Page 62 of Beautiful Mess

“God, no. It is none of Cole’s business who I’m sleeping with.”

“Yeah, but if you guys get serious, he’ll find out eventually,” Gemma adds.

“Well, eventually isn’t now.”

Georgia’s wearing an unamused expression pointed at me. “Does Conway know?”

Good lord. “It literally happened right before I came here. You guys are the first people I’ve told, but it’s not a big deal. Surely, Conway is mature enough to see this for what it is.Platonic.Besides, it’s not like I’m his girlfriend.”

Georgia chuckles. “Are we talking about the same man who waited on your porch in the dark for you to get home from a date before railing you against the side of your house to mark his territory?”

Gemma and Charley laugh, and I can’t help but join them. “Okay, when you put it like that, you make him sound like a maniac.”

“Him proudly and possessively claiming you is hot as fuck,” she drawls. “There’s no doubt about that. I’m simply saying, he may not see it as black and white as you do, nor do I think he gives a shit about the technicality of younot being his girlfriend.”

My face screws up as I scoff. “Well, that sounds like ahimproblem then. He can go be a caveman elsewhere, if that’s the case.”

Gemma makes a show of clapping. “I’ve never been prouder of you.”

“If memory serves us right,” Charley cuts in, a smirk curled on her lips, “you seemed to thoroughly enjoy the caveman routine the first time.”

Breathing out a laugh, I bring the glass up to my mouth and take a sip. “Okay, you aren’t wrong,” I admit. “But being possessive and domineering in the bedroom in the heat of the moment and being so insecure and full of toxic masculinity that you believe a man and a woman can’t grab coffee and catch up without there being ulterior motives are twoverydifferent things. And I’d like to think the man I may or may not be falling for is more secure than that. Especially when Conway knows why Cole and I broke up.”

Charley looks at my sisters before her gaze darts to me, a smile splitting her face. “Uh, rewind, please.”

“Yeah, I’m going to need you to say that again,” Gemma adds.

My brows pinch with confusion. “Say what again?”

“You just said you’re falling for Conway,” Georgia offers, her voice soft, like if she says it too loud the world may implode.

With three sets of imploring eyes staring back at me, I replay everything I just said, and my heart stutters in my chest as I realize Georgia is right. Ididsay that.

Holy.

Shit.

Am I? And more importantly, when the hell did it happen? How could I possibly befalling for him?

My cheeks heat as I realize they’re still watching me and waiting for some sort of a response. A small laugh that sounds painfully awkward spills out of me. “I don’t know why I said that. It’s not a big deal, and I’mnotfalling for him. Must’ve been a simple slip of the tongue.”

“Oh, but itisa big deal, and you most certainlyarefalling for that man,” Charley quips. “But we don’t have to talk about it now if you don’t want to. Just, you know, we’ll be here and waiting not-so-patiently when you’re finally ready to admit it to yourself.”

After that, the conversation mostly fades as The Bachelor starts, but I’m a million miles away the entire time. By the time the show finishes, I couldn’t recite a single thing that happened to save my life because my mind is so focused on that ridiculous thing I said.

Because itisridiculous…right?

It has to be.

This is Conway Levine… the man who, at the beginning of the school year, I couldn’t even stand to look at.

My ex-boyfriend’s dad.

And the man who, at one of my lowest points, witnessed me make a drunk idiot out of myself in his truck.

There’s no way I can be falling for that man, because it would never, ever work. I’ve known this from the start.

It wouldn’t work.

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