Page 45 of From Best Friend to Bride
I muffled my laughter behind my hand as we crept into the enormous house. It was hardly the first time I’d been here so late, but the manor was so still and peaceful that coming in like this felt almost like we were sneaking around.
I glanced back at Fred. He was staring at me with a perplexed expression on his face, and his eyes somewhat clouded over as he looked over my shoulder.
“Is it just me, or does it feel like we’re sneaking in?”
I cupped both hands over my face and bent over, desperately trying to keep my laughter hidden.
“What’s so funny about that?” he asked, frowning down at me.
“I thought the same thing,” I whispered, peeking up at him. “Feels like we’re doing something wrong.”
“Bloody hell.” He laughed breathlessly, running his hand through his fiery hair. “I’m thirty. You’re twenty-nine. This is hardly the first time we’ve walked through these doors at this time. What’s wrong with us?”
The hint of tension that had been present in the car completely dissipated as we laughed together, and we both took off our shoes before heading towards the wing of the house where his room was.
I hesitated before we stepped into his bedroom. It was far from my first time being here, but what he’d said in the car flitted through my mind.
Everyone thought we were in a relationship.
We had no choice but to share a room right now.
The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind before he’d said it. I knew the semantics of our relationship would have to change in order to convince everyone of a romantic relationship between us, but I hadn’t considered that some of those would have to change in private, too.
Like this.
“What are you doing?” Fred asked, looking over his shoulder at me. “Get in here and take your shower. Towels and pyjamasare already in the bathroom for you. I’m not waiting all night for you to get your arse to bed.”
I flinched and stepped inside. “Why are towels and pyjamas ready for me? You hesitated in the car.”
“Because I knew you’d say you’d stay here, so I made sure everything was ready.” He grasped the bottom of his t-shirt as if he were ready to pull it over his head. “I only hesitated because I wasn’t sure if you’d thought it through or not.”
“Oh.” I blinked at him. “Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? We’re both in agreement, and it changes nothing between us.”
“Yeah.” He pulled his t-shirt over his head, turning his toned, muscular back to me. “Shower. Go. Not all of us are nocturnal like you.”
“Right.” I scurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind me, leaning against it for a second. There was a chair in the corner, and pyjamas and two towels were folded up on there for me.
There was even a packet of clean underwear in my size.
Yikes.
This friendship really was a weird one.
Brushing that thought aside, I stripped off and got into the shower. Fred was reaching his limit out there and needed to sleep, so I rushed through the quickest shower known to womankind. When I was dressed and my damp hair was plaited, I grabbed the pink toothbrush from the holder and scrubbed my teeth.
This was a little unnerving.
Sure, I had a toothbrush here, but not in this bathroom.
Not in his bathroom.
I had my own room close to Amelia’s.
Well, it wasn’t my room, per se, but it was the room I always stayed in if I was here.
Wait, was that where these pyjamas and knickers had come from?
“Hey.” I opened the bathroom door, toothbrush still in mouth, and poked my head around the doorframe, looking in Fred’s direction.
