Page 37 of The Exception

I steered her toward the couch. “I don’t know how long either of us will be awake, but no reason we can’t start making up for that now, and pick up in the morning where we leave off.”

She settled next to me on the cushions, and leaned into me when I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She rested her head on my chest.

This was warm. Cuddly. Achingly sweet. And my ex-boyfriend-slash-de-facto-arch-nemesis was in the other room with a broken ankle, and regardless of what happened between Kandace and I, it was clear she was attracted to both of us.

This whole thing was a mess. But for tonight, I had her to myself.

I’d deal with reality later.

14

kandace

Eliand I moved into a bedroom before we completely passed out. I could’ve grabbed one of my own, but I was still riding the high of one of the most bizarre nights of my life, and for some reason sharing a bed when there were others in the house added to the madcap feeling.

Especially when I stripped down to a T-shirt and panties, and crawled under the blankets with Eli, who only wore boxer briefs. It was wicked and playful and made me feel like I was getting away with something naughty.

Because that was how devoid of excitement my life normally was.

Waking up the next morning to sunlight hitting my face was different. I was usually up long before this. What was that faint buzzing noise?

“Is that my phone?” When Eli mumbled the question, half-awake and still wrapped around me, the vibration teased over me. “Is it yours? Have the birds learned to use electric shavers?”

The ludicrous question, how easily it came to him, made me smile. “I’d love to know what the birds need to shave.”

“Their nests. They use the things like little mini lawnmowers. Either that, or their balls.”

My surprised laugh slipped out as I reached for my purse, where I’d left it on the nightstand. I swore I’d smiled and laughed more in the last twelve hours than in the last year. I grabbed my phone, to see if the noise was me.

I had five missed calls, and fifteen unread text messages. My gut sank as the device recognized my face and showed me previews of both. It looked like they were all from Lucas. I sat straight up, and scrolled through the texts first, because there were more and that was fastest.

“Everything all right?” Eli’s tone shifted like that.

I held up a finger, to indicate I needed a minute. The first note was innocuous enough, and came in nearly three hours ago.Hey, Mom. How was your date?

From there, the messages slid to,give me a call?

ThenYou’re okay, right?

I really need to talk.

Please call me back?

And became more insistent from there.

The voice mails were time-stamped after the text messages, though the content was about the same. The last one ended with, “if you don’t call me back in the next five minutes, I will freak the fuck out.”

The actual freak-out had started about three hours ago, when I didn’t answer his first couple of messages. I probably would’ve reacted the same way, and I was already dialing his number.

“Mom? Are you alive? Blink if you can’t talk. Wait, I can’t see you.”

“I’m fine,” I said before things could get worse. “I just overslept.”

“Oh, God. Did they tie you up? Are they torturing you? Do you need ransom money? Give me your PIN. I promise to only drain as much cash as they want.” Now he was teasing me.

“I promise, I’m fine.” Though, it was a bit awkward having this conversation in front of Eli. I glanced over my shoulder to see him dressing quietly, and slipping from the room.

In my ear, Lucas sighed. “Okay. As long as you’re all right.” Something was off about his tone.

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