Page 17 of Just This Once

“Oh.” I nearly laughed. But I refrained before saying, “No.”

His shoulders lost some of their tension before he arched his eyebrows and sent me an almost admiring glance. “So you hurt him?”

“What?No.” I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “No one’s hurt. Jesus.” Lifting a staying hand, I added, “And I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t mention the namePaulto Alec, alright?”

Parker only snorted as he concentrated on turning across traffic. “I don’t keep secrets from my best friends.”

“Yes, you do,” I immediately countered. “I can remember two instances right off the bat where you kept a secret from Alec for me.”

“What?” He gaped at me in clear disbelief before demanding, “When?”

“Okay, first of all”—I ticked up one finger—“there was the time I was in the hospital after my surgery. Alec was dead asleep across the room when you overheard my mom telling me I was a worthless pain in her ass who only reminded her of her cheating husband, and she kind of wished I hadn’t survived the transplant. I asked you not to tell Alec, and you obviously never did.”

With a scoff, Parker shook his head. “That wasn’t exactly newsworthy enough to gossip about.”

Ignoring how severely he was trying to downplay that day, I went on, lifting a second finger. “Then, there was my freshman year of high school. The Spring Formal. Nine months before my mother moved me to Ohio. Ryan Grishel felt me up withoutmy permission, and you kicked his ass. I asked you not to tell Alec about that too.”

“There was no reason to tell Alec,” he started with an uncomfortable grimace. “I took care of the situation so he didn’t have to worry about it. The kid wasn’t even in fucking high school yet. He would’ve hurt himself if he’d tried to defend your honor, which he would’ve tried to do. I wasprotectinghim.”

“Whatever.” I shrugged, not caring as I folded my arms over my chest. “You kept secrets for me. You’re my secret keeper.”

“The fuck if I am.”

“I mean, if you need to keep telling yourself that to help you get out of bed each morning, that’s fine. But it’s still true. Secret keeper.”

“I’mnot—” he started angrily, only to slam on his brakes to keep from colliding with a car that ran a stop sign in front of us. “Son of a bitch! Does no one know how to fucking drive anymore?”

I smiled, feeling more alive than I had in a long time.

Flipping off the other car and honking angrily at them, Parker growled and then waited for the intersection to clear.

By the time he pulled into the driveway at Archer House five minutes later, my blood was singing in excitement. But I washome. And I’d get to see my brother again in seconds. I couldn’t remember feeling this happy in forever.

Grumpy barely had the car parked before I opened my door and dove out, hurling myself toward the house. “Thanks for the ride,” I called over my shoulder.

“Hey!” he shouted after me.

But Alec was inside, and I couldn’t wait to see him again.

The last time I’d been here, I’d helped him move in, and we had explored every inch of the place together. Which meant that I knew when I dashed toward the first, smaller set of steps that were built into the side of the main house yet in front of the recessed garage it would lead straight into the kitchen.

Knowing how hungry my boy always was, I went there first, blowing inside without even knocking.

Only to plow to a stop when I found the kitchen full of strangers.

There were three of them hovered around some baking dish on the counter, biting their fingernails and looking worried as they talked amongst themselves.

“I’m not waking him up to ask;youwake him up,” the tallest of the trio insisted.

“But he’syourboyfriend,” another argued.

“Who’ll freak when he learns we tried to cook in his kitchen. Without him.”

“Well, technically it’s nothiskitchen anymore since—” The third one stopped talking abruptly when the second, auburn-headed one noticed me standing there and started to tug on her arm to get her attention.

Suddenly, all three women gaped at me in unison.

“Um… Hi,” the tallest one finally said with a confused wave.

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