Page 26 of My Ex-Best Friends

He laughed awkwardly, slowly backing out. “Sorry to bother y’all. I thought I saw…something… Have a good breakfast!”

I had to catch the door before he yanked it closed and practically chase him out to his truck. I grabbed his hand just as he reached for the door handle and he grabbed me and spun me around to pin me to the fender. His mouth closed over mine hard and hot. His hands were everywhere, in my hair, over my breasts, down my sides and finally stopping on my ass.

“Sorry.” He muttered as he pulled away. “I just…”

I searched his face and frowned. “You thought I left?”

His cheeks darkened. “Yeah.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “I did run. Just here, though. I’m not leaving again, Noah. I just… I’m not good at what comes after sex.”

He pulled back with a playful smirk on his lips. “I don’t know, you were a great cuddler last night.”

I thought about the way we’d fallen asleep with his dick still inside me and blushed hot. “If it makes you feel any better, I made a mistake coming here. They’re nuts. Mom apparently saw your penis a few years ago and was very impressed. Aunt Karlene is mad that she hadn’t seen it and wants a picture.”

He blanched. “She said she didn’t see anything!”

I looked towards the house and, sure enough, there were the figures of my mom and aunt in the window. “Well, she’s a liar.”

“Fuck. Maybe I’ll leave town next. So. They know I fucked you last night?”

I snapped my face back up to his. “We fucked each other.”

Mom’s violation forgotten, he smiled teasingly at me. “Oh, you want equal credit?”

I sighed dramatically. “You guys always did try to steal credit on our group projects.”

He laughed and pulled me close to kiss me again. “Forget that I barged in there like a lunatic?”

I nodded. “Consider it forgotten.”

His phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket with a frown. “It’s my mom.”

I cringed when I heard her voice spill out of the phone. She was yelling about him breaking into Crazy Daisy’s house to have sex with me. News traveled fast in Beaumont and it traveled like a bad game of telephone. I winced at Noah and blew him a kiss before backing away to disappear into the unexpected safety of my mom’s house.

22

***Brooke***

Mom and Aunt Karlene’s parting words to me before I left that morning were still playing in my head. They’d pointed out that a man who didn’t care wouldn’t have been so scared that I’d been gone. They’d seemed calm, almost subdued, which was enough to freak me out. But they’d both been serious when they told me to be open to whatever happened. I would’ve been terrified that they’d been body snatched if I hadn’t heard them arguing about whose ass I had, Mom’s or Aunt Karlene’s, when I was pulling the door shut.

The wall loomed over me as I stood next to the hardware store, wondering what was wrong with me. When Sinclair had been working on the wall with me, I’d been able to do enough to make it seem like I wasn’t just goofing off. Without the little girl, though, I felt all of my fear creeping back in. I’d never finished a painting on a larger scale. I wasn’t even sure I’d finished a small painting. I just didn’t like endings. Any kind, apparently.

I’d started to sketch in flowers in one corner of the mural with Sinclair so I decided to focus on them. I worked on their outlines for a while, making sure they were perfect before I stepped back and studied the rest of the wall. Almost without my brain’s permission, my hand moved to add a figure in the flowers. Sinclair. With her sandy blonde hair and her dad’s blue eyes, she would be right standing amongst the flowers. I’d keep the face generic enough so Kelly and Noah didn’t feel weird about it.

I was so lost in my head that I didn’t hear footsteps approaching me from behind. I didn’t notice a figure looming over me until a hand gripped my shoulder and spun me around, nearly knocking me over. I screamed as adrenaline flooded my system but the sound was cut short when I saw who was standing in front of me, hand still gripping my shoulder.

Finn Love. His face was twisted in anger for a second longer but then it crumpled into something close to grief before he dragged me into his chest and held me too tight. “Brookie! I thought something had happened to you.”

My arms were pinned between us but I tried fruitlessly to push him away. “Somethingdidhappen to me, Finn!”

He reared back. “What, baby? What could’ve happened to make you leave me like you did?”

My face went blank. He knew. I’d sent exactly one text in a group chat to him, Meredith, and his monster of a mother. I’d made it clear that I’d seen their disgusting act and was no longer interested in continuing my relationship with any of them.

“What? What is it, Brookie?” He stroked my cheeks and cupped my jaw. “You don’t know how heartbroken I’ve been. You’re my entire world, Brookie. You got cold feet and ran. I can forgive that. I just need you to come home.”

I ripped my face out of his hands and held my paintbrush up between us like a weapon. “Stop touching me.”

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