yet she feels like a true sister.
“So,” she says, her eyes sweeping over my dress. “Are you going out later?”
“I don’t think so, no.”
“Well, you look like a million bucks,” she says. I glance down, and oh my poor heart is vain, but I feel strengthened by her compliment. A short gray dress contrasted with a knitted sweater. Stockings and boots and my hair soft around my shoulders. It’s a fall look, designed to show off my legs.
“Thank you,” I say, winking. “I dressed up for you.”
Skye rolls her eyes. “Liar. But if that makes you feel more comfortable, I won’t press you for the true reason.”
My words falter in my mouth. I want to ask her to explain herself—does she know about Nick and me?—but we’re walking into the living room and the chance is lost.
There’s no way she suspects. What Skye knows, she’d tell Cole, and my brother is still beautifully oblivious. He wouldn’t be able to hide it.
He sweeps me into a hug, tweaking my nose when he leans back—he knows I hate that under the best of circumstances. And with Nicholas Park, who not twenty-four hours ago was inside of me, observing the exchange is not the best of circumstances.
Cole’s smile is wide. “Apparently you’re excellent at what you do at Nick’s firm.”
My eyes flit past his shoulder to lock on Nick’s. He doesn’t look away. “I am?”
“Yes,” Cole continues. “I pretended to be surprised, but of course I wasn’t.”
“Of course,” I repeat dazedly. Nick nods his hello to me before taking another sip of his drink. His face is impassive again, no hint of amusement in his eyes and no sardonic smile lurking in the corner of his mouth.
“Not to mention that you’re both here together and we didn’t have to trick you or hold you here under duress.” Cole’s smile is still wide.
No, he definitely doesn’t suspect anything.
“Progress,” Nick intones, raising his glass as a toast to me. I feel burned by the intensity in his gaze. Play along, it says. You promised to behave.
“Progress,” I echo.
The sound of footsteps on the staircase breaks us out of our staring contest. Timmy comes barreling down, Skye’s nephew, a boy of fourteen. Puberty has just started to grab a hold of the boy and his gangly limbs are longer every time I see him.
He stops next to his aunt. “I heard dinner was done.”
“So it is.” She reaches up and pushes his hair back. They’re almost the same height now. “I booked a time at the hairdresser tomorrow. Your hair is really getting too long.”
A faint blush spreads across Timmy’s cheeks. He pushes her hand away. “Hi, Blair,” he says to me.
I smile at him. He often spends the night at Skye and Cole’s place, and they’ve given him his own room. “Hey, kid. How’s it going?”
“Good.” He comes up beside me. “Cole and I just managed to get tickets for the Super Bowl.” His voice cracked once, faintly.
“What, really?”
“Yes.” His wide grin is infectious. The discussion takes up a fair amount of bandwidth around the dinner table, with both Nick and Cole chiming in. Skye sends me a commiserating look across the table. Neither she nor I have ever been able to cultivate any true interest in baseball.
Nick and Cole smile, too, at the occasional crack in Timmy’s voice. It’s only after dinner, when he scampers back upstairs to his new video game—my brother spoils him beyond belief—that they both laugh.
“I remember that,” Nick says. “Thank God it only lasts a few months, at best.”
“Cole’s voice cracked for at least a year.” I sink deeper into the armchair, nodding to where my brother is sitting with his arm around Skye.
“Really?” she asks.
“Oh, yes. And Lairy didn’t let me live that down, either.”
Nick sits in the armchair beside mine. His dark eyes find mine. “Can you really be that cruel?”
I cross my legs and feel a slice of triumph as his eyes take in the movement. The dress had been an excellent choice. “Sometimes.”
“She was merciless,” Cole adds. “But I’ve teased her about a fair number of things too, so I’d say we’re even.”
“Even?” I feign mock outrage. “Any younger sibling knows that there’s no such thing as even. Skye, help me out.”
She nods sagely. “They can tickle you, you can’t tickle them. They can tease you, you can’t tease them. I’m with Blair here. You had to take every chance you got.”
“Show no mercy, take no hostages,” I say. And then, because I can’t resist,