“Avery…shush,” I advise quietly as a mother with a stroller glances up, horrified, from the sidewalk across the street. He glances up, the amber in his eyes darkening as he holds up his phone toward me, gripping it in his fist so his knuckles are white.
“I don’t run my social media,” he explains to me. “I don’t even know the password, so I promise you I didn’t post any photos of her and me. Ever.”
“Who runs it?”
“My sister.” He turns the phone around in his hand, fingers moving briskly across the screen as he closes Instagram and starts to dial a number. “My father insisted I get on social media, so I hired her to run the account. She’s supposed to post generic but personal shots of me.”
He starts marching down the street, phone pressed to his ear. “That beach photo isn’t recent. It’s from this summer in Dieppe.”
He’s furious, but I’m relieved. His sister must answer the phone because suddenly he barks. “Kate? What the fuck are you posting on my Instagram?”
I slow my pace, so I’m behind him a little, giving him some privacy to yell at his sister. I can hear most of the conversation, though. He’s really angry, and whatever she says just seems to be getting him angrier. “I gave you direction when I gave you control of the account. You were supposed to follow what I said, not what he says!”
He stops in front of our places but doesn’t move to climb the stairs to his house or mine. He just stands rooted on the sidewalk, rigid like an angry tree. “Give me the password. I’ll post some stuff on my own. If you post one more picture of Lizzie, I will fire your ass.”
He listens to her for a second, and then seems to hang up on her without a good-bye. He turns back to me, but his eyes are on the phone, and his fingers tap away on the screen. He mutters, half distracted, “Come here.”
I step closer and suddenly he wraps his arm around my shoulder and nuzzles my neck. “Smile, beautiful.”
With his arm out in front of us he snaps a picture. “What are you doing? You can’t post that!”
He looks shocked. “Why not?”
“You know I haven’t told Seb,” I remind him. “I thought we were keeping this to ourselves for a while.”
He smiles softly and turns me to face him, his arm slipping to my waist and holding me flush against him. He’s all hard muscle wrapped in soft, warm cotton. I push his hood down as my hands slide around his neck. “About that. We should tell him.”
“I know. It’s just…” I pause and let my fingers play with the ends of his dark hair and the base of his neck. “When the world knows, it’ll start to get complicated.”
“It will, but it’ll be worth it,” he whispers, and his hand slips from my lower back to my ass, sliding over the smooth spandex and grabbing on as his lips cover mine.
I kiss him back with more passion than I think I ever have before, because it will be my last kiss before I tell him about my past and in some deep, dark place in my heart I’m worried it’ll be our last kiss, ever. I open my mouth and slip my tongue past his lips. He meets mine and his hand on my ass squeezes and pulls me roughly against him.
It’s a Saturday morning and the neighborhood is just waking up. Anyone could bear witness to this passionate display of PDA, but I don’t care. I want to savor this moment, his lips, the feel of his tongue, the heat of his body. I take my time, absorbing every sensation, and as soon as the kiss breaks, leaving me breathless and wanting, I regret every second of it. Because my brother is standing on my porch staring at us.
Avery doesn’t see him, but as my whole body tightens instantly, he follows my gaze. His hand flies off my ass and he steps away so suddenly I almost tip over. I hadn’t realized I was using him for support. Sebastian isn’t moving, isn’t speaking, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what has got his light blue eyes blazing. Anger? Shock? Both?
I run up the steps and throw myself at him. “Hey! I didn’t know you were going to stop by!”
I’m not so much hugging him as trying to anchor him to the porch, in case his plan is to fly off it and attack Avery like an overprotective goon. Avery is either brave or stupid because we walks up the path to the stairs, bringing himself precariously close to the wild animal that is my brother. “Hey, Deveau. What’s in the bag?”
I look down and notice for the first time that Seb’s holding a paper bag with grease stains on it. “The severed head of the last guy I caught kissing my sister.”
“Sebastian!” I flush so quickly I almost feel light-headed.
Avery doesn’t even twitch. “I had no idea that severed heads smelled like bacon.”
Sebastian doesn’t even crack the slightest hint of a smile. “Breakfast burritos for my sister and me. Sorry, none for you.”
Avery remains unfazed as he climbs the steps to his own porch. I grab my brother’s hand by the wrist. I couldn’t hold him back if I wanted to, but I’m hoping the gentle squeeze of my hand will be enough to make him realize I don’t want him to jump the railing and murder my boyfriend.
“That’s okay. I have to meet my dad for a breakfast meeting anyway.” He turns his beautiful face to me. “I’ll call you later.”
I nod because I seem to be unable to make words come out. Avery disappears into his house and I quickly unlock the door to mine. Sebastian follows me inside and shuts the door a little too forcefully. It rattles the pictures on the wall next to it. I frown as I call out Maddie’s name and toe off my running shoes. There’s no response. I turn to Sebastian.
“She must have stayed at Ty’s.”
Sebastian strides down the hall and into the kitchen. With each wordless step my anxiety grows. He’s never silent. Sebastian is a talker. He has all the best smartass lines on the ice and all the most thoughtful insights for friends and family. So silence is scary. I follow him and watch as he opens the bag and hands me a breakfast burrito wrapped in foil. “They’re from the gourmet shop by my hotel. Organic everything, and they still taste great.”
