Page 55 of Wrap Around

"You're right," she says with a happy sigh.

"It all worked out." I notice Lily's abandoned glass of wine on the kitchen island and reach for it, taking a small sip to decide if I'm in the mood for a glass of my own.

Lily pauses, her back straightening. The corners of her lips turn down and a little wrinkle forms between her brows. "Now that I think of it, what are you even doing here? I assumed you'd bestaying the night with Gideon." She waggles her eyebrows so dramatically I snort and get some of the fruity wine up my nose.

Coughing, I put her glass down and reach into the cabinet for another glass. "Yeah, about that…"

Taking the bottle of white out of the fridge, I fill my glass about halfway, then top off Lily’s.

Can I really talk about this?Ugh. I clear my throat, look at Lily's raised eyebrows, then pour a little bit more into my glass for good measure.

She gasps and looks way too excited. "This is about to be good, isn't it?"

I take a swig directly from the bottle, and Lily lets out her own version of a pterodactyl shriek. "Let's have a sit!"

She lifts Addy from her high chair with a flourish. I follow them into the living room, where Addy makes a beeline for her basket of stuffed animals and toys and starts tossing everything out of it. Lily sits down on the couch, tucks her legs up under her, and pulls an overstuffed throw pillow into her lap, waiting expectantly with wide eyes, like she's about to hear the juiciest gossip.

"I amnotgiving you any dirty details," I say, pointing at her with my glass before taking a deep swallow. "But something happened this past weekend."

"What? What happened!? Tell me everything," she begs, accepting her glass and beaming at me, like this is the best thing to ever happen to her.

"Well, we…" I release a huff of air and stare at her. "You do realize we're talking about your brother, right?"

"Nope. I'm choosing to pretend he's an entirely different person so I can give you the full bestie experience. I'm weirdly excited about this. We've never gotten to talk about boys and stuffbefore, so don't ruin it by reminding me we share genes.Ew." She shakes her head like she's dislodging something, stretches her neck, then looks back at me with renewed attention. "I'm ready."

"Okay, so… We've kissed before…"

She blinks back at me as if to say, "Duh."

"I mean, like, recently. It's why he's been extra mad. He felt like I was forcing him to betray you or something-"

"Unless you're some kind of incubus and didn't tell me, that's some bullshit., but we'll put a pin in that for later, because I want to get to the juicy stuff."

Rolling my eyes, I huff out a laugh. "Well, the kiss was… intense."

"Intense how?" she asks, eyes wide.

"It was, um, physical?" My face is flaming, but I take another deep swig of wine and try to continue. "It wasn't just kissing, I guess. He was kind of, like… aggressive?"

"Silaaaasssss," she whines.

"I don't know how to talk about this!"

"Okay. Set the scene. Where were you?"

"In our hotel room. Alone," I add, guessing what she'd ask next.

Lily nods approvingly. "Good. And what were you wearing?"

I cough. "Our game day suits, but my shirt was off. It was after the game in Allentown where I got hurt."

"Nice." She thinks again. "Not about getting hurt. I meant the shirt off thing."

Suppressing a snort, I continue, "He was upset that I got hurt."

"Aww."

"Yeah, so upset he pushed my back against the wall and held me there."