Page 75 of Playing for Keeps

I’d slept with his sister. We had a child together.

I’d come to terms ages ago with the bad luck, and the consequences, of the condom failing that night. At the time I was shit scared, but now I viewed it as the best thing that had ever happened to me. Because it had given me Theo.

But fuck, that kiss with Luke had opened up a wormhole in my mind, taking me back to a time before Char got pregnant, when I’d struggled to understand the feelings I had for my best friend.

If Luke had kissed me then, I would have kissed him back. And then I would’ve never, ever slept with his sister. I wouldn’t have hurt Luke and destroyed our friendship.

I also wouldn’t have my son.

I stared at the photo of Theo grinning at the ducks, trying to imagine my world without him. I couldn’t.

I glanced over at Luke. His mouth was drawn tight. “Who’s your message from?”

“Char. She sent me a photo of Theo feeding the ducks.”

Luke tried to smile but it turned into more of a grimace. I knew how he felt. The photo was a very graphic reminder that our kiss, which had felt so right, was also very wrong.

“I guess we should talk about it,” I said.

“Yeah.” Luke’s voice was coated with so much tension I felt the need to try to lighten the mood.

“Those words ‘we need to talk’ should come with their own ominous soundtrack, don’t you think? Something like theJawstheme song. Dum. Dumm.”

Luke managed a half smile. “MaybeThe Empire Strikes Backdeath march?”

I chuckled and Luke’s smile turned more real. Just for a second though, and then it faded.

“Talk when we get back to the house?” I suggested.

“Yeah, okay.” He looked so worried that for a second I wanted to close the gap between us and kiss all that worry away.

But I didn’t, because we really needed to have that talk before things progressed further.

Although I had no idea how the conversation would go. A large part of my brain was currently screamingI want you. Let’s fuck.But yeah, I was probably going to have to override that and try for something deeper.

But all thoughts of what I should say flew from my mind when we pulled into the driveway and saw his parents’ car.

Shit.

Luke cursed too.

“Did you know they were coming?” I asked.

“Do you think I would have wanted to come here if I did?” Luke got out of the car and shut the door with more force than necessary.

I climbed out too.

Luke paused, looking at the house, then back at me. “Not what we needed.” He ran his hands through his hair.

“Definitely not.”

But there was no time to say anything else because Anthony had already opened the front door, calling out a greeting. His eyebrows shot up when he clocked my presence.

“Ethan!”

“Hi, Anthony.”

His gaze slipped to Luke. “We thought you’d come down here by yourself.”