Page 67 of Fall for Me

“You expecting someone new at the table tonight?”

I’d been staring out the door after him. Outside it was freezing, the stars brilliant.

“It’s nothing,” I said, my breath making a plume in the night air.

It wasn’t—it had to be.

It was idiotic to think Chelsea might show up here again unannounced. Not after I told her point blank we shouldn’t hang out anymore. But my idiot heart couldn’t drop the hope it held lodged inside. And I had to admit it was my heart leading the charge at this point. The moment she walked into my office yesterday, I knew. I knew by the way the air around me crackled when she entered a room, sending heat all over me. I knew by the way I weighed every word she spoke, like I’d never heard it quite like that before. I knew by the way all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her and push the world away; to keep her safe from anything and everything, that I was falling for my best friend’s little sister.

And that, I knew, was dangerous.

I pulled the door shut. “Come on, let’s lose some money.”

Ben raised an eyebrow but strode in anyway, leaving me peering out the glass panel at the top of my door even after I closed it.

I grimaced, following Ben over to the table, where Ulli was already shuffling the deck of cards.

“Beer?” Ulli asked, pointing his chin at the flat on the counter.

“Oh,” I said, surprised. I had beer in the fridge, but it wasn’t the good craft stuff Ulli had brought.

Winona, in the kitchen and already going through my cupboard, called out. “Oh no. Shay-shay needs something stronger tonight, don’t you, Shay?”

She was the only one who got away with calling me that.

And she wasn’t wrong. She pulled a bottle of single-malt scotch from her bag and I nodded gratefully. Ten minutes later, we were all at the table with cards in our hands and cash on the table, and for a little while, I was distracted enough that I only checked my phone twice.

“Okay, you going to tell me what’s up?” Winona asked when we took our first break. Eli still hadn’t shown up, and Ulrich and Ben were arguing about some obscure band while rooting through my cupboard for plates for the snacks Ben had brought. All normal poker night behavior, but tonight it felt like I was watching someone else’s buddies from someone else’s dining room table.

“Not really,” I said, downing my scotch.

Winona drummed her fingers on the table. “Nope.”

“What?”

“You’re not not telling me.”

“You’re wrong.”

“If you don’t spill, you know I’ll just ask Eli.”

My stomach dropped. She would, too. She always did when I didn’t give her all the information she wanted on anything. Which was always.

But her asking Eli why I was acting weird wouldn’t lead to anything good.

Eli would ask, and then he would see right through me.

The whole mess was just proof I should have left everything the fuck alone. But something poked at me. Something Chelsea had said, back on the ridge. How she had friends but wasn’t close because she never shared anything. With Winona—hell, even Ben and Ulli—I didn’t share much. But all signs pointed to them not being dicks about if I did. Suddenly, the thought of not keeping this horrible, beautiful secret—that I was falling for my best friend’s little sister, and that it scared the ever-loving shit out of me—felt so relieving, so… freeing, I felt my pulse skip.

I swallowed.

“Winona, if I tell you, you have to promise—blood oath level promise—you won’t tell Eli. Not now, not yet, and maybe… maybe not ever.” Probably not ever. Chelsea said she needed a fresh start, and that sure as hell didn’t include throwing a wrench into her family life. Plus, I’d never had a successful relationship that lasted with anyone. Even if she was interested, the odds were stacked against me, and then where would Eli and I be?

Winona raised her eyebrows. Everyone knew Eli and I didn’t have any secrets—not anything serious, anyway. That we’d been friends since we were kids and weren’t afraid to tell each other hard shit.

Winona nodded. “Yeah, of course. Shit, b’y, I promise.”

I ran a hand through my hair, lowering my voice. “I think… I’m into his sister.”

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