Page 9

WAVERLY

“A re you sure you want to borrow clothes?” Xander asked as we strolled back to Archer House in the crisp January breeze. “You look super cute in that.”

I wrinkled my nose, not having been accused of looking cute once in my life.

Glancing over, I announced, “Tonight, I think I want to look like someone else completely. Can you do that?”

Her eyes lit with excitement. “Oh yeah. This is going to be so much fun.” Rubbing her hands together, she started to chatter about different outfits she wanted me to try on. And she didn’t seem to notice when I held my breath as I followed her up the front steps, where she swept the door open.

I didn’t know if I was expecting to see him first thing when I stepped over the threshold, or what, but I exhaled in a rush when the front room was empty of people.

It looked more like a college place in here than it had outside. Posters splattered the walls, a lot of them featuring Xander’s cousin, Foster, and other HaveU sports teams. But the one I instantly zeroed in on was the bull riding poster of Keene.

With one hand clutching the bull rope and the other held up above his head, his chin was tucked down toward his chest, and his cowboy hat obscured his face, but I knew it was him.

And then I heard his voice yell, “Hey, Archer!” from the bottom of a set of stairs in the middle of the room, where half of them went down and the other half ascended toward an upper level.

My heart lodged itself in my throat as Xander started for those very steps, but she paused when Oaklynn appeared at the top so she could yell down into the bottom portion.

“Damien’s not here,” she told Keene. “He’s off doing landlord stuff.”

“Well then, yo, Vargas,” he yelled back.

Oaklynn rolled her eyes and set a hand on her hip. “Yo, what ?” She looked as if she was in the middle of doing her hair. She had a brush in one hand and one side of her mane looked considerably straighter than the other.

“Can I borrow Arch’s beard trimmer?”

She scoffed. “What am I? Your gofer?”

“Best looking gofer ever,” Keene agreed. But when she only frowned, he cajoled, “Please?”

“Ugh. Fine.” She turned away in a huff. “Hold on.”

As she disappeared into a bedroom, Xander reached the staircase, where she grabbed hold of the railing and peered down into the lower area. “Why don’t you just grow it out?” she asked. “Full-on mountain-man style”

“Would that finally get you to sleep with me?” his voice asked huskily.

Xander grimaced and pulled back. “Not even. And put a shirt on already.”

“I really would,” he taunted. “But I know how much you like it when I don’t.”

Scoffing, she started up the steps to the upper level, while he called back, “Can’t deny it, can you?”

Pretending he hadn’t answered, she paused and glanced back, waving for me to follow. “This way.”

I exhaled and timidly shifted forward.

Just as I reached the first step, Oaklynn reappeared with what I assumed was a beard trimmer. “Incoming,” she called as she dropped it down into the lower level.

I was too nervous to peer over the railing to look at him, so I hugged the opposite wall as I started up the steps.

“Sweet. Thanks,” Keene returned. “Next time, if you could just lift your shirt a little and flash me more skin when you?—”

“Nice try, asshole.” Oaklynn flipped him off and started to spin away, only to catch sight of me. “Oh hey! This is a happy surprise. What’re you doing here?”

“I invited her,” Xander answered, looping her arm protectively through mine. “She’s my party bestie tonight.”

“She? She who? Who’re y’all talking about?” Keene yelled from the lower level. “Is this she hot?”

Both Xander and Oaklynn peered over the railing to call down together, “None of your damn business.”

“Wow. Jeez. Rude,” he said, and a second later, a door shut, letting us know he’d disappeared into a room.

When Xander and Oaklynn grinned and high-fived, the door they were standing in front of opened, only for Alec to pause, his eyes wide with surprise when he saw us loitering.

He whipped it closed again, until only a few inches of his face showed, but not before we all got a look at his bare, wet chest and the fact he was wearing nothing but a towel.

“Shit, sorry,” he said, only to yell toward the stairs, “Dugger, you asshole. Did you take my freaking clothes while I was in the shower again?”

A muted laugh answered before Keene yelled up the stairs. “Yep! You’re welcome.”

“God, he is so immature,” Alec muttered. “First, he steals the downstairs bathroom so I have to come up here. Now this.” Rolling his eyes, he yelled, “Well, bring them back before I throat punch you.”

When Keene told him, “Nope. Not gonna happen,” Alec gritted his teeth in irritation, and Oaklynn sighed.

“Oh my God, Alec. We’ve seen bare chests before. Keene’s bare-chested right now. Just go.”

He hesitated, his gaze skimming nervously between me, Xander, and Oaklynn who were pretty much just planted outside the door to the bathroom, not budging as we waited for him to put on a show.

Grumbling something under his breath, he muttered, “Right,” and pulled the door open all the way so he could step into the hall.

“Excuse me,” he mumbled, bowing his face and hurrying past us as he clutched his towel to his waist for dear life.

Long and lean, his damp skin was pretty to look at.

His chest and abdomen muscles didn’t necessarily bulge, but there was some serious definition to him.

He would’ve been flawless save for a large freckle, or maybe it was a mole, just under his left peck and a massive, j-shaped scar on the right of his abdomen, where he’d had surgery to donate some of his liver to his sister a few years before Xander had donated hers .

But those things only made his bare, upper half look even more captivating.

Oaklynn, Xander, and I stepped back to let him by, none of us saying a word until he disappeared into the lower level. Then Xander tipped her face toward Oaklynn and whispered, “Thank you for that.”

Oaklynn’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped as she turned to me and Xander. “I know, right? Who would’ve guessed Alec was hiding a chest like that under all those baggy T-shirts he wears.”

“Amen,” Xander murmured, lifting up onto her toes as if to get another peek of him down the stairs. Glancing at me with lifted eyebrows, she said, “You should see it when Damien goes shirtless around here, though. Holy mackerel. Now that’s a view.”

“Yes, Lord,” Oaklynn praised with a lifted hand and an angelic smile on her face. “She speaks the truth. My man is fine.”

Xander nodded. “He really is.”

I blinked, then said, “And why have you not invited me over sooner?”

Both Oaklynn and Xander blurted out a surprised laugh before Xander bumped our shoulders together. “See! I knew she had this kind of fun shit in her.” Then, to Oaklynn, she announced, “Oh, hey. I’m going to dress her up all hot and slutty for tonight. You wanna help?”

“Um, hell yes,” Oaklynn said and immediately followed us to the door on the left at the end of the hall.

While I lifted my hands. “Whoa. Hot and slutty ? I don’t recall either of those adjectives being mentioned before.”

Pausing in the doorway to her room, Xander turned to look at me, not saying a word.

A second later, I folded. “Okay. Fine. Make me hot and slutty.”

* * *

“Damn,” Xander lamented twenty minutes later, as she stood back with Oaklynn and looked me over. “I was sure at least my tightest top would fit her.”

But it didn’t. Not at all. The bustline sagged so much I looked like a child who’d raided my mother’s closet to play dress-up.

“Well, if none of your tops fit her, mine definitely won’t,” Oaklynn stated bluntly.

Her boobs were even bigger than Xander’s.

“Do either of you have a little brother I could borrow from?” I asked lamely, folding my arms over my chest in humiliation. Because I was sure I must have the same chest size as a prepubescent child.

“What about Hope?” Oaklynn asked, ignoring my sour humor.

I knew Hope, Alec’s sister, and she might not have breasts as big as either Xander or Oaklynn, but even she was more blessed than I was.

“That’s a thought. I’ll call,” Xander said, and dashed to her phone over on her bed stand. A minute later, she hung up with a big grin. “She’s in. Said she’ll bring some different options over soon.”

Nodding as if half listening, Oaklynn stroked her chin as she kept studying me. “Good, good.” She dropped her hand and asked, “What do you think of bangs?”

“Bangs?” I echoed in shock.

“Nothing short,” she assured, coming forward to play with my hair. I wanted to pull back out of her reach but managed to restrain myself. “Just the long, wispy, sensual kind you can still pull back if you want.”

Sensual.

I don’t think anything about me had ever been referred to as sensual.

Lured by the term, I found myself nodding. “Okay.”

Xander bit her lip. “Are you sure, Frankie? You can’t put your hair back on tomorrow if you regret this. I don’t want you to agree to anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

But I only shrugged. “I’ve never had bangs before. And if you’re sure they’re going to be long…”

When I glanced in question at Oaklynn, she nodded immediately. “You’re going to love them. I promise.”

So I nodded once more and repeated, “Okay.”

“Eek.” She waved her hands in excitement and hurried from the room, saying, “I’m going to get some scissors.”

Xander stepped closer as soon as Oaklynn was gone, worrying her lip in concern. “We’re not pushing for too much, are we?”

I shook my head, even as my stomach dipped. With dread or excitement, I wasn’t sure. But blood raced through my veins in a way that felt as if I were living for the first time in my life.

Ten minutes later, I jumped at the sharp snip of sound Oaklynn’s scissors made as she whacked off a chunk of hair below my nose and right above lip level. I watched the dark tendrils drift toward the floor, and I swallowed thickly.

God, I hoped I didn’t regret this.