Page 55 of Tell Me When It's Over

I let her have her moment, which lasts a few seconds before Mia says, “I’m just saying, as far as gift giving goes, I win.”

We all laugh, but I see the way Leighton looks down at her planner. I have no interest in competing with Mia. Our little sister loves all our gifts, but…

I grin to myself.

She totally likes mine better.

Chapter Sixteen

Leighton / Present Day

I hear the cussing before my name is being yelled from upstairs. Instantly, I know why. I left a towel on the floor. Again. Whoops.

Footsteps barrel toward the stairs until he clears the first flight, glaring at me from the landing between the short second set of steps that leads into the living room. He’s shirtless, with low-slung blue jeans resting on his hips that shows off his trimmed abs and tapered waist.

“I’m sorry,” I say before he can open his mouth. The bathroom I normally use still has a leak, but someone is supposed to come fix it today.

His eyes cut to Chase, who’s looking between the two of us with an amused smile. “I didn’t know you had company over.” The way he says it is gruff, annoyance lingering in his low tone as he eyes Chase again on the couch beside me. He’s gripping the railing of the landing tightly when he turns his focus back to me. “I’ve asked you twice not to leave your wet towels laying around.”

My cheeks heat as Chase snickers beside me, and I want to kick him for enjoying me getting chastised. “Technically, you warned me about it once. The second time you asked me not to leave my other stuff lying around.” Actually, it was my bra. My pretty pink lace bra that I accidently left on the door handle because I got distracted. I meant to go back and pick up after myself. Kyler happened to find the mess first and walked into my room with the bra strap dangling off his finger and his raised brows.

“Yet here we are,” Kyler states in exasperation, making me feel worse than I already do. Which is silly because it isn’t like I broke something valuable of his or did something exponentially bad. It’s a wet towel.

“I said I’m sorry,” I repeat, not knowing what else to tell him. He’s been moody all morning. All week, even. I asked Mia if she knows why, but she told me just to leave him be when he gets like this. I don’t remember him acting this way before, so I wonder if his moodiness is a new occurrence, and it doesn’t bring good memories back of Mom. Not that they’re anything alike. When Mom got into moods, she’d lock herself in her room for days and sleep or cry. It’s why she lost so many jobs. She’d stop showing up, and nothing I could do, beg, plead, or bribe, would get her out of bed when she was at her lowest points.

Ky’s eyes go back to Chase. “What are you two doing anyway?”

I point toward the screen where Jurassic Park plays. Chase all but flipped out when he found out I haven’t seen any of the movies, schooling me on all things dinosaur and Jeff Goldblum even though it’s going over my head because I’m not interested in either. “We’re watching a movie. Want to join?”

A strangled sound rises from his throat like he’d rather do anything else. I take it a little personally because I don’t remember him having an aversion to dinosaurs or Jeff Goldblum. “I’ll pass. Just…” He pushes off the railing, shaking his head at something. “Don’t leave your towels around. Or anything else, for that matter.”

The bra. Cringe.

He walks back upstairs, and I find myself watching him until he disappears. Since the night he put me to bed in his room, he’s been a little distant. He made it seem like it was work—a song he couldn’t get right. Knowing there’s nothing I can do to help, I let him be while he worked through it. I haven’t gone to his room on the nights when Mom crosses my mind and insomnia hits me, and he hasn’t made another move to bring me in there. We never even talked about why he did that night.

A door closes with more force than necessary, leaving me wincing into the cushion. He’s mad at me. Sighing, I settle back in and grab the remote, only to find Chase grinning at me.

“You’ve got a little—” He taps his chin with mischievous eyes. “—drool right there you might want to wipe off.”

My jaw drops. “What?”

He laughs loudly. “You just stared at his ass like an art broker at a gallery, Len.”

Oh my— “I did not! He’s my…we’re…” My lack of coherent words only makes him laugh harder until I’m smacking his chest to get him to stop. “Knock it off, Chase.”

He swipes an invisible tear from under his eye and stretches back out. “I’m not judging you or anything. You’re not related after all.”

My entire body feels like it was just thrown into a fire pit. I don’t want to admit that I may have let my eyes wander to his backside, his really nice backside, unintentionally. It happens. If my gaze drifts off and locks somewhere, it’s not really my fault. I was more lost in thought about what else I may have done besides leave a stupid towel around to piss him off.

“Whatever,” I grumble, playing the movie again in hopes it’ll quiet him. Because, yes, I may have noticed the way Kyler looks these days. Toned, muscular, but not overly beefy, trimmed, and…healthy. He looks healthy, and that’s a good thing. I’m happy for him. He’s clearly spent a lot of time on himself over the past couple of years. And if my eyes trail a little too long, it’s not like he hasn’t returned the favor on more than one occasion. We’ve noticed what three years have done for us.

It’s innocent.

It’s innocent, I chant again, though my chest tingles at the words.

“Don’t be mad,” he tells me. When I give him the silent treatment, he groans and moves over to me, stealing the TV controller. “C’mon, Leighton. I didn’t say it to embarrass you. I was just teasing.”

I know he was, but it makes me feel… What exactly? The pit of my stomach has little flutters kicking around in it. Kyler’s always been attractive, but I’ve never thought about it that way. I’ve mostly been told. Girls at school would always bring it up, trying to get details. Reporters would stop and ask what kind of girl could get a “hunk like Kyler Bishop” to settle down. To me he was just a good-looking guy then. Not so bad on the eyes—a viewpoint that was completely innocent. Except now, my stomach tingles with an awareness that I haven’t really felt before when thinking about the valleys between his lean six-pack and it makes me feel off.

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