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“To the fucking cookout,” Presley added.
“I didn’t say anything.” Marley held up his hands.
“But you thought it,” Presley pointed out. Because his twin was still smirking.
“Hey, you’re the one who’s sneaking around thinking you’re all clever when in fact half of the town sees your car outside her house every time Mom and Dad have Delilah over for a sleepover.” Marley smirked, crossing his arms over his thick chest.
Their mom blinked and looked over at Pres. “You stay over?”
“Come on, Mom, you know he does. You told me that Ria told you.” Marley blew out a mouthful of air. “Can we all just talk the truth for once?”
“Jesus.” Pres raked his hands through his hair. “Is everybody talking about this?”
“You’re not exactly discreet,” Marley pointed out. “Even at rehearsal you two eye fuck each other until Alex and I turn green. And the gig the other night…”
The one where he and Cassie had snuck out during the interval and made out until neither of them could breathe. Pres’ cheeks heated up at the memory of it.
“What gig?” their mom asked, looking from Marley to Pres. “The one at the Moonlight Bar?”
“No, the one after that,” Marley said. “Even Pres isn’t stupid enough to kiss a girl in the middle of the town square.”
“You and Cassie are kissing?” his mom asked.
Pres let out a long breath. He’d had enough of this. “Yes, we’re kissing.” He waited for the feeling of regret to come over him. Maybe the need to shut down again. But it didn’t. It had been a couple of weeks since Cassie had come over for pasta and the two of them had talked through his feelings about Jade.
Two fucking amazing weeks of talking and kissing and doing more whenever they were alone. Which was nowhere near as often as he liked.
Or his body needed.
A huge smile crept across his mom’s face. “Oh my God, that’s wonderful.”
He put his hand up. “But it’s still early. And Delilah doesn’t know. And I’d like to keep it that way for now.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not going to confuse her by introducing Cassie as my girlfriend.”
“So you’ll let her be confused when somebody else tells her?” Marley asked. “I know she’s only little, but she goes to school. Kids talk. All one of them has to do is repeat some gossip and soon it’ll be around Hartson Elementary.”
Pres winced, mostly because Marley was right. You couldn’t get away with anything around here without somebody finding out. Look at his cousin, Grace. Her parents had just found out she’d been seeing her much-older step cousin and their families had imploded.
Last Sunday he’d stuck close to her side when she’d been in church with them all to watch Delilah’s first choir appearance, mostly because Michael, the man she’s in love with, had turned up to try to win her back.
Pres had been amazed they’d managed to keep their relationship quiet for as long as they had. Even he hadn’t known, which was a good thing.
First rule of hiding something? Never tell a member of your family about it.
“Yeah, well school’s out soon,” Pres pointed out.
“And then she’ll be at day camp.” Marley grinned. “So good luck with keeping things on the down low.”
The rain had started an hour ago. One of those freak storms that come over the mountains on a hot summer’s day, the thick gray clouds engulfing the sky for a few hours.
Unfortunately, Cassie had just started her final class of the day when it began. She’d taken them through the new dance they were learning, to the accompaniment of the rain lashing down against the windows. When the parents came to pick up their children, they’d looked like drowned rats, their too-light summer jackets dripping on the wooden floor, as they waited for Cassie to dismiss them all.
And now they were gone and it was time to go home and she was looking hopefully out of the window for a chink of light between the clouds. But there wasn’t one, not yet. The app on her phone told her there were a few more hours until the storm was due to abate.
The thought of getting in her car and driving home made her chest seize up.
