Page 30 of Come Back to Me

“I think I’m offended,” I say wryly, though the dumb Neanderthal taking up a good chunk of my cerebral real estate preens at her adjective. “Who says I’m not a playboy?”

“I’m only eighteen,” Callan grouses, “and have been written off already, Cody. You’re a combat pilot. You can take the hit to the ego.”

Though I hide a laugh at his glum tone, I ask, “Why did Tee give you an impromptu sex talk then?”

His face locks into a rictus of pain. “Why are you making me discuss this in front of everyone?”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Tee reasons.

“Yes, it was.”

“I asked you if you wanted to talk about it and you said yes!”

“Then I regretted it.”

“I was saving you, Callan. You’re so ungrateful.”

Zee clears her throat. “Was this about sex or the female orgasm?”

“The female orgasm, of course. Why would I talk to him about his orgasms?” The ‘duh’ is silent. As are the glances knocked around the dinner table as Tee muses, “Men blink at a pair of tits and they blow their load.” Ignoring Mrs. Abelman’s chuckle, she rolls on blithely, “I had to make sure he knew that the way to keeping a good woman was to get her off.”

“And I’ve told you that sex isn’t everything,” Zee chides.

“Says the woman who spends her life working and fucking, Ms. Liar.” She blows Zee a raspberry.

“Why did I want you to live with me anyway?”

“Because you missed me.” The ‘duh’ is silent again. “Anyway, Callan might not thank me now, but he will when he has a girlfriend who’s addicted to him.”

While she chirps the words, her letters revealed how badly she wishes she had that.

Not with Callan, I hope.

But I know how bad sex has been for Tee.

And it’s shit like that that makes me shut up.

I want nothing more than to tell her who I am, but there are so many things she shared with me that she never would have if she knew my real identity.

She’s wary around me because we’re mostly strangers who share a roof, but that’s nothing to what she’d be if she learned I was the bastard who tossed her aside like trash.

Unfortunately, I’ve watched enough romance movies, that Cole made us sit through, to know this is going to end disastrously.

Because the truth always comes out.

And usually at the worst moment.

The question is...

Do I dive deeper into this hole I’ve made, or do I separate myself so that when the fallout hits, it doesn’t hurt if she cuts me out of her life?

“I guess now’s as good a time as any to warn you about an interview, Zee,” Colton rumbles, drawing me away from my thoughts.

She frowns. “An interview? With the police?”

My brother rubs his knuckles over her jaw. “Oh, baby, we’ve had a shitty start to married life if that’s where your mind automatically goes.”

“See, Callan, that’s also how you get a woman panting after you,” Tee whispers in an aside.

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