Page 57 of Wildly Inappropriate

“Do you want to hear the story or not, Rebecca?”

“Damn, she Rebecca’d you,” I tease.

Izzy gives us both her best teacher glare before continuing her story. “Anyway, it was clear he was worked up about something and looking to drown a few of those feelings, so Kelsey and I took pity on the poor man and let him buy a few rounds for the whole table.”

I chuckle. I’m sure JT was just glad to have the company and would’ve happily bought a few roundtrip tickets to Bora Bora for the whole table if they’d asked.

“Anyway, Kelsey mind-ninjaed the man once she got his defenses down out on the putting green—”

Becca snorts. “That sounds dirty.”

She receives another teacher glare before Izzy continues, “And he more or less admitted he was jealous of Lila’s date with Matt. Oh! And he and Lila have been bunking together since the hailstorm.” She shoots me a wicked smirk as my jaw drops. No wonder he was okay with me telling Kelsey and Izzy about this—he’d already spilled the tea. Izzy continues, “Actually, Kelsey had already figured out the sleeping together thing.”

“What?” I ask. “How? Why? What?!” That lady is too damn good at her job.

“She had a whole line of evidence, but it doesn’t really matter, since JT confirmed it.”

“You can’t tell Bryn and Jameo, Izzy. And you have to tell Kelsey not to either. You too, Becca. This has to stay between us.”

They both agree, and Izzy adds, “And you definitely don’t have to worry about Kelsey. Secrets are her thing.”

“But, why is it a secret?” Becca asks.

I let out a groan and slide down into my computer chair until my body is almost at a forty-five-degree angle with the floor. “This is why we are at a DEFCON 1,” I say. “JT doesn’t do relationships. Like is so committed to golf that he might as well be married to it. Not to get all armchair psychologist over here, but the man has some real issues that almost certainly stem from the way his parents treat him like he’s a walking reminder of all their failed dreams. If the stories Jameson tells are to be believed, that is. JT doesn’t talk about them to me, even though I know he talks to his dad multiple times a day.”

Jameson told me a couple stories about his dad critiquing JT’s game so hard during college that Jameson almost started crying to try to get me to be nicer to JT. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel bad for him, even before all this, I just would never want to be treated differently because someone felt bad for me, so I wasn’t going to do that to him either.

“Shit,” Becca says.

Izzy nods her agreement. “I mean, he didn’t get into the parent part of it, but yeah, he essentially said he needs to focus on winning another tournament, and since he knows you dream of a husband and kids, you guys aren’t a good fit.” She offers me a sympathetic grimace.

“Which is totally true. Except”—I hide behind my hands—“turns out we may fit a little too well, if you know what I mean?”

I look up to see the wicked smiles on the faces of both of my new friends.

“Um, we’re going to needsignificantlymore details,” Becca says. “That man is beautiful, and I need to live vicariously through you. Ugh! Why is everyone in my life hooking up with men out of fucking romance novels?”

Izzy double coughs as if to say, “Um, what about me?” but Becca pays her no attention.

“Please don’t compare my brother to a romance novel hero ever again. It will ruin the entire genre for me, and then what will I read? Nonfiction? Get out of here.”

Both women ignore my comment, and at their prodding, I tell the highlights: walking in on JT fresh from the shower (Becca almost swooned, and I would not have blamed her if she did); us diving headfirst into bed together; our decision to be roommates with benefits until we both go back to our previously scheduled lives; acting like a real couple all day Saturday as we cooked, watched TV, read, and slept together; golfing yesterday and doing date-y things. By the time I’m done telling them about it, I’m more confused than when I started.

“It feels like we’re in a relationship,” I say. “At the very least, he’s quickly becoming a good friend. It’s not just crazy hot sex all the time. There is unfortunately also a connection on an emotional level. Though I’m worried I’m not going to be able to be his friend after all this. Even knowing how much fun he is.”

“Why not?” Becca asks.

“There is this electricity—this magnetism—between us that has been there the entire time I’ve known him. When I was younger, it was more of a gentle pull, and it led to him being someone that I always wanted to talk to and be around, but then once I was older, it intensified. We became powerful magnets, and depending on how we are aligned, we are either forcibly repelled or attracted—we cannot simply exist in the same space without having a significant impact on the alignment of the other. We only have two options: fight or fuck.”

Izzy snickers at that. “Based on that one time I was in the same room as the two of you, that is actually spot-on.”

“So you’re just going to date him for three weeks and then go back to fighting with him constantly?” Becca asks. “Because—and I say this with love—that feels like a terrible plan.”

I drop my head into my hands, my elbows propped on the table the only thing holding me up. “I know it is. I can see the nuclear explosion coming, but I have no idea how to stop it.”

“Shit,” Izzy says. “It really is DEFCON 1.”

Chapter twenty-seven

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