ask you ridiculously inappropriate and personal questions simply for having any association with me at all.”
“Just give him the phone, you silly twat.” Lexie was audible even from a distance.
Torie took the phone back. “What the hell did you just call me?”
“I mean it with love, Tor, you know that.”
“Well, coming from someone who was majoring in women’s lit, and was all about liberation and equality and whatever, it’s kind of a gross thing to call me.”
Lexie’s response was garbled, too muffled for me to make out, but it seemed to mollify Torie, and she handed me the phone again.
“Hi, this is Rhys,” I said.
“Rhys, buddy, hi, how are you?” Lexie’s voice, which I recognized from YouTube and other social media, was deceptively friendly and breezy.
Which made me distinctly wary, considering Torie’s warning.
“I’m good, how are you? It’s nice to meet you, sort of.”
A pause. “Is my sister sitting right next to you?”
“Yeah.”
“Can she hear me?”
I glanced at Torie, who was watching but didn’t give any indication that she’d heard the question.
“I don’t know, maybe?”
Another pause. “Have you had sex with my sister, and if not, do you plan to have sex with my sister at any point in the near future?”
I coughed. “Well…right out with it, huh? All right, I can respect that.” I stood up, paced down the steps a ways. “If I had or hadn’t, I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling you. I haven’t met you face to face, number one, number two, that would be between Torie and me, and number three, if Torie wants you to know the answer to that, she’ll tell you. I’ve got no issue with her telling you the answer to that question, but it’s not my place to do so.”
“Huh,” she mused. “Damn good answer. Not the one I was hoping for, but a good one.”
“Anything else you want to know?”
“I mean, yeah. A ton of stuff I doubt you’ll answer. What are your intentions? What do you want from her? Why are you going so far out of your way to help her? What’s going to happen between you two when she’s out here in Alaska and you’re not?”
I barked a laugh. “Honestly, I can’t answer any of that, because I don’t really know.” I moved further down the steps, out of earshot of Torie. “Mainly because it’s not like that. It may not ever be like that. I can’t say part of me doesn’t want it to be like that because she’s cool as hell and gorgeous. But…Alaska?”
“But Alaska, right.” She sighed. “All right, well…I can’t argue with that answer. Just…be careful with her, okay? Don’t hurt her.”
I laughed. “She’s not delicate, Lexie. She’s strong, and she’s smart. She can take care of herself. I have no intentions of hurting her, of course, but telling me to be careful with her seems like you’re a little…unaware of her strength as a person.”
“Damn, okay, tell me how it is.”
“Just saying.”
“Game respects game, Rhys. All right, give me my sister back.”
“Yeah. Bye. Good talking to you, Lexie.”
“You too, Rhys.”
I went up and gave the phone back to a wary and bemused Torie. I just shrugged, grinned, and headed back inside.
Torie was out there a few more minutes and then came in, phone in hand. “What did she ask you?”
I debated what to say and what to not say. And in the end figured I had nothing to lose by telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. “She asked if we’d had sex, if I planned to have sex with you, what my intentions for you are, why I’m helping you, and what’s going to happen between us when you’re in Alaska and I’m here.”
Her eyes widened, and a flush crept up into her cheeks. “And? What’d you say? About the first two questions specifically.”
“I said it wasn’t my place to answer that, and if you wanted her to know you’d tell her. And that I had no problem with you and her talking about what you and I have and have not done together.”
“I’m sorry she asked you that—” Torie started.
I interrupted. “Don’t be. You’re lucky as hell to have the kind of family and friends that check in on you like this, that are willing to ask those kinds of questions. I don’t mind. I’m not going to answer questions I don’t think are my place to answer, but I respect the fact that they love you enough to ask.”
“Your family doesn’t do that? What about friends?”
I shrugged.