Page 52 of Waiting for Tuesday

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said then, and his lips curved a little. But it was a genuine smile, and my body relaxed a bit.

“Try me.” I folded my hands on his chest, turned my head, and pressed my ear against his heart.

He paused for a long time, and I wondered if I was being too personal, but then he blew out a breath and adjusted his pillows. “Well, you remember I have sisters, and they’re all older.”

I nodded, remembering, and smiled at the deep rumble of his voice as I snuggled in deep.

“And I don’t know if you’re aware, but around twelve, boys tend to go through a temporary bout of insanity where girls are concerned.”

I smiled, already enjoying this story way too much. My fingers trailed up down his chest as he continued to speak.

“Well, whenIwas twelve, two of my sisters made the high school dance team. One freshman, one senior. Penny was the team captain and invited the whole team up to our family cabin as a sort ofbondingsleepover. I never really understood what the hell that meant. All I knew was that fifteen tight-bodied women were about to be sleeping right above my bedroom in the upstairs loft.

“Well, my buddy Joey, who lived down the hill, heard the news and tried to invite himself over, but my mom was too wise for that and nixed those plans before they even started. And that’s where we got inventive. Joey lent me his father’s video camera, and we rigged a pulley system that would go from our backyard tree over to the roof of the adjacent loft window. It consistedof rope, a bucket, and a bunch of knots we learned in Boy Scouts that year. To our amazement, it actually worked. We ran across it all day, had it perfectly fitted, even planted a few night lights in their room so I’d always have enough light to film.”

He laughed and shook his head against the pillows. “I snuck out of my room that night about eleven, climbed the tree, somehow not dropping the camera, and then got in the bucket and started to pull.”

I laughed. “Did you see anything?”

He nodded and bit his lip. “Oh, yeah. I don’t know what you guys do at sleepovers, but everyone was in skimpy, little night things, dancing around. It was amazing… well… until the rope gave out. I was a big kid, and Joey and I weren’t the best Boy Scouts. The rope must have loosened from us testing it all day. It slipped from the beam and I went plummeting to the ground.

“I must have called out, because when I stood up, Lisa was standing over me. She was so mad—she’s the youngest of my sisters and always the one to get me in trouble. Didn’t even care that my chin was busted open.”

He flicked his thumb over the scar then looked down at me. “She erased the tape and made me go up to the loft to say I was sorry. She promised never to tell our parents, soI agreed.”

My eyes widened and I grinned at him. “What did the girls say when you apologized?”

“They lectured me. Told me they should call the cops, made me promise never to do it again.”

“Did you?”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “One of the freshman girls actually snuck into my room that night. That’s when I realized all I had to do was ask.”

I pushed myself up on his chest, appalled. “What?”

He laughed. “I was in eighth grade, almost thirteen, and she was in ninth, just fourteen. There wasn’t that big of a gap between us—plus, I was big for my age.”

“Wow.” I lay my head back on his chest and grinned, knowing I probably would have snuck into his bedroom too. Actually, the methenwouldn’t have. The methenwas too scared of breaking rules to do things I wasn’t supposed to do. But now, for some reason, I felt rebellious for the first time in my life.

We were both silent for a few minutes before I spoke again. “Do you have any brothers?”

His chin brushed against my hair as he shook his head. “No. But I always wanted one.”

I frowned slightly and looked up again. “Me too. Though I really just wanted a sibling. You’re lucky to have your sisters.”

He grinned and closed his eyes, obviously tired. “They’re okay.” Though the way he said it, the softness in his voice, made me realize they were so much more than that to him… He loved them.

“Becky’s kind of like my sister,” I said into the dark.I don’t know why I said it. Maybe because he’d just told me so much about himself, or maybe because I wanted to share a piece of me too.

He lifted his chin and looked at me. “Yeah?”

I nodded.

He scrunched his face and smiled. “Jake’s like that for me.”

I closed my eyes, and my stomach twisted slightly. Jake, his boss. More than once I thought about how our relationship would affect theirs. More than once I wanted to ask the question… “What would he think?” I stopped, not knowing what to call what we were doing. “Of this?”

He folded his arms behind his head and frowned slightly. “He wouldn’t like it.”

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