I can’t comment on the situation I saw between her sister and this Ty guy. I can tell there’s a whole lot of history there I have no idea about. As we pull up in front of the address she gave me, a big, refurbished apartment complex just around the corner from the famous painted ladies, I put the car in park and turn in my seat to face her.
“How about this?” I say and reach for her hand, slowly, deliberately lacing our fingers together. “I’ll let you know the second that you being an incredible sister, loving daughter, or dedicated nurse starts annoying me, and you can dump me on my ass. Sound good?”
She blinks. “I mean, I’m not going to be able to—”
I lean forward and silence her with a kiss. “I know what you’re going to say. You’re not going to be around every time I feel like seeing you. You’re not going to be able to just impetuously spend the night at my place or whatever. But that’s okay. I’ve got my own stuff to deal with. This isn’t going to be easy, I know that. But I don’t want something that’s easy, Sadie. I want something that’s worth it.”
I watch her expression as my words sink in. The worry creasing her brow seems to dissolve, and her lips start to turn up in that incredibly sexy little smirk she does so damn well. Her arm slides around my neck, and she pulls me in for a scorching kiss. And while her tongue slides into my open mouth, she crawls over and into my lap. She is the same way she was from the first kiss—uninhibited and intense. And I react the same way I did before—but getting incredibly turned on and instantly hard. I palm her ass and rub myself against her core. She rolls her hips in rhythm with me.
I groan.
“I just wanted to show you, I’ll be worth it,” she whispers against my cheek after she breaks the kiss. Then she reaches for the door handle, and before I can stop her—because, damn, do I want to stop her—she’s out of the car and walking to the front door of the building, roses in hand, and swinging her perfect ass in a way that is doing nothing to stop my blood from heading south.
I wait until the door closes behind her and I can no longer see her through the glass of the front door, and then I text her before I pull away from the curb.
I’ll pick you up tomorrow at four. Dress casual and bring your toothbrush.
I drive toward the marina, but I’m too restless to just go home, so I call Hunter through the car app. “Where are you?” I ask when he answers, because it sounds loud.
“At a thing,” he replies vaguely.
“What thing?” Hunter has never been the clubbing type, even when we were in college.
“I’m checking something out with Mia,” he says, being just as vague as before.
“Sounds like a club,” I tell him, and the sound starts to get more distant. I hear a clang, and then the sounds disappear completely. “Since when do you two go clubbing?”
“Can you meet us?”
Why is he not answering my questions? And why does he sound so tense?
“I was actually calling to see if you two wanted to hang out,” I reply. “Where are you? I’ll meet you.”
“Actually, meet us at our place, okay?”
“On my way.” I end the call and drive straight to their place. They live near Golden Gate Park, which means I have to take a million surface streets to get there and traffic is insane. The longer it takes, the more I agitated I get. I don’t like the way Hunter evaded every question I asked him. It’s not like him at all. Neither is the clipped, tight tone he was using. He’s always laid back.
Both Hunter and Mia are standing outside their building when I get there. Hunter stands, and Mia runs over and hugs me. Something is very, very wrong. Hunter doesn’t make me wait to find out. “While you were on your road trip and Charlie came to visit us, we took her to the dog park,” he begins, and my blood already starts to run cold. “She was telling us how nervous she was to go to a new school next year.”
“What?” I’m scrambling to make sense of that. “She’s not going to a new school. She’s in this one until grade six. Lauren and I looked at every school in the area, and this one is the best and she loves it.”
“We were confused too, so we asked her about it,” Mia pipes up, her brown eyes clouded with concern. “She said that Lauren said they might be moving.”
“What the fuck is she talking about?” I blurt out. I’ve been really good at curbing my swearing, because I’m worried I’ll do it in front of Charlie. But this is swear-worthy. “Is Lauren in-fucking-sane?”
“I think this explains her play for custody,” Hunter says, and I feel like the ground under me has given away and is crumbling. Everything is crumbling.
“Is she moving in with that loser musician? Where? Why would she leave Marin? It was her idea to live there to begin with.” None of this makes any sense.
Hunter rubs the back of his neck and gets this uncomfortable look on his face. He clears his throat. “See, we didn’t want to stress you out until we knew more, and Mia thought maybe if she talked to Lauren, on neutral turf somewhere…They still get along. Mostly.”
“I mean not anymore,” Mia mutters. “Not if she does this.”
“I’m confused. I’m about to punch something, so can you two explain? Please,” I beg through gritted teeth, my hands clenched at my side.
“When we dropped Charlie back at Lauren’s, Mia tried to find out a little more. But all Lauren wanted to talk about was that loser boyfriend of hers and this gig he had coming up that she was excited to go to,” Mia explains, running a hand through her black hair.
“You know I’ve always though this custody crap had something to do with him,” Hunter interjects. Suddenly the inside of my mouth feels like it’s filled with sawdust. “So we decided to check out one of his shows ourselves.”
