Page 28 of Butterfly Effect

“She’s my best friend. Of course, she’s seen it.”

I have a hard time holding back my surprise. It’s embarrassingly tinged with jealousy. “You slept with her?”

“Ew, no!” Wade gurgles out a vomiting noise and shudders. “She’s like my sister. I had a hernia when I was seventeen and didn’t know what was going on, so she took a peek and helped me out.”

Fine. I can’t let him have the point so easily.

“Indi was in there, too,” I argue.

Wade lets out a lopsided smile. “Like I said,every personin that room has seen it.”

My smug expression drops. “Indi’s seen your penis?”

“Yep.”

No way. She never told me.

“Does Landon know?”

That man’s possessive at a toxic level. I once heard from another journalist that he threatened to shove a hockey stick up an ex-teammate’s ass for touching her, and they weren’t even dating yet.

Wade nods with excitement. “He was there. It was the first time we all met. She came into the locker room, and Landon and I were…” Wade makes aclangand wields an invisible sword from his crotch.

“I’m sorry.” My eyes narrow. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

Wade answers with a childish grin. “Sword fighting.”

“I thought that’s when you try to” —I mime the action of aiming a penis— “hit each other’s streams of pee…”

“That’s the twelve-year-old version.”

“So you were…” I cross my index fingers, “…with your…”

“What can I say? I’m comfortable enough in my sexuality that it doesn’t bother?—”

“Christ,” I grumble, face hidden behind my hand. I’ll ask Indi about it later. “But was it necessary to tell everyone we slept together after their wedding?”

“It’s one of the only true parts of this conjured-up scenario. They already suspected something.” He shrugs. “I had to think fast.”

We share a sigh.

“I can’t believe we lied to our friends.” I crumple onto the bed. Wade’s bed. In his hotel room. That we’re alone in.

White sheets cool my sweaty palms as I smooth their wrinkles away from me. They’re nicer than the ones in my room, the mattress plusher. Plush. Like his lips. The reminder has my eyes searching for them, and it doesn’t take long. They’re within reach from where he sits next to me. Raised veins on his propped arm shift under flawless, taut skin.

A swallow descends the column of his neck, reminding me how good it looked under my palm. The night from a year ago returns in a flash.

Aged wood and the vintage gold plate fitted with the assigned number contrasted with the high-tech black box surrounding the hotel room’s door handle. I unfolded my right hand to reveal its matching black fob on a keychain, hot and clammy from sitting in my grip.

Nerves kept me from knocking.

I should not be doing this. What if someone’s in there with him? No one can know.

Ear pressed to the door, I waited for some sort of indication that it was okay to enter,but only a muted buzz came through. Without a chance to rethink, I accidentally brushed the key too close to its lock while resting a hand on the wooden surface.

It clicked and creaked open to an empty foyer. The door clapped shut, and I winced, each cautious step taking me closer to the bed, which was also empty.

I followed a sliver of light from the floor to its source—the washroom—at the same time as Wade appeared in its entryway. Naked except for a white towel tucked low on his hips, their arches tapered to a defined v below a nearly perfect set of abs and pecs wide enough to sleep on. I gulped.

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