Page 24 of Making Home with You

“What?”she says, feigning surprise, “I thought you’d gone shopping?”

Sarah rolls her eyes.“Please,” she says.“As if you didn’t know exactly where I was going.”

“Where is he?”I ask, interrupting.

“In the nursery,” Erin says, laughing so hard I can barely understand her.“So, paint me a picture,” she continues, turning back to Sarah.“Was he like naked, doing an oil change when you showed up and you just couldn’t help yourself?”

Erin dissolves into laughter, even as Sarah punches her shoulder and storms off to the kitchen.I follow her in, accepting the two beers she now hands me.

“You okay?”I ask.

Sarah nods, as she grabs another bottle, twists off the cap and takes a long sip.“Do you want me to come with you?”she asks, looking up at me.

I brush my fingers down her cheek, even as I shake my head.“It’s okay,” I tell her.“Given our history, I should do it.”

“At least now I can stay the night,” she offers, her eyes searching mine.

I smile now, lean in and kiss her softly.“Yeah, you can,” I whisper against her lips.“Don’t worry, it will be alright.”

I turn and walk out of the kitchen and head down the hall toward the sound of my drill.When I stop in the door to what will be the baby’s nursery, Ryan is bent over a half-assembled crib, drill in one hand and piece of wood in the other.I’m half tempted to run away, forget I ever came here, but I don’t, because despite my concerns over what he’s going to think or do to me, I know I can’t do that to Sarah.

“Ryan,” I say, getting his attention.

He glances up at me, a hard look on his face.“Finn,” he says, standing.“You’ve got some balls.”

I exhale hard, knowing I have to get this out, no matter what.“Yeah,” I say, stepping into the room.“And I’d really like to keep them too.”

Ryan depresses the trigger on the power drill he borrowed earlier, the sound and sight of it enough to make my balls shrivel in my jeans.He stares at me, long and hard, and for a minute doesn’t say anything.When he starts to walk toward me, still holding the drill, I stand my ground as I offer the beer to him in apology.

When he stops right in front of me, he stares at me, our eyes level, but neither of us saying a word.

“I’m sorry,” I eventually breathe out.“I know that wasn’t…well, it wasn’t the…”

Ryan’s face breaks into a huge grin as he dumps the drill on the dresser and slaps me on the shoulder.“Fuck man, I’m just messing with you, really,” he says, grinning as he takes the beer from my hands.

I watch as he takes a long swallow.“So what, you’re not pissed at me?”I ask, a little surprised.

Ryan’s eyes flick to mine.“Nah, why the hell would I be?”

I shrug.“I don’t know, maybe because you walked in on me having sex with your sister?”

Ryan shrugs.“Yeah, probably something I didn’t need to see, but fuck, it’s not like we didn’t all know it was happening,” he says, smiling at me.

“How?”I ask.

Ryan grins.“Please,” he says, rolling his eyes.“Your reaction to seeing Sarah on New Year’s made everything pretty obvious,” he says, shrugging again.

“But nothing even happened that night,” I say.

Ryan nods.“I know, but it was pretty obvious you were into her,” he says.“Pretty obvious she was into you too.

I stare back at him; amazed he’s being so cool about all of this.And really glad I didn’t tell him or my brother about the hook-up with Sarah a couple of weeks ago.I definitely do not need either of them knowing I’ve also joined their sex club in the pub we all co-own.

“Ryan, look,” I say, running a hand through my hair.“This thing with Sarah, I…well, I just wanna say…it’s serious for me.”I pause, watch as Ryan stares at me, the smile on his face now gone.“I’m not fucking about here,” I continue.“I really…fuck, I really like her, okay?”

Ryan says nothing for a couple of seconds and I’m starting to wonder if he isn’t rethinking how cool he is with this whole set up.Just as I’m about to say more, he smiles and holds out his hand to me.

I stare down at it, finally reaching out and putting mine in his as he now shakes hands with me.