Page 43 of Switching Skates

I continue for her, “We haven’t, umm, told my best friend, Mason’s sister, yet, and she should be the first to know. So, please just keep it quiet until we can tell her. Please, Ross.”

“Fine, but only for you, Daphne.” He smiles at me and side-eyes Daphne, and I think he’s trying to get under my skin.

“Thank you,” I murmur and take the opportunity to sneak past him and head to my room, Daphne hot on my trail.

“I’m happy for you, man. It’s been a long time coming,” Ross says to Daphne, and I curse under my breath. “I’m heading out. You two enjoy yourselves.”

I haven’t talked about her that many times to them. Right?

“I’ll catch you later,” Daphne mumbles, her eyes wide and nervous.

We stand there in silence until Ross leaves the house, locking the front door behind him.

“Well, we have the place to ourselves,” I mutter nervously.

“Yeah?” Daphne asks, chuckling unevenly.

“If we shower here, we don’t have to worry about Maeve. Might be easier,” I suggest.

“Oh. Oh, yeah. That makes sense.” Her shoulders relax. “But I don’t have clothes here—for you, I mean.”

The solution becomes obvious. “I’ll wear something new that you got today, and I’ll just throw on a pair of my boxers for underwear.”

“But—” she stutters, clearly trying to come up with something quick to say.

I grab her hand and take it in mine. “Look, Daphne, if the shower thing makes you uncomfortable, we can figure something else out. I don’t want to push you into doing anything you don’t want to do.”

She takes a few deep breaths, calming her quick breathing down. “Sorry. It’s just a lot. All ofthis.” She waves her free hand around.

“I know. But at least we’re not alone in it, right? We have each other.” The cheesiness nearly makes me gag as I finish my sentence, but the hearts in her eyes makes it worth it.

“I’d rather be with Chet,” she teases, her lips tipping up in a maniacal smirk.

Stepping toward her, I look up into her eyes. “Liar.”

She shrugs. “I guess we’ll never know.”

“Do you want to shower here, or do you want to wait? I’m good with either,” I tell her calmly and truthfully.

She rubs the back of my hand and begrudgingly utters, “Let’s get this over with.”

She leads me toward my bedroom, quickly grabbing clothes for herself and me. I’ll just change into her new clothes before we head back to her house.

We walk into the bathroom, and she closes the door behind us. I have to try not to think too hard about what we’re about to do. We might not be in our own bodies, but having her hands all over me is going to be damn hard to ignore.

Part of me is thankful that I don’t have my dick right now because that motherfucker would tattle on me so fast if I got too turned on.

Walking over to the shower, I turn the hot water on and let it run in the tub for a minute to heat up while we get undressed.

“Do you want me to get in first?” I ask, pushing my pants and panties down while holding her stare, the mirror at my back.

“Yeah.” She looks hesitant, and it makes me even more nervous.

I lift my hands up. “I’m not going to try anything, Daph. It’s just going to be a really bizarre shower, and then it will be over. Once I step in, I’ll close my eyes, and you can take over.”

She cracks her neck side to side. “You’re right. You’re right. And I never thought you’d try anything, for the record. I know you’re not completely a tool.”

“Oh, just a partial one?” I laugh, lifting the shirt off my body, followed by the bra.