Page 155 of Charming Like Us

It’s day one.Maybe everything is still too raw from last night’s fight.

“It went well,” I say, stretching the truth…a lot.

“Really?” She sounds hopeful.

I nod and take her inhaler out of a suitcase pocket. “Yeah.”

“So maybe you don’t need me to move in after all,” Joana says.

She finally agreed to live with me because she pitied my ass after the fistfight with Quinn. And to be perfectly clear, I purposefully made myself lookpitiful.Best strategy I could think of.

And it worked.

I have no guilt over the tactic. Her next plan was to couch-surf on random sofas, and I’d much rather her be safe here. Even at the cost of being down the hall from Beckett.

Jack rehashed my sister’s run-in with Beckett Cobalt at the golf course, and I considered penning Beckett a letter entitled:

Flirting Etiquette 101:

Stop Flirting with Joana Oliveira

He keeps seeking her out when she wants to be a hundred-feet away from him, so I have a big issue. But I know my sister can hold her own too.

“I need you here, Jo.” I give her a look. “And you’re already unpacked.”

“Halfway, but you’re doing a great job.” She adds, “And I’m not going anywhere.”

Good.

I’m about to return to her suitcase.

I stop and assess them on the bed and me on the floor. “You’re over there sharing music with my boyfriend while I’m folding your tops. What’s wrong with this picture?”

“You should be hanging up the tops, not folding them,” Jo quips.

I clap loudly.

She applauds herself too. “Thanks for helping me with my things, really.” Her lips rise. “I like that I get to spend more time with Jack.” She tells him, “Oscar never brought home his college boyfriend, so I never got to grill him.”

Jack looks shocked, his hand runs through his dark hair and stops on his head for a long, long beat.

Shit.

My chest tightens at his reaction and at the mention of anex. I glance at Joana. “Like you’re grilling Jack right now? You’re closer to calling him your BFF.”

“I already knew Jack before you two started dating. It’s different. I never met Darrien.”

“Darrien?” Jack repeats.

Look at that, she gave him thenameof my ex. “Yeah.” I imprison a breath, our eyes locked. Wondering what he’s thinking.

His knee bounces. “Why didn’t you bring him home? Were you scared your parents wouldn’t like—?”

“No.” I shake my head stiffly. “I just didn’t come home a lot, so I didn’t bring him to Philly when I did.”

“Oscar was married to Yale,” Joana explains. “She was the other woman stealing my brother from the family.”

Jack shifts his gaze to my sister. “College will do that.” He slips me a furtive smile like,I understand.