Ashley fell back on the bed next to me, kind of panting. “Guys like what?”
“You know. So… good-looking.”
He laughed. “Well, I feel for your sister, then. On account of all the pretty dudes she’s hooked up with who were shit at sex. But I’ve been with plenty of great-looking guys who were great at sex, so…”
“Wow.” I stared at the ceiling for a moment, just trying to wrap my head around what he’d just said. “This is cool. Like… I feel like I can talk to you about boys.”
He snickered. “You can.”
I looked over at him. He was staring at me, deep in thought.
“No, wait,” he said, his eyebrows knitting together. “Other people can. You…? I really don’t wanna hear about you with other guys.”
“It would be past tense.”
He rolled close to me and leaned on his elbow, looking down at my face. “Yeah. Don’t care. We’re not doing that.” Then he kissed me softly.
“Um. In the last twenty-four hours, you’ve told me a whole shitload of details about you and other guys. And girls.”
“I know. I’m an asshole. And a hypocrite. Sorry,” he said, like he wasn’t sorry at all.
I laughed, then kind of sighed.
He smoothed my hair back from my face. “Should I stop talking about it?”
“No. I’m brave. I’ll listen.”
“Thank you for putting up with my shit.” He gave me another slow kiss, then flopped back, stretching out beside me. “I’m working on it.”
“Aren’t we all.”
I felt him staring at me and turned my head to look at him.
“Why do you put up withhershit?” he asked me.
“Who’s shit?”
“Your sister’s.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. Sure, I put up with a lot of shit from my sister. She put up with shit from me, too. That was pretty much what it meant to be twins, in my experience.
I just hadn’t realized he’d picked up on that fact, exactly.
“I mean,” he said, “why were you gonna let her have me when you wanted me for yourself?”
“Oh…”
“You were totally going to, weren’t you? If she said she wanted me.” His blue eyes held mine, daring me to lie.
“Maybe.”
“Danica. Christ.”
“Sorry,” I said softly. I felt like such a dick admitting it to him.
“You seriously would’ve done that? Just walked away and let her have me?”
“Honestly…” I said, “I don’t know. We have a rule, you know? Sisterhood. She had first dibs. That tattoo you got kinda clinched it, Ashley.”
