sit down, and you are going to start talking.”
I grab a glass of water for myself and make her a cup of tea. We plop down on opposite sides of the couch. I spill the entire story.
“Well, shit,” Riley says. “Look at you following in my footsteps.”
She and Cole had a summer fling years earlier, before she returned to town last year, and they started fresh—with Theo and Finn in the mix.
“Not really.” The main difference is that Kane and I are not going to find our happy ending, like she and Cole did. It just isn’t in the cards for us.
“Never say never,” she says, polishing off her cup of tea. “With chemistry like that, it’s hard to believe there isn’t more to come.”
I try to fight the sliver of hope her words wedge into my heart, but it takes hold anyway. If she only knew Kane isn’t the only guy I have that kind of chemistry with.
There are somehow three of them that make me feel things I never knew were possible.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Linc
“Get your ass in here,”a voice rings out from behind me. I turn to see Abby peeking her head out of her front door. “It’s starting to snow. Get in here.”
I’m freezing, and I will probably be soaked to the bone in no time at all. Leah’s safety is more important, though. “I’m fine,” I say, waving her off.
“Linc,” she growls. “Get your ass in here, or I’m going to march over there and get you. Please don’t make me do that. I don’t even have shoes on.”
“I can’t keep an eye on things if I’m in there.”
