Page 97 of Pick Me

The slats were too small to see anything, so I rested my ear against them, listening to whatever I could.

“Tanner… Hey! What are you doing home? I thought you weren’t back until tomorrow?” Thea’s voice trembled, and although she was doing her best to sound casual, I knew we’d been found out.

“Where’s Jackson? I need to talk to him?”

He knew. He fucking knew I was in here, and he would tear down the place to find me. If I was a better man, I might’ve opened the door and accepted the beating my QB would no doubt give me, but we’d established I was a beta. Especially when it came to Thea, and frankly, her wrath was scarier than his.

“Jackson?” Thea said two octaves higher than her normal voice. Way to keep it casual there, Thea… “Umm, I think he’s in the bathroom. Let me go check.” Her voice got further away, which led me to believe she was taking him out of the room. “You know him, he spends an obnoxious amount of time in there.”

“He does.”

I crinkled my brows. She wasn’t annoyed about it a second ago when she was about to put my freshly shaved balls in her mouth.

The door shut loudly, which I assumed was my cue to leave. I attempted to open the closet, but nothing happened. Had Thea locked me in when she slammed the door shut? If so, we were about to have a serious problem.

I relaxed my shoulder against the wood and tried to push again, only to be met with the same resistance.

“Oh, he’s not in there?” Thea said loudly so I could hear it. I was running out of time, and I assumed running naked out of her room was not the way she wanted Tanner to find out about us, so I put some more of my muscle behind the move, breaking the door open in the process.

“What was that?” Tanner asked. I quickly grabbed my sweats and shirt, which were scattered all over the place, and put them on.

“Nothing.”

“Didn’t sound like nothing. It came from your room.”

“You know what? It’s probably my bookshelf. I was reading something when you came in, and I must have placed it at a funny angle.”

“Heavy books,” he stated.

“No. You know, what? I think Jackson’s in your room,” she said confidently.

“Why would he be in there?”

“I don’t know. He said something to me about your room having the best angle for sunbathing naked.”

I cursed under my breath, annoyed she gave my secret away. I told her that in confidence.

“He better not be out there.”

“Let’s go check.” Again, Thea was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. So loud, so clear I was certain Henry and Brandon could hear her upstairs.

When all I could hear was the twins’ muffled voices, I tiptoed to the door, cringing when the floorboard creaked a little. Thankfully, Thea was talking so much I knew Tanner couldn’t hear it.

Stepping into the hallway, I walked over to the kitchen and relaxed against the counter before dropping my head and shaking it.

Act natural.

I hyped myself up and plastered on a wide smile when I heard them walking down the hallway.

“Oh, look! Here he is.” Thea walked into the room with a large smile, her hands out wide. Her eyes looked urgent as they connected to mine. My first thought was my face was still glistening with her juices, so I licked my lips, not wanting to waste an ounce, then wiped my face, only for Tanner to walk up behind her.

I frowned. His eyes were red-rimmed, his hair was all over the place, and he looked… well, he looked like shit, in all honesty. Not like a guy who had NFL teams purposely tanking so they could get better placement in the draft and potentially get him.

“Tanner… what’s wrong?” I stepped toward my friend.

He dropped his head before meekly saying, “It’s Aster.”

I glanced at Thea, who was behind her brother, for hints about what happened, and she just shook her head, raising her shoulders.

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