Flawless River (Grizzly Bear Lake #2) - Ruby Shae Page 0,27

but she paused when she looked up and saw both Elle and Lacey staring at her.

“What?” she asked.

“That’s what we would like to know,” Lacey said. “You’ve been wearing that huge grin all morning, and we know it has something to do with my brother, so you need to start talking.”

“Yeah, we want all the dirt,” Elle added. “Has he kissed you yet?”

“Just don’t forget that he’s my brother,” Lacey laughed. “I don’t need details about the sexy stuff, I just want to know whether or not it’s happened. So, has it?”

“I…”

Stacey stared at the two women, and thought about what to say. Should she tell them about the kiss? Or kisses? Because she’d kissed him at least once every day this week, but no one had been around to see it.

It wasn’t a secret though…at least she didn’t think it was supposed to be.

After their first kiss, she and Lael had stopped at the main house for more sweets, and then holed up in her cabin and tried painting by numbers. It was the first craft they’d decided on, and they had both kind of sucked at it. So much that they’d had to take a break and finish the project the following day.

Unfortunately, the pause hadn’t helped.

Lael had wanted to throw his painting in the trash, but she’d insisted on keeping them both, and had tacked them to the wall in her bedroom. The next couple of days had been spent trying to make paracord bracelets, learning to crochet, and stringing beads for jewelry.

The last project was what had her smiling all morning. After stringing his beads for a bracelet, Lael had picked up his string while not paying attention, and all of the beads had gone flying across the room. The look on his face had sent her into a fit a giggles that left her with an aching tummy.

When she’d finally calmed down, and they had found most of the beads, he’d kissed her goodbye the same way he had every night since their first kiss in the shed. That first kiss had been less than a week ago, but it felt like ages, and she desperately wanted more.

“Okay, they’ve definitely kissed,” Elle laughed. “Otherwise she would have denied it a long time ago.”

“Exactly,” Lacey added. “So, are you guys dating now?”

Stacey looked at their eager faces and realized that both women considered her a friend, and this was what friends did. They gossiped and shared with each other because they cared, and not because they were trying to dig up dirt to use against her later. Personally, she’d never had any dirt to dig up, but she’d seen enough back-stabbing in her parents’ and sister’s circles of friends that she understood how it all worked.

What she didn’t understand was having actual friends, because even though she’d spent a lifetime trying to become perfect, everyone knew she wasn’t, and no one wanted to be friends with someone who didn’t fit in.

“We’re just friends,” she started.

“But you have kissed him,” Lacey added.

“Yeah.”

She knew her cheeks were on fire, but she didn’t try to hide her embarrassment. Their teasing didn’t hurt, and it felt good to have someone to confide in. Hopefully, she hadn’t read them wrong, and they wouldn’t betray her.

“I knew it,” Lacey said, pumping the air with her fist.

“Me too,” Elle laughed, “but I’m guessing you’ve kissed him a lot, and that’s not what has you smiling so big, so what happened?”

They were both staring at her again, and she wanted to tell them, but sharing also felt like a betrayal to Lael. Would he get angry if she shared the bead story? She didn’t think so—he hardly got angry over anything—but she just wasn’t sure, and she didn’t want to ruin anything between them.

But she also really wanted some girlfriends to talk to, so she decided on the short version. She told them how they were stringing beads, and how his went flying across the room, and how they ended up on the floor laughing and searching for all of the pieces.

At the end of her story, all three of them were laughing hard, and she had to admit that it felt good.

“I can’t believe you have my brother crafting,” Lacey said between giggles. “He’s great at a lot of things, but crafting isn’t one of them. He’s definitely in love.”

Love?

That wasn’t right. They were friends. With some benefits, sure, but he didn’t love her. They weren’t even dating—yet—although he had been honest about