“He must have told you why he showed up.”
“Nope.”
“And you didn't ask him?”
“There wasn't exactly room for a lot of questions.”
Lily pretended to put her hands over her ears. “I'm not sure I can listen to any more of the details.”
Janica leaned forward on the counter and said in a hushed tone, “Well first he—”
At Lily's horrified look she started laughing, incredibly glad for the chance to feel some lightness for just a few moments. “Just kidding. You know I don't kiss and tell.”
“Who's the lucky guy this time?” Travis said, walking in at the tail end of her sentence, carrying a basketball.
Lily simply lit up when she saw her husband. Janica was momentarily forgotten as Travis and Lily put their arms around each other and kissed. A little while later, Lily shot her a questioning look.
No! Janica shot back silently.
All she needed was for Travis to find out about her and Luke. Wouldn't he just love that?
She'd never ever—ever!—hear the end of it from her pain-in-the-ass brother-in-law.
The kids came barreling into the kitchen a second later. “Daddy! Auntie Jan is taking us for cupcakes!” Violet yelled as he squatted down and she threw herself into his arms.
Sammy was right behind her. “Cupcakes! Cupcakes!”
After telling them how excited he was about their good fortune, he shot Janica a scowl. “Nothing like a bunch of sugar to really make things easy on their parents.”
“You're welcome,” she said with an unapologetic smile she knew would really irk her sister's husband.
Lily looked at the clock on the kitchen wall and frowned. “I thought you and Luke were meeting to play basketball?”
“He stood me up so I picked up a quick game with a couple of guys already there.”
Lily glanced at Janica. “Is something wrong with Luke that you haven't told me?”
Travis didn't look at all concerned as he opened the fridge and got out a bottle of orange juice. “He probably got called into the ER. You know how nuts his schedule is.”
As soon as he left to take a shower, Lily grabbed the phone. “I've got to talk to Luke, make sure he's okay.”
Janica leapt up to grab the phone out of Lily's hand. “No. Please. This is already so embarrassing. If you call him, you'll end up saying something about me. I know you will.”
“I promise I won't, Jan, but he's my best friend. I have to find out what's going on.”
Less than a minute later, Lily put the phone back down on the counter. “He didn't answer at home or at work. And his cell phone said his voice mail is full. This isn't like him, Jan.”
Janica already knew that. Clearly, the only reason why he'd come over to her place was because something was very, very wrong. But the sex had been too all-consuming for her to even begin to ask him any questions.
And he'd gotten the hell out of there before she could.
Lily wasn't the only one worried about Luke.
Because even though he'd walked out on her, Janica was too.
And no matter how tempting it was to try and pretend nothing with Luke had ever happened, she knew she couldn't pull it off.
Not when taking risks was what Janica did.