Page 25 of Truly, Madly, Deeply

“You know.” Colin grinned. “In case things come to blows.”

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“You guys cool if we take five?” Caitlin rattled the ice in her otherwise empty coffee cup. “Truly? You want to do that weird thing girls do where we go to the bathroom together and listen to each other pee? I promise to tell you embarrassing stories about my brother.”

Colin yanked off his helmet. “You’re a menace.”

“That just might be the kindest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Caitlin pretended to wipe away a tear. “Truly?”

As tempting as the offer was...

“I’m good.” She held up her half-full coffee. “But rain check on those stories?”

“You got it.” Caitlin winked on her way out the door. “Don’t kill each other while I’m gone. It would be a bitch to get bloodstains out of this carpet.”

The studio door shut, leaving Truly alone with Colin.

“Sisters.” Colin sighed.

“Can’t live with them, can’t live without them?”

Colin looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. I once tried to surrender Caitlin to the fire department, so can’t say I didn’t try to live without her.”

She tugged off her helmet and set it down on the cushion beside her. “I thought Caitlin was kidding when she told me that.”

“Nah.” He grinned. “Guilty as charged.”

“Come on,” she cajoled. “Having a little sister must’ve had its perks. Occasional hero worship, at least.”

He laughed. “Let me guess—no younger siblings?”

“Only child,” she admitted.

“Ah.” He nodded. “Should’ve known.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hard to say.” He cocked his head, studying her. That squirmy feeling in her stomach returned, the one she got each time Colin stared at her. As if with every question she asked him, he managed to peel back another one of her layers. “I guess you just have that look about you.”

“Look about me?” She dared him to say something offensive. That she seemed spoiled or bossy or maladjusted or any of the other stereotypes she’d heard about only children. “What sort of look?”

“Like you’ve never known the pleasure of waking up to a spit-covered finger in your ear before? That look.”

She laughed, shoulders relaxing. She hadn’t woken up to that. Small favors. “That does sound disgusting.”

“You have no idea.”

“You have a brother, too? Older or younger?”

“Twin, actually.” He studied the dent at the back of his helmet. “Technically, I’m twelve minutes older. Last time I ever came first at anything.”

He laughed, passing it off as a joke, but Truly wasn’t an idiot.

Which was why she didn’t push. People didn’t often like to have their bruises pressed.

“And your parents? Do they live around here?”

“Sure. They still live over in Woodinville where I grew up.”

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