Page 43 of Wylder Ranch
“Are you okay? Am I disturbing you?”
Disturbing? Yes. Very much so.
But I shake my head. “No, no. I was catching up on a few things. Nothing important. I ordered pizza. I thought you might be hungry, and I don’t know how to cook. I figured our first full day as housemates shouldn’t end with me burning the place down.”
“Housemates?”
I jump up and pull out the chair opposite me for her to sit. “Yes, we’re sharing a house.”
“Ah, we call them roommates.” She smiles and stifles a giggle. The one that pings my chest.
“Ah.” I pause. “But the problem with that is we’re not sharing a room.”
She’s about to sit, but pauses midway, holding my gaze for a second too long. My statement hangs in the air.
A Freudian slip.
“No,” she says quietly and sits. “We’re not. Housemates is good.”
Fuck.
I shift uncomfortably and move back to my chair. I should have kept my big mouth shut. I know better than to try to crack a joke. But it’s enough to give me an in to a conversation I’d rather not have. Don’t want to have.
Fucking Hendricks. Ruining my life with his sensibility.
“While we’re on the subject. . .” I clear my throat, but my mouth is so dry I jump up and pour myself a glass of water. And while it gives me a couple of extra seconds to think about what to say, Haven’s now looking at me far too expectantly for my liking. “I know you came over here to tell me about Everly, and I’m so happy that you did. . . But I. . . uh.”For fuck’s sake, Alex, get your shit together. “I don’t want to make assumptions, but I think. . . moving forward. . . we need to keep things platonic. We have a lot at stake now.”
Her pause before she answers has me holding my breath. “With Everly?”
“Yes, exactly. I don’t want to mess this up by starting where we left off.”
“In Aspen?”
“In Aspen.”
“I agree,” she replies, and the speed of it is a punch to the gut.
“You do?” My eyes roam over her, checking—hoping—to see any hint that she doesn’t, in fact, agree at all. But I see nothing except her sweet smile as she nods.
“Great.” I hold my hand out to her, hoping she doesn’t notice my palm sweating. “Friends then?”
She claps hers to mine. We shake them together. “Friends.”
It’s when I don’t let go of her hand immediately thatI’m sure she can see right through my lie. I don’t want to keep things platonic. Even the word sounds as forced as I feel it to be.
But I’ll go along with the pretense because I need a rule in place before I do something stupid.
Like kiss her.
CHAPTER 11
Haven
We fall into a routine, my housemate and I.
Over the ten days we’ve lived with Alex, the jet lag has gone, and I’ve adjusted to UK time.
Everly is sleeping better.Iam sleeping better. I’m still tired, but the past few nights, Everly has only woken up once to feed, and it makes all the difference.
