Page 51 of Set Me On Fire

“Ohhkay, let's back things up a bit. Everyone’s focussed on the end game.” She looked down at my stomach. “But I want all the deets. Start with the fire.”

So I did.As my family worked through their feelings, we worked through ours. I told her about the fire and the party. She laughed at the tour, then went wide eyed at the drinking game.

“So you told him that you always thought he’d be your first kiss? You just told him.”

Jamie had been at me back then to try and have a private conversation with Noah, but after that very public rejection, I wasn’t up for it.

“I told him. He couldn’t exactly shame me in front of the whole school again, could he? I didn’t know anyone there and I was drunk, so truth bombs were dropped.”

“And then you…?”

For a woman taking three dicks on the regular, she was curiously coy.

“And then the sleazy guy had to go home because his girlfriend turned up. No!” It was coming back in fits and starts. “I kissed Knox first.”

“In front of Noah!” She punched me in the arm and apologised immediately. “Shit, pregnant woman.”

“Pretty sure that just applies to my stomach,” I said. “Yeah, in front of Noah. I figured that he’d made clear he didn’t want me, so I just went for it.”

“And was Knox any good?”

I sighed, almost able to feel that kiss again. Probably because he left my lips almost bruised afterwards. From kissing him, from sucking that massive dick… I shook my head. It was almost a pity he wasn’t up for something more serious, because coming home to that every night would be no chore at all.

“But how do you know that he’s not interested?” Jamie asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Dude.”

“Did he say something?”

“He doesn’t have to. Just because you’re all loved up now doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten that guys hate commitment. Going out on an actual date rather than just ‘meeting for coffee’ i.e. checking out if you’re an uggo or not is hard enough to get, let alone a husband and a father…”

“OK, so what about Noah or Charlie, was it?”

I saw Charlie’s cocky smile right then, clear as day, but I shook my head in the face of it.

“Pretty sure Charlie was just there for a bit of fun and we had that, and Noah…?” I looked down at the card I’d pulled from the flowers, but when Jamie did the same, I shoved it into my pocket. “I mean, how do you do that? Have a relationship with someone after you just banged his teammates.”

“With him.” She looked at me hard. “He was there. He jumped in head first, or was it dick first?” Jamie made a show of considering that before I gave her a sharp nudge. “He was into it. Some guys, y’know, even your brothers.”

But I wasn’t Jamie.

There was no jealousy in me. She and I had kissed a lot of toads before she found her harem HEA, but unfortunately, most of her brothers were either one, married, or two, really repellent. Frankie was OK, but his now-wife was amazing.

“I’m just being realistic,” I told her.

“Trying to anticipate being hurt by not even allowing for the possibility,” she countered.

“Potato, potahto,” I grumbled before looking at the door. “So, how bad is it really?”

“Bad.” We both laughed at that. She was my ride or die, but that didn’t mean Jamie would soft soap things. “But they’llmanage. McDonalds always do. You come together in the face of adversity, not tear each other apart. When everyone calms down, they’ll remember that.”

“So, get my bony arse out there and face the music is what you’re saying.”

We both stood up, looking at the door like it was covered with Huntsman spiders, not the old pop idol posters I’d stuck on it. I sucked in a breath, turned the door knob, and walked out.

“There you are.”Mum had obviously talked long and hard to Dad, because he was now in caretaker mode. “Come and sit down.”

He moved forward, ready to guide me to the couch like I was a senior citizen or something.

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