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chapter twenty-four

Jillian

“ N othing makes me feel cozier than a storm like this,” Abigail said, curling her legs beneath herself on the sectional in the Gardners’ living room. Outside, the rain was coming down in heavy sheets, and Sarah had just gone around to light a few candles just in case the power went out.

It took a few seconds for me to realize Abigail was looking at me when she spoke. I was sitting closest to her, after all. I nodded in agreement, glancing down at the wine cooler in my hand. “Agreed. I almost feel like we should all be drinking hot tea.”

“Long Island Iced Tea, maybe,” Erika said with a laugh.

“I’ve seen you after two Long Island Iced Teas from Applebee’s.” Sean shook his head, putting his arm around his wife. “Let’s not go there.”

When the rain forced us to move our book club meeting inside, we were so loud the men couldn’t focus on their poker game.

Eventually, they must have decided if they couldn’t beat us, they might as well join us.

Everyone spread out around the Gardners’ spacious living room, with some of us sitting on the floor so all twelve of us had a spot.

I’d started out on the rug, but Meghan told me to get my “crippled ass” on the couch. I was grateful, too, because the soft couch was gentler on my aching hips.

Xander sat in front of the fireplace, scrolling through his phone like he wasn’t paying attention, though I’d caught him laughing under his breath more than once. We hadn’t said much to each other that night, but there was no weirdness.

However, I found myself being careful to avoid any opportunity to be alone with him. Because on Monday, it had felt like he was on the verge of asking me a question I didn’t want to answer. If that man thought we were still going to casually hook up, he was going to be very disappointed.

On my other side, Meghan and Chase were sharing the big recliner, with her legs draped over his lap. I grinned over at them as I sipped my drink. “You guys are sitting in the sex chair,” I said.

“The, uh… the what?” Meghan stared down at the arm of the brown leather chair like it would give her some clue as to what I’d meant. If she inspected it closely enough, it might.

Sarah, seated next to her husband on the floor on the other side of the room, slapped him on the knee. “Owen! You’ve got our friends referring to that thing as the sex chair!”

“I mean, is it wrong?” He shrugged with a smile, and all Sarah could do was shake her head. She was blushing, but we could all tell she wasn’t really angry with him.

The conversation carried on around me, but I zoned out, missing Graham.

He’d texted me earlier that evening, letting me know he was going to be late because he had the rare opportunity for some one-on-one time with his son. He confessed to buying Caleb some new two-player Switch game as a bribe to get him to hang out with him. It was adorable.

That side of him was very different from the man he was in private.

The man he was when he was alone with me.

I smiled as I sat there, thinking about the night before; how he’d tied my wrists behind my back and asked me to get on my knees.

There was something thrilling about the challenge of only using my mouth to make him come while he gripped my hair.

Not pulling, just guiding my head and mouth how he wanted.

Dominant, but gentle.

With a heavy sigh, I looked up just in time to catch Kendall knocking a throw pillow off the couch into Owen’s lap. “Ope, sorry,” she said, reaching to grab it.

“Heh. Whoops,” Owen muttered, pushing the pillow away from his folded legs.

They both laughed, but it was stiff and awkward, and they wouldn’t even look at each other. Almost in unison, their eyes flicked over to Sarah, both of them suddenly riveted by her latest retelling of the Grissom tornado story.

I turned to Meghan, and judging from the knowing look in her eyes, she’d witnessed this, too. We didn’t need words to tell each other: those two have totally fucked.

The mystery was solved.

The conversation grew more lively, somehow shifting back to The Sex Chair, and suddenly, everyone was spouting off the weirdest places they’d ever had sex. Downtown rooftops, inside the comic book store, and the staircase in this very room.

I was grateful Mason and Kendall stole the limelight with a story about their escapade in a bouncy castle, because Xander had been subtly eyeing me from across the room throughout this entire conversation.

He probably wondered if we’d have the same answer: atop his motorcycle outside his cabin in the woods. And while that might’ve been the most unusual place I’d ever had sex, I didn’t want to talk about it.

“ON SCHOOL PROPERTY?!” Sarah was screaming, dissolving into laughter. As Kendall’s boss at Grissom, she covered her reddening face with both hands. Kendall just shrugged, tipping back her glass.

Just when it started to become painfully clear Xander and I were the only two who hadn’t answered, the Gardners’ storm door pulled open, and a drenched Graham walked in.

My stomach flipped, but I wasn’t the only excited one—all the drunkards in the room yelled his name like he was a guest star making a surprise entrance in a 90s sitcom.

He flashed a sexy, albeit cheesy, grin as he wiped his shoes on the entry rug, his eyes zeroing in on me. “Did I miss anything?”

“The women crashed our poker game,” Owen said, “but there’s drinks and desserts in the kitchen. Help yourself.”

“Perfect,” Graham answered, running a hand through his damp hair on the way to the kitchen. Shit, did any of these people notice me biting my bottom lip just then?

I waited a full twenty agonizing seconds before getting up to join Graham in the kitchen, muttering something about needing another one of Kendall’s lemon squares. Nobody really seemed to notice my slipping away.

“Hey,” I said, adjusting the strap of my tank top. “Did you and Caleb have fun?” I walked over to the island and peeled back the plastic wrap on the lemon bars.

“Oh yeah,” Graham said, twisting the cap off his beer. “Back in the day, I used to let him win at video games. Now he’s obliterating me in Mario Party like it’s nothing.”

I giggled, imagining Graham getting frustrated over a Nintendo Switch game. “Go Caleb,” I said, pulling a lemon bar from the container. “Is Olivia with Richie tonight?”

Graham took a sip of his beer. “No, she said she had to take care of something at her mom’s.” I didn’t respond right away, wondering if this meant Olivia was finally telling her mom the news. I took a big bite of the lemon square to help me hide my reaction.

Graham moved closer, glancing over his shoulder at the group in the living room, where they were too caught up in a loud debate about the correct pronunciation of “GIF” to pay us any attention.

“How are you feeling tonight?”

“Tired,” I sighed, though it was a relief to know I didn’t have to pretend to be okay. Not in front of Graham. “It’s been a long week.”

“Why don’t you go home?”

I pretended to be offended. “You just got here and you’re already tryin’ to get rid of me? Well, I never.”

A grin slowly stretched across his face, making his eyes crinkle at the corners. He didn’t say a single word.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just, sometimes your southern accent slips out, and it’s…” He glanced over his shoulder, making sure nobody in the other room was paying attention. And then he turned back to me, his voice lower now. “Cute.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to kiss him, but I couldn’t, so I took another bite of my lemon bar, staring at Graham’s pretty eyes and the faint touch of gray in his stubble that drove me wild.

Chase picked that exact moment to stroll into the room with his hands in his pockets. He glanced back at Meghan in the recliner like he needed reassurance. Whatever she did, whether it was a nod, a smile, or a thumbs-up, it seemed to work. Because Chase inhaled, saying, “So. When do I start?”

The lemon bar dropped to the counter, and I let out a squeal, clapping my hands as I bounced toward Chase. Throwing my arms around him in an unreciprocated half-hug, I hollered, “Oh my gosh, co-anchors! It’s going to be great!”

“Or it’ll be a catastrophe,” he mumbled, but he was almost smiling. Graham laughed.

“Look at us,” I said, motioning between Chase and me. “Already sparring. This is going to be magic! I can feel it.”

Graham stepped forward, lifting his fingers from the neck of his beer bottle. “Glad to hear you’re on board. We can connect with Marco on Monday to go over the logistics, and—”

He didn’t get to finish, because Owen appeared in the doorway with a look of concern. “Hey, Graham? Your daughter’s here. Says she needs to talk to you.”

My heart jumped to my throat. Graham set his beer down on the island, shooting me a worried look before he hurried out of the room. I wished there were some gentle way I could prepare him for what he was about to hear, but there was no easing into this.

He didn’t know it yet, but everything was about to change.