Page 51 of From Our First

“Oh, and we have to picture Nate?” Dakota asked.

I groaned into my hands again. “See? This is why Nate and I shouldn’t do that again. We need to find a way to be friends. Having sex changes everything.”

“It does,” Hazel added. “And I totally understand. If you guys can find some peace, then I’m all for it. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and reached out and gripped her hand. The others were near me, and I leaned into them, my circle, my pact sisters.

“I love you guys. And I’m glad that everything’s out in the open. But I’m never going to be with Nate. Not again. That ship sailed, sank, and was lost at sea. There’s no extra rowboat out there for me.”

“You have completely killed that metaphor,” Paris joked.

“Perhaps. But I wanted to make sure you understood. I’m never going to be with Nate. And I think I’m finally okay with that.”

The girls gave each other a look, but thankfully they didn’t say anything. Instead, I leaned into my sisters and told myself that I hadn’t just lied.

* * *

Nate

“You did what?”Arden asked, and I took another sip of my beer, swallowing hard.

“I had sex with Myra.”

“Recently?” my sister asked again, her voice going high-pitched.

“Hey, I think you’re going to hurt Jasper’s ears if you keep screeching like that.”

“Jasper’s fine,” she said while running her hand over her dog’s head.

“Fine, then Daisy’s ears.”

My puppy sat at my feet and looked at me adoringly.

“Stop changing the subject. You slept with Myra?”

I sighed, set down my beer, and then picked up Daisy so she could lick at my chin. “Yes. Just the once. It’s never going to happen again. We shook on it.”

Arden blinked at me. “Is that a phrase I don’t know about? Is shaking a new thing that the kids do these days?”

“We’re twins, dork. Why would I know what the kids do these days and not you? And stop being weird.”

“You’re the one being weird. You had sex with your ex-wife, and you’re just casually bringing it up in conversation? Do the brothers know?”

I shook my head and scratched under Daisy’s chin. “No. I’ll let them know later. Only because Myra is telling her girls, and we don’t want any more secrets. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. We’re moving on as friends now that we have a new idea of what the truth is, and we don’t have to worry about hurting each other again.”

“That’s a load of crap,” Arden said.

“What?” I asked, confused as I set Daisy down so she could play with Jasper.

“You can’t say that you’re just going to be friends after you slept together. You guys have a tangled history. Even if you hadn’t made a truce to walk away, someone’s going to get hurt. They always do.”

I shook my head. “No, we’re going to be careful.”

“So careful that you slept with her?” Arden asked, and I sighed.

“It’s fine, Arden.”

“Now you’re lying to yourselfandme.”

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