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“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I knew you were...back.” She frowned.

“I was getting changed after the hike,” he said.

“Right. Did she finish?”

“Yeah,” he said, trying not to think of Rory finishing, by tossing her head back on the pillow, arching her breasts up off the mattress and crying out his name. Because that wasn’t what his sister meant.

It was the strangest thing, to have a good secret. All he’d had these last couple of years were shitty secrets.

Now he had Rory. Naked and soft and all his.

“She did great. She...” He kept trying to not think about the sex, but he was losing that battle. “She was brave.”

Lydia smiled. “Iknewshe could do it. Everybody was just so mean to her in school. Can you imagine trying to do something like that with a whole bunch of people who are rooting for you to fail? I have always been her friend, but I understand why I wasn’t quite enough. How could I be? When you have all those people, all those voices, saying all of that awful stuff to you, it just makes it not worth it.”

“Well. She did great. And she didn’t need me. She was an absolute champion.”

“Thank you.” Lydia looked down at her hands and made a study of her own thumbnail. “Will you please come over for dinner tomorrow?”

The realization she was afraid to ask hit him like a brick. That he was such a grumpy jerk so much of the time she expected him to turn her down.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice rough. “I could do that.”

“Would you mind if I invited Rory? I want to hear more about the hike.”

“Oh. Yeah. I mean, you could,” he said, feeling like the first time he and Rory saw each other after sex should maybe not be with his mother and sister, but...

“Great. I’ll give her a call.” She paused. “Thank you for doing that. For taking her. For taking care of her.”

“Yeah,” he said, feeling like a dick. “No problem.”

She grinned. He felt worse. “Looking forward to seeing you.”

“Yeah.”

As soon she left, he realized that he didn’t have Rory’s number, which seemed ridiculous. But they’d done all their planning in person. He went over to the little binder that was in the drawer in the kitchen that had information on the rental, and inside was Rory’s cell phone number. He opened up a text message and entered the number.

My sister is going to invite you to dinner. Just a heads-up.

He sent it off.

A second later, the phone rang.

“Do you want me to come?”

He stared at the back wall. “Yeah. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable.”

“Good. I just... Given everything,” he said.

“Do you not want me to go?” she asked again. “Because I can tell her... Oh, she’s calling right now.”

“You can go. Please go. If you can. I mean, don’t rearrange anything on my account.”

“I can handle myself. I’ll see you later.”