Page 99 of Crazy In Love
Whatever.
“They make quite the sight, don’t they?” I lean against the doorframe, folding my arms and tucking my little notebook and pen against my side. “I could’ve sworn, when I got off the plane, they were identical. You could put them side by side and demand I tell you who was who. It would’ve been impossible.”
Alana cradles Hazel against her chest, one hand beneath her butt and the other behind her head. Already, the sweet girl is gaining weight and growing at a ridiculous speed. “What do you see now?” she wonders. “Not the same?”
“No.” I drag my lip between my teeth and command my heart to calm the hell down.You’re close to the end, Fox. Don’t make a dick of yourself now. “I see two completely different men. They walk different. Talk different.They smile different. Their eyes are exactly the same, but…” I glance across and meet her gaze. “They’re different.”
Impressed, she drops her chin in a gentle nod. “I’ve only ever known them that way. I don’t recall a single moment in my life where I looked at them and saw two of the same.” Her lips curl higher as she looks their way again. “You wanna talk to me about whatever the hell is going on between you and Chris yet?”
Stunned, my eyes flare wide and my heart skitters to a stop. And when I’m not sure I’ll keep my lunch inside my stomach, I snatch her hand and pull her along the hall.
“Hang on!” She laughs, walk-running and readjusting her grip on the baby. When I zoom straight past Tommy’s office door, she yanks me back and slings me through, slamming it shut again until the crash startles Hazel.
Frenzied, panicked—sick to my stomach—I toss my notebook and walk laps of the minimal, non-messy portion of floor space. “Who told you?”
“Who told me what?” She presses her back to the door and slides down, sitting on her butt and cradling the baby against her chest. “That you look at each other while we’re eating dinner, and my vagina gets a little tingly because of it?”
“Alana!”
“That you argue less and smile more? Thathe’sbeen seeing someone, andyou’vebeen seeing someone, but neither of you are naming names, and not a single member of the grapevine gossip mill has any clue?”
“Oh, God.” I run my fingers through my hair. “Shit.”
“That Cliff suddenly needs a security detail, but onlyafterI suggested he and you date?”
“What?”
“Or that I justfeelit?” She stares at the side of my face, warming my flesh and grinning because she knows it. “Ifeelhis happiness, Fox, and Ifeelyours. I can’t be in the same room as the two of you without getting caught up in your nasty web of lust and secrets and sneakiness when you think I’m too busy to pay attention.”
“I’m sorry.” I spin and rush across the room, dropping into a crouch and desperately searching her eyes. “I swear, I came to Plainview with the purest of intentions. I was here for you.To help you.Not me.”
“Why are you sorry?” She frowns. “You didn’t steal my man, and no matter how possessive I am of him, my possession only extends as far as a sister’s would. His love life is entirely his own.”
“I’m sorry because I didn’t tell you! Because I kept it a secret. Because Iwas sneaking around, which is basically the same as lying. And we don’t lie.” I take her hand in mine, my thighs burning, but I don’t dare stand again.
This is my penance.
This is my moment of reckoning.
The one I was terrified of.
“It was never, ever,evermeant to be a lie, Alana. It was just… fun. And hot. And really, really crazy.”
“I’m sure it was,” she snickers.
“And then it just happened. This thing I thought would happen only once. But before we were done the first time, I knew I’d want more. God,” I moan. “I knew you’d freak out if you found out.”
“Why the hell would I freak out? When have I ever given you the impression I would be upset about this?”
“You mean the six hundred million times you’ve talked about how protective you are of him? Or the seventy million times you explained to me, infinedetail, how no bitch would ever be good enough, and if you ever found yourself in a position where names had been named and his feelings were hurt, you’d take a baseball bat and rearrange her slutty brains?”
“Well…” She softens her scowl to something kinder. “Okay, so I probably said those things. But you’re no random bitch, Fox. You’remybitch.” She gives my hand a tug and pulls me around to sit on the floor beside her. And when I think I might cry, she hands the baby across and seals my fate.
Tears itch the backs of my eyes.
“You’re a top-tier, high-quality bitch,” she croons. “You’re my very best friend in the whole world. So if Chris catches feelings for someone and that someone is you, I’m not grabbing my baseball bat. Except,” she adds, turning her head and studying the side of my face, “to threatenhisbrains. Because once you’re involved, my protection transfers.” She strokes my arm. “From him to you.”
Iblink, blink, blinkthe hot, salty tears from my vision. “Really?”
