Page 54 of Lighting the Lamp
“I’ll deal with you later.” She points at him before whirling around on her heels to face Cooper. “I was helping him breathe, you asshat!”
“Oh, that’s what we’re calling it now?” Darius says, voice cracking halfway through.
“Boy, you need to learn to quit while you’re ahead,” I grumble. “Your auntie Alise remembers everything, and I meaneverything. She is going to get you back tenfold when you least expect it.”
“How? I don’t even have a girlfriend,” Darius questions, eyeing me and Cole skeptically.
“Yet. You don’t have a girlfriendyet,” Cole responds, taking a bite of his muffin as Alise heads for the doorway.
“So… is it like soulmate-level forehead kisses or casual morning-after sweater theft?” Cole leans in, voice pitched low and fake serious.
“Really?” I glare at him, wondering if he plans on stopping anytime soon.
Although I doubt it. Cole and Alise’s favorite pastime used to be giving each other a hard time, something I’m sure both of them missed while he was hiding away in Boise. Something Alise probably agrees with as her mouth pulls up at the corner, and she scowls in my brother’s direction.
“What?” Cole shrugs. “I’m invested.”
“You’re all insane.” Alise rolls her eyes before throwing a muffin at him, barely missing his head. “And I’m leaving.”
“You just got here,” Cooper says, mock-offended.
“Exactly.” She pushes the door open. “Which means there’s still time to salvage some dignity before I scream into a pillow.”
“Scream into your pillow? You mean before Mona and Michele get a hold of you, right?” Darius chimes in, ducking just in time to miss a muffin to the head. “What? You shouldn’t shoot the messenger.”
“I don’t plan on shooting you, Darius,” Alise responds, color creeping up her throat, which is now rosy and impossible to ignore. “But remember, payback is a bitch.”
Darius’s eyes widen in horror as he looks at Cole and me for help, but we raise our hands in surrender and respond at the same time, “Told you.”
Alise finally grabs another muffin for herself, her eyes flicking to mine for a brief second before heading back toward the door. Her gaze dips once more to my shirt, subtle enough my brothers miss it but pointed enough I feel heat crawl up my neck. As she passes me, her shoulder brushes my arm, and she rises on her toes just enough to bring her mouth close to my collarbone. Her voice is barely a breath, meant only for me.
“You know,” she whispers, her breath ghosting my ear, “telling them would be easier than tearing yourself apart hiding it.”
I go rigid, my hand flattening against my shirt like I can hold the secret in place with sheer force. She doesn’t wait for my answer. She rocks back on her heels, muffin in hand, her expression smooth as glass as she walks toward the door.
From the outside, though, I already know how it must’ve looked. Alise leaning up into my space, her lips tilted toward my jaw like she’d just pressed a goodbye kiss there.
“Okay, hold up,” Cole crows, pointing like he just made the game-winning shot. “Was that a whisper or a kiss? Because from here, it definitely looked like a kiss.”
Darius groans, dragging both hands over his face. “Please stop narrating my trauma in real time.”
Alise, without missing a beat, flips Cole off over her shoulder and keeps walking. “You guys shouldn’t stay too long. I think Beau probably needs some more rest.”
“You’re the one sleeping in his bed,” Cole calls after her. “But don’t worry, we’ll just keep talking about it without you!”
I keep my face carefully blank, but my chest burns. Because for one sharp second, I wanted Cole to be right. Wanted it to be a kiss instead of a secret pressed between her lips and my collarbone. And wanting that, with my brothers watching and Alise bolting in the opposite direction, is its own kind of torture.
“You all need to find a damn hobby!” she shouts over her shoulder, then bolts for the door like her shoes are on fire.
The moment she’s gone, Darius turns to me slowly. “She was helping. Right. That’s what we’re going with?”
“You’re all terrible.” I groan, scrubbing a hand over my face and trying to hide my smile.
All that matters is that Alise showed up for me, and she stayed instead of bolting the minute one of my brothers opened their mouths. Even if it was just for breakfast and banter and wearing my sweater like it was hers. And to me, that means something.
Chapter Eighteen
Alise
