Page 77 of Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor 2)

But really, he couldn’t legitimately suggest they pick up where they left off until moving day was over. She was stressed and distracted, understandably so. He also wanted to wait until Michael had gone home. If Jack had gone all big brother on him, who’s to say what the actual big brother would do? Hi, I’m here to defile your sister, but don’t worry, we’re both down with keeping it casual.

So he drove to Starbucks and ordered a bunch of coffees and breakfast sandwiches, and crossed his fingers as he rang the doorbell that everyone was already up.

“Oh!” Amy exclaimed when she swung open the door. Her face lit up for a split second before it shuttered. “I told you not to come.”

The trick here was to endure the body doing one thing—sweating, tensing up, yearning at the sight of the should-be-illegal beauty before him—while the face did another. Namely, be cool.

“I know. I just thought I’d see if you needed any help.” He extended the Starbucks tray. “Or coffee.”

She stared, frozen as if undecided about permitting his continued presence. He hadn’t yet decided on his next argument when the brother came to his rescue.

“Dax, is it?” Michael came forward and took a coffee. “Thanks, man. We’re actually in pretty good shape—we’ve been packing all night—but I could use some help taking apart some of the furniture. And we haven’t gone to the storage place yet, so if you’re still offering…”

“You got it. Whatever you need.” Though he was talking to Michael, Dax let himself take one more look at Amy. She was wearing a baggy T-shirt, and she had a smudge of dirt on one cheek. Her lips were pursed but after a moment she sighed, and he knew he’d won the right to stay—for now.

…

By ten, when Cassie and Jack showed up, they were actually almost done.

That didn’t mean Amy wasn’t a basket case, though. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe it was the act of going through every single item she owned and ruthlessly assessing it against a strict set of criteria she’d established to determine what would make the cut into her new life. Maybe it was saying good-bye to her first house. Maybe it was finding little things that reminded her of Mason, whether they were actually things he’d left behind, like those spacers that allow you to play forty-fives on a record player, or just things that brought to mind happier days, like the big pasta bowl they’d bought to use at their first dinner party.

Maybe it was saying good-bye to the life she’d always thought she wanted.

Or maybe, a little voice inside her said, it was saying good-bye to what she couldn’t have. Which was, irritatingly, upstairs banging around in her bedroom. How ironic.

How heartbreaking.

No, not heartbreaking, she told the little voice. She reminded it that she and Dax had never been more than friends—or frenemies, or whatever. Your frenemy couldn’t break your heart. They’d both clearly wanted a casual thing. It ran its course, which, on account of the spectacular sex, was a bummer, but if she was heartbroken right now, it was because she was literally packing up and leaving the life she’d planned on for so long with Mason.

“Everything okay?” Jack asked as he returned with Michael and Dax from a tour of the house. The three of them had been discussing how to stage the rest of the work.

“Yep!” she chirped. The look Jack shot her suggested he didn’t believe her. But he didn’t press her. She took a deep breath. “What needs to be done, still?”

“Not much, really,” Michael said. “The guys and I are going to move most of the upstairs boxes into one room so it will be easier for the movers, but that’s pretty much it. I have to say, we really killed it last night, little sis. And Dax, you were a lifesaver with those big pieces of furniture.”

“Why don’t you and I start cleaning this floor?” Cassie said. “Then you won’t have to come back and do it later.”

Amy had been going to hire a cleaning service, but she nodded her agreement. It was better to be busy, to give her agitated mind something to focus on.

By the time Danny rang the doorbell just before noon, bearing lunch, everything was ready to go and the place was sparkling.

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