“How’s painting going?” I ask, picking a relatively safe topic as I pull back onto the highway, but apparently Kaitlyn hates me.
“Good. I think I’ve finally figured out how to get better at painting you,” she says easily, as if she didn’t just drop a bomb threatening to shred my willpower.
“Fuck, Kait,” I swear under my breath, dragging a hand over my jaw, and she has the nerve to laugh.
“What?”
I glance over at her, and Kaitlyn’s just watching me as if she doesn’t have a fucking clue what she does to me. “Nothing,” I say, hating every second my pants grow tighter.
“No funny comments about offering to pose for me?” she teases, and I think I might be dying.
“Nope.”
I clench my jaw, trying to think of anything other than Kaitlyn caring about me enough to paint me once, let alone practice to get better, or how I volunteered to pose naked for her last time. Basically, I’m a fucking idiot, and now I have to deal with the consequences and hope she doesn’t notice.
“Are you okay?” she asks, and it sounds like she’s trying not to laugh.
“Of course I’m okay. I’m here with you,” I say, knowing that despite how uncomfortable I am right now, there’s still nowhere else I’d rather be than next to her, even if we’re evacuating from a hurricane.
It makes me feel better when I notice Kaitlyn appears as flustered as I am.
Right now it’s just a waiting game to see how hard the coast is hit, but the biggest problem we’ll face here is power lines being taken out with the winds. Since Mirabelle’s house sits next to a lake, it’s also in a flood zone.
I’m not worried, but I know better than to tell the woman who’s seven months pregnant she’s overreacting in her storm prep. I’d understand her freaking out if we stayed at the beach house, but we spent hours in the evacuation traffic for a reason.
Javi pops into view, moving slowly down the stairs to where I’m carrying an abundance of blankets up the stairs per Mirabelle’s request. “Are those to build a fort?” he asks, his smile growing, and I can’t think of a better reason to need this many of them.
“Why don’t you ask Mira?” I suggest, adjusting my grip on the bulky blankets in my arms. They’re just awkward to carry from how big some of them are.
“Thanks, B!” he calls out, climbing the stairs again.
When we first got here, Mirabelle told me Javi asked how many people lived here, and how his eyes bugged out when she said it was just her and Henry. I tried not to laugh when he asked me if Mirabelle was a princess because she lives in a castle, but I can’t blame him. The house—if you can even call it that—is huge.
After I set the blankets down in one of the guestbedrooms, I find Mirabelle in the primary bathroom, filling up the bathtub with water. “Should you be doing that?” I ask, leaning against the door frame.
“I’m pregnant—not helpless.” She turns to glare at me, and I put my hands up in defense.
“I know you’re not, but I’m only asking because I thought you’d be busier plotting how to fake going into labor to somehow trick Kaitlyn and me into getting together,” I say, and her mouth falls open for a moment before she snaps it back into place.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re right. I can’t imagine anyone feeling the need to do something so crazy,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest as I raise my eyebrows to wait for her response.
“I mean, if I did know what you were talking about, I would say it’s not that crazy if they were hypothetically wondering if a certain brunette might make another someone happy?”
Being with Kait would make me happy, and I think it’d make her happy too.
But it’s not just about us.
“It would,” I agree, rolling my shoulders to try loosening some of the tension in them. “It’s complicated. You shouldn’t involve yourself, Mira. Don’t forget about Hunter.”
“I didn’t say I was involving myself, I only asked if it would make you happy. I haven’t forgotten about him, but I think there’s a lot more to the story than the rest of us know,” she says, tilting her chin up in clear defiance. “Am I wrong?”
I look away, unable to even try lying to her face, but I don’t want her to be upset with him. I know better than anyone what it’s like to lose Kaitlyn. I love her for caring about my happiness, but I don’t want a mistake Hunter made years ago to take anyone else away from him.
“B, I hope you know you can talk to me about anything.I’ve always been here, regardless of the things you hold against me. I’m your sister, and I love you—always.”
“I love you too,” I murmur, unsure of what else to say. “If it’s meant to be, then it’ll be. You don’t need to meddle.”
