Holley slid her gaze to me. “Put your damn dress down.”
I shoved it down and hopped off the desk. “It was an accident?”
“I’m sure it was,” she drawled. “At least you got most of the boxes sorted before your teen orgy session.”
“I can explain.”
She looked at me, adjusting her glasses before she tightened one of her pigtails. “Kins, you don’t owe me an explanation for anything. Besides, Saylor told me everything she knows last night. This just happened a little faster than I expected.”
I paused.
“If you’re about to ask me if I’m going to tell your brother, the answer is no. I’m no snitch.” She tilted her head to the side. “Knowing Josh, you’ve got more than enough issues in that department.”
I got up as my shoulders sagged. If only she knew. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t forced it, but I didn’t blame him for it.
I guessed.
I understood where he was coming from, but that didn’t mean I was willing to let some years’ old pact control my life.
I had a say in it, too.
“Is this his lunch?” Holley dug into the bag. “Smells like steak.”
“I don’t think he’s coming back for it right now,” I said, grabbing my own sandwich. “Go ahead.”
“At least he moved all the boxes before he let his dick take control.” She raised the sandwich. “I’ll eat to that.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN – KINSLEY
rule fifteen: don’t kiss and tell. ever. unless your best friend sees you, then you don’t have a choice.
More than twenty-four hours after what I was referring to as the incident in the bookstore, I hadn’t heard from Josh.
Now, don’t look at me like that.
It wasn’t like I’d reached out to him, either.
It was all well and good for kissing and yelling to happen when you were all kinds of frustrated and annoyed, but it was another thing to have to deal with the aftermath.
Especially when I was faced with the reality that I maybe hadn’t been as understanding as I should have been.
Josh and Colton had been friends their entire life, and if they’d made a promise to each other that they wouldn’t cross the line with each other’s sisters, then maybe I had to respect that.
But I also didn’t like the fact decisions like that had been made for me.
It wasn’t like I was a naïve fifteen-year-old girl doodling names on my math book. I was a twenty-six-year-old business owner and capable of making my own decisions.
Not that I wanted to date Josh. The semantics of the whole thing gave me a headache. He’d been so adamantly against it until I’d crossed the line and kissed him that the thought of taking anything any further just felt like a huge angst fest.
I liked angst in my books, not in my real life.
I didn’t have the patience for it in real life. Although, judging by how many books I’d thrown at walls, I didn’t have much for it in fiction, either.
But still.
I was getting off topic.
Josh and I had to talk about this. We had to address what had happened and what it meant before anything else could happen, and that was exactly why I was standing outside Bookworm’s Books with my phone in my hand and my thumb hovering over his name.
It was easier said than done.
Instead of calling him, I took the wimp’s way out and texted.
ME: We need to talk.
I would stand here for ten minutes, and if he didn’t reply, I’d get in my car, pick up my pizza, and go home.
If he agreed, I’d pick up my pizza and head to his place.
A part of me was hoping he wouldn’t. That he wouldn’t text back. That he would never speak to me ever, ever again.
I mean, I’d practically been dry humping him.
I didn’t know what the etiquette was for a conversation after dry humping someone,
Not to mention that the person who was supposed to help me with those things was the person I’d dry humped.
What a clusterfuck this was.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I tilted it to see the notification.
JOSH: We do. Are you at home?
ME: No. I just finished work and am grabbing food. I can bring it over.
JOSH: I don’t mind coming over.
ME: Pizza is closer to your place.
JOSH: And you can’t run away when it inevitably gets awkward if we’re at your house?
ME: Exactly.
Well, this was going to be horrible, but at least we both had the same expectations of the conversation.
I tossed my phone in my purse and exchanged it for my keys. I was only parked a few feet away since I’d opened this morning and got the coveted front parking spot, so I got into my car and headed in the direction of Hot Stone Pizzeria.
Now I was really glad I’d thought to add a few extras onto my order.
When I got there, I only had to wait a few minutes for everything to be boxed up. Since Josh lived in the new build neighborhood nearby, it only took a few more for me to turn out of town and head in that direction.
His truck was parked in his driveway, but there was enough space for me to pull up behind him, so I did just that.
Josh was already at the front door when I got out of the car, and I groaned silently. He was wearing a white t-shirt and gray sweatpants.
Literal porn for a woman right there.
As if this situation wasn’t hard enough, I was going to have a lady boner the entire time.
I should have brought alcohol instead of pizza.
“Let me take that.” He cut me off halfway to the front door and took all the food.
“Thanks.” I locked my car and followed him inside, closing the door behind me. He led me down to his man cave
