Page 60 of The Fast Lane
His laughter could be heard even with the door closed.
“How was sleeping in the same room as Grandpa?” I asked, after flopping on one of the beds.
Theo glanced at me over the top of his laptop. “Loud. That guy does not know the meaning of an inside voice, does he? I also had to run to the store last night for distilled water for his sleep machine and he was up by five this morning. Singing in the bathroom.”
I snickered. “Sounds like fun.”
“A real joy,” he muttered and went back to typing furiously.
“Kind of grumpy this morning, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said, not looking up. “Didn’t sleep well.”
Me neither, not that I’d tell him that. Then he might think I’d been up half the night replaying that kiss, and the other half having dreams about what could have happened after it. I’ll say this: my fantasies were getting better. Sigh.
I slipped off my backpack and made myself comfortable. Whatever Theo was working on, it had him completely immersed and it seemed like I’d be here a while. I wondered if it was the same “project” he had been working on yesterday morning.
Theo had always liked writing. Reading, too. When I was younger, he’d make up stories for me, fantastical tales with dragons and princesses who kicked ass and the princes she rescued. (Say what you will, but Theo knew his audience.)
He’d also loved baseball. His senior year, he’d had offers from more than one university. When he’d crushed his ankle in that car accident, his chances to play in college were crushed too. He’d pivoted though, settling on a journalism degree with a history minor. His job working as a sports writer for one of the big papers in Houston seemed to be the perfect fit for him.
I got up and began to pace the room, that anxious energy from earlier making a comeback. In a couple of hours, I would be talking to my brother face-to-face. I shook my arms out, the nervousness settling in my limbs.
I stopped in front of Theo, tapping my fingertips on the table. With a grin, he pressed two more keys with a flourish. He leaned back, looking pleased with himself. “Done.”
“Great.” I rolled my hand at him in the universal “get a move on it” motion. “I’m starving.”
“Give me a second and then we can go eat.” He stood and stretched, revealing a stripe of pale skin between his shorts and t-shirt. Which I tried so hard not to notice. There was zero, zilch, nada, nothing remotely provocative or alluring about the move. The man was stretching. It wasn’t even an important inch of skin.
But this is what my life had come to—a glance at an innocent piece of skin and I was scandalized in all the right ways. And yet…had I not, mere hours before, agreed that we were friends in a friendship who were friendly to each other? Said friendship did not include ogling. Or kissing. Definitely no more kissing.
God, I wanted to kiss him again.
I schooled my face into a friendly, innocent smile but my voice was much too loud when I spoke. “You do that.”
“You nervous about seeing Abe?”
I nodded, my hands fussing with the hem of my t-shirt.
Rounding the table, he put his hands on my shoulders and turned me to face him. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Yeah, it will be okay.”
“It will be. Believe it.” Then before I could blink, he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Be right back.”
“Okay,” I sighed and tried not to melt into a puddle of gooey, heart-eye emotions, or worse, throw myself at him.
Back to pacing. I juggled my phone between my hands and debated texting Mae and Ellie and asking for advice. Something like, “How about that Astros’ game? What stocks should I invest in? Also, Theo and I accidentally kissed and even though we both swore it didn’t mean anything, I can’t help thinking it meant something.”
That needed more than a text to work through. At least a phone call. Perhaps a weekend retreat with professional help.
The phone tumbled from my hands and landed by Theo’s chair.
“Crap.” I bent to pick it up, my hip bumping the table. When I stood up, the laptop screen was right in front of me, and it was awake and staring at me. I shouldn’t have done it. I should have gone back to the other side of the room and waited on Theo, but it was right there, whatever he’d been working on so intently a few minutes ago. Who among us wouldn’t look? I’m not that strong.
With a glance toward the bathroom door, I hunched over the laptop and began reading.
…he unhooked the buttons of her dress slowly, one at a time like the best kind of torture. Her chest rose and fell faster, her breath unsteady…