Page 45 of Take Me Slowly: Part 1
"You dance?" I asked.
"Badly," she said with a laugh. "That could be why he wouldn't watch. I'm pretty bad."
"I'm sure you're not that bad," I said. I would be. Right now in particular. My legs and feet were starting to ache. The sooner I got off them and into a bath, the better.
"You haven't seen me," she said. "Wait until I get a few tequilas in me and then you can enjoy the show. I'm the definition of 'dance like no one is watching.' Of course, I never say anything like this in front of Sarah. I don't want her to grow up thinking it's okay to put herself down."
"I like that," I said. "We're really good at being mean to ourselves too much of the time."
"We really are." She nodded vigourously. "And we don't need to be, especially with guys like Riley and Connor around. I think they get off on being mean to us on our behalf." She said it lightly, like she didn't really believe it.
For all their barbs toward each other, it was more teasing than it was nasty. She made the comparison to siblings; that sounded accurate to me. They bickered like brothers and sisters, but at the end of the day they all had each other's backs. If anything happened to Fiona, I didn't doubt guys would come running. Ready to take a swing at anyone who'd try to hurt her.
"I'm glad I found this place," I said softly, as we crossed a street and stopped in front of my cottage.
"I'm glad you found it too." She threw her arms around me and squeezed me tight. "I hope you never leave."
"I might not." I squeezed her back. "Why would I want to?
"I can't think of a single reason." She laughed. "I guess you better stick around." She lowered her arms and waved at me while walking backwards a few steps to her place.
I watched her until she turned around, then headed inside for a long soak.
19
RILEY
"Areyou sure this is a good idea?" I asked.
"It's a great idea." Connor tried the door of Leah's place before pulling out a key and unlocking it.
A couple of summers ago, he and I painted the insides of several of the rental properties on the street. To make it easier, the owners made several copies of the keys. Evidently some of them never made their way back to them.
The sound of splashing water convinced me that maybe this was, in fact, an excellent idea.
Connor stepped inside, leaving me to close the door behind us.
"Is someone there?" Leah called out from the bathroom. She sounded nervous. Like she thought people broke into the place to do inappropriate things to her.
We didn't break in, but if we hadn't had a key, we would have. As for the rest…
"It's just your friendly neighbourhood assholes," Connor called back. "Are you naked?"
"Please be naked," I said with a grin.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice was higher now. "How did you get in?"
Connor stepped over to the door, dangling the key from his fingers.
I was right behind him. To my disappointment, her body was mostly obscured by bubbles.
"Why do you have a key?" She narrowed her eyes at us.
"So I can let myself in," he said easily. "Why else? How are you feeling tonight?"
I dropped my gaze to where her feet peeked out of the water. Just the tips of her toes, nails painted deep red.
"Connor was worried about you," I said. "Because you were standing for hours." I leaned against the door frame and crossed my arms over my chest.
