Page 67 of Wildly Inappropriate

“Well, you did surprise him. And, as a bonus, it looks like he surprised you too. A two-fer, you might say.”

Lila stands up, heading to the closet where she’s been keeping her clothes with mine. She’s upset, but I don’t know if it’s with me or her brother, or, shit, maybe Bryn? But I do what I always do: I try to make it better. “I’m sorry, Lila.”

“For what?” she asks, her tone biting. Soo…me, then?

My sleep-deprived brain is now functioning solely on adrenaline dregs, so I’m having a harder time than normal figuring out how to make this right. I take a deep breath and climb out of bed, joining her by the closet and getting dressed as I decide how to respond.

I’ve got on a pair of athletic shorts and a T-shirt when I finally say, “I’m sorry your brother is mad at us. I know how important your relationship is with him.”

“Yeah, JT. It is important, but so is my relationship with you.” I can’t help but smile when I hear her call it a relationship. I know I haven’t told her how I feel, but it hurt when she denied there being something to her brother.

“You two better not be doing it in there!” Jameson yells from the kitchen.

Lila rolls her eyes before yelling back, “We. Are. Coming!”

“That’s what he’s afraid of!” Bryn yells back. And I’m pretty sure I hear Jameo choke on his coffee.

“What do you want to tell him?” I ask, my voice a whisper.

“I’ve been told honesty is always the best policy.”

“Do you think I should tell him how I made you come twice in five minutes that one night?” I ask with a smug smile. That had been a damn good Monday night.

“Only if you want him to know how you sit down to pee at night because you’re too tired to stand up.”

“What? How? I shut the door!”

“Sounds different.”

“Why are you listening to me pee, you weirdo?”

I laugh, and that is clearly not the right move, because Jameson barges back into the room, glaring at us like we personally poured itch powder into his underwear. “Do you think this is funny? Get your asses to the living room.”

“Yes, Dad,” Lila says in a fake apologetic voice, and I do my best to stifle the chuckle that wants to pass through my lips. Lila shoots me a conspiratorial grin, and it feels good, like Lila and I are on the same team.

Jameson points us to the chairs in the living room, making it very clear with his gesture that we are not to be on the couch together. Unfortunately for Jameson, his dick behavior just makes Lila want to push back, so she grabs my hand, sliding her body right in front of her brother to reach the small couch. She nods for me to sit down first, and when the gleam in her eye tells me that she’s going to sit on my lap, I tip my head toward the seat next to me. I want Jameo to stay out of our business as much as any other guy, but I don’t think we need to poke the fucking bear.

Jameson looks at our entwined hands, and we wait in silence as he decides if he’s going to make a big deal out of it or not. Luckily, Bryn must notice the awkwardness from where she’s at in the kitchen, and she hustles out three cups of coffee. “Jameo,” she says, the couple silently communicating something. Bryn clearly wins, not that any of us are surprised, and Jameson sits down heavily in the chair across from us.

“How did this fucking happen?”

“Well,” Lila starts, and I know from her tone this is not going to go well. “When a man loves a woman…well, I suppose they don’t actually have to love each other. When a man and a woman are attracted to one another—”

“I know howfuckingworks, Lila.”

“Can confirm,” Bryn adds helpfully from the place she’s taken up at the stove, clearly thinking eggs will somehow improve this situation.

Jameson closes his eyes and exhales before starting again, “How long has this been going on? Oh my God. Is this why you act the way you do together? Is it like some weird kind of foreplay?”

“Vegas!” I all but shout, because I cannot have Jameo or his parents thinking I was hooking up with 18-year-old Lila after spending Thanksgiving dinner with a fucking boner.

“What?”

“We accidentally hooked up in Vegas last year, and then basically nothing happened until we moved in together a few weeks ago,” I say in a rush.

“To be clear, the disdain was real,” Lila adds, somewhat unnecessarily in my opinion.

Jameson looks between the two of us, his elbows on his knees, a deep scowl on his face still.

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