Page 17 of Be Your Anything
She spots me, a wide smile stretching across her face, and she makes her way over, her heels echoing loudly as they clack on the white tile.
“He’s free now.” I speak before she has a chance to say anything, biting back my laugh when I see the stunned irritation come over her face.
No woman wants to feel like her sexual exploits are common knowledge, and even though I have no idea what went down between her and Otto,shedoesn’t know that.
I don’t want to make her feel like she was locker room talk, but at the same time, I can’t help but hope she’ll head upstairs and give Otto a piece of her mind, maybe a smack over the head.
I give her a parting wave without saying anything else and head out to where my truck is parked in the lot.
Unfortunately, as I race down the street a few minutes later, I realize my frustration with my friend—and what he said—isn’t going to be dealt with on the road. It might be just past three in the afternoon, but rush hour is already starting to pack the route I need to take heading out of Santa Monica.
When I come to a stop at a red light, I lift my hips and pull my phone out of my pants pocket, flicking through the text messages and emails I’ve received in the past hour.
But it doesn’t seem to matter that I have a message from my coach that I need to reply to, or that a few texts are waiting for a response about what’s happening for the Fourth of July party.
All I can seem to do is repeat Otto’s words in my head.
You can screw Lennon…
I wince, rub at my chest distractedly.
It’s a long honk from behind me that gets me moving forward, the light having finally turned green. I make my way down PCH, heading back to Hermosa, the long stretch of road lined with palm trees providing far less comfort than it normally does.
Things with me and Lennon are… They’re complicated.
Well, actually, no. It’s pretty straightforward.
Lennon and I are fuck buddies. Friends with bennies.
Real friends in the light of day, and fuck friends when we need to let off some steam.
Though we both seem to be needing that release more and more recently.
I guess I just assumed we were quiet enough about what’s going on between us. I’ve never been one to advertise my private life, though the town gossip machine does manage to spread tidbits about my business around like confetti.
Lennon, however, is a fucking Roth—her secrets are normally locked down pretty tight.
So hearing Otto throw that little nugget at me like it was common knowledge…it was definitely a bit of a surprise.
I mean, it isn’t like I’mashamedor anything.
Lennon’s amazing. We’ve been friends for most of our lives, having grown up next door to each other. Her mom still owns the house next to mine, though I’m pretty sure she lives at the Roth compound in the north part of town as she’s had a steady stream of renters in the house next to mine since her divorce back when Len and I were in junior high.
No…I’m definitely not ashamed. Lennon is one of my closest friends. I think my desire to keep things between us on the down low is more about protecting our other relationships than it is about embarrassment.
Lennon’s family has high expectations of their daughter’s behavior, and though we’ve never talked about it, I highly doubt they would approve of her sleeping with a guy who isn’t single.
And I’m not.
My girlfriend and I have an open relationship. We’re together when we’re together, and we don’t ask questions when we’re not. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. Maybe not ideal, but manageable.
Our friends are aware, and knowing how the Hermosa Beach gossip machine works, it’s probably spread much farther and wider than that, but I didn’t think the fact that I’ve been sleeping with Lennon for the past few months was out there.
And there’s a part of me that worries about the ramifications of that kind of information reaching the wrong people.
CHAPTER4
LUCAS
