me and my brother,” Jayla says, walking by. “Embarrassing.”
“It’s cool,” I say, and she looks at me like I just said the sky was green.
“Right, well, I’m gonna go hit the shower, so make yourselves at home. But not as at home as you did when Kai was here.” Jayla narrows her eyes at Peak before disappearing up the stairs.
“What’s that about?” I quirk up the side of my mouth with the dimple. I know how much she likes it, so maybe it will distract her from the super-invasive question I have no right to ask but also really fucking need the answer to. I know she said she hooked up with them; I just didn’t think she meant like hooked up hooked up. It’s fine.
This is fine.
“Jubilee got a little frisky down here once, and, um, they weren’t discreet,” Nikki pipes up.
I look back at Peak, who has turned bright red. “Shut up, Nikki!”
“Hey, he asked! And it’s a thousand times worse for me than it ever could be for Ridley, because it was with my cousin.”
I grab Peak’s hand and try to give her a reassuring smile. “I did ask.”
She huffs and rolls her eyes, tugging me over to the couch. “She didn’t have to answer you.” Part of me, the part of me that’s . . . less good than I want to be . . . wonders if this is the couch where she—
“Bats,” she says, and that word will always, always work. “Stop overthinking things.” She ruffles my hair and settles in while Nikki flips through the channels.
Cooper trots up a set of tiny dog stairs at the other end of the enormous couch and curls up in Peak’s lap with a big yawn.
“You guys are adorable,” Nikki says before settling on some cheesy movie on cable.
I clear my throat to respond, but take too long, so everybody goes back to watching TV. It’s fine.
pullittogether
We’re just past the meet-cute and elbows deep into a commercial break when Jayla comes back in the room. She shoots me a look that kind of freaks me out, but I focus on the warmth of Peak’s body pressed into mine and how steady her breathing is. Peak makes everything seem more . . . manageable.
“Your turn,” Jayla says, scooting Nikki out of the chair and dropping into it in her place. She’s wearing threadbare pajama pants with little llamas on them that say DRAMA LLAMA and a bright pink sweatshirt that hurts to look at. I admire how she doesn’t give a shit about making a good impression on me.
She pours some lotion in her hands, rubbing it into her skin while glaring at the TV. “Did Nikki pick this?”
“Yeah, it’s cute,” Peak says, sitting forward a little. Cooper seems to take issue with the new position and jumps down off the couch with his nose in the air.
Jayla rolls her eyes and changes the channel to a cartoon. “Hey, Jubi, do you mind running him out for me? I’d do it, but I’m in my PJs,” she says. “If Coop has an accident on this carpet, my mom will flip.”
“Seriously?” Peak says. “Since when do you care? You’ve gone to school in your pajamas.”
“Please, Jubi.”
Peak glances back at me, looking worried. “Come with me?”
“He’s fine,” Jayla says. “I don’t bite. You’ll only be gone a second. I’m sure he can handle it.”
“Do you mind?” she asks, and I don’t miss the hope in her voice. It feels a little bit like my sister asking me if I’m safe, and it makes me bristle.
“It’s fine. Walk the dog.” I expected this, to be honest. Although, to be fair, I definitely did not expect the lecture would come from someone in drama-llama pants. And yet.
And yet.
Peak looks at me once more, and then a whine from Cooper seems to seal the deal. She hops up and slips his leash off the hook on the wall, clipping it onto him and stepping out the sliding glass door on the other