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“You fucking hackers!” Gran’s voice came from somewhere deeper in the house, causing my head to snap toward the doorway. What in the world?
“Is she … um, should we go check on her?” Gran was an interesting character. I didn’t know what she was up to, but I was starting to like her almost as much as I liked her granddaughter, Tess. Although right now Gran sounded pretty angry.
“No, she’s fine. It’s her game.”
Game? I wasn’t sure what game Tess meant, and just as I was about to ask, Gran’s voice came again.
“You can’t fucking camp the spawn! You can’t camp the spawn, you fucking hackers!”
Tess just smiled at me, her eyes dancing. “You really shouldn’t camp the spawn. It’s not polite.”
The question I was about to ask must have been clear on my face as I started to smile, and Tess answered quickly.
“World of Warcraft. She’s addicted.”
“Oh,” I said, the confusion turning to amusement as I leaned back in my chair. “I had a roommate in college who played that. He ended up failing out. Never went to class.”
“He was probably camping the spawn,” she suggested, grinning.
“Must have been.” I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, though I’d played my roommate’s game a few times, but I’d sit here joking about it all night if it meant getting to see Tess smile like that again. The warm feeling I’d had being in this kitchen with her the night before returned. It was homey and close, and so fucking right it terrified me.
I needed to watch myself. It would be so easy to lean into this reassuring comfort. But Tess wasn’t the Manchester sister I was supposed to lean into.
“Sorry. She’s nuts. But she’s happy, so …” Tess smiled. “Look. I don’t know exactly what happened outside today. Maybe I hallucinated the whole thing.”
I was about to jump in, to let her know that she definitely didn’t hallucinate it. The memory playing on constant loop in my brain, and the way my dick jumped to attention every time I let myself focus on that memory could attest to that.
But Tess went on. “I shouldn’t even tell you this …” she laughed lightly, one of my favorite sounds. “I’m probably just bound to read too much into things because I’ve had this ridiculous movie-star crush on you literally forever.” That laugh again.
My body stirred to life when she said this, my heart doing a little tap dance in my chest. “Seriously?”
The blush brightened her skin again, and I had to grip the edge of the table to keep my fingers from chasing it up her cheek. “Yeah,” she said, shaking her head lightly. “So maybe it makes it hard to separate reality from years of seeing you in movies. But you’re with my sister. So maybe don’t touch me. It’s just confusing, you know?”
I nodded, sure the pain of my disappointment must show on my face. She was right, she was only telling me what I already knew. So why did I feel like I was losing something? “Yeah, of course. I’m sorry, Tess.”
I was. I was sorry for putting her in a situation that had made her uncomfortable. I had to do better. Somehow.
“I’ll hold my fan-girling back, but in small towns like this, you can’t just go around … touching people.” She said this as if she knew the idea that I’d almost kissed her had absolutely nothing to do with some misguided belief on my part that it was totally normal behavior. She was giving me an out.
“I’m really sorry, Tess. I shouldn’t have touched you like that. It was just… it kind of felt like there was a moment out there, and …” I wanted to tell her how my blood rushed when I stood near her, how my mind stopped turning when that light scent of hers wafted my way. “I guess both Manchester sisters are pretty irresistible.”
Her face smoothed, becoming an inscrutable mask as her shoulders stiffened. She blew out a little breath that sounded a lot like frustration, and I had the distinct sense I’d put my foot in my mouth. “I mean, no. That isn’t what I meant.” But it was too late. Her eyes blazed as she took a breath and fixed me in my seat.
“Can I ask you a question?” She said after a brief silence.
“Yeah, of course.” My voice revealed just a hint too much of the longing I felt for her. I wasn’t sure if she heard it.
“You came here dating my sister, nearly kissed me earlier, and just told me the Manchester sisters are essentially interchangeable in your mind. Don’t you think that makes you a bit of an asshole?”
Oh God. Is that what I said? It wasn’t what I’d meant to say at all. “I think it came out wrong.”
The light did not come back into her eyes and I had a sudden desperate churning feeling in my stomach, like I needed to fix this immediately.
“I’m not sure there’s a right way for that to come out. This is a small town, Ryan. Maybe we do things differently here than in places like Hollywood. We’re careful with people’s feelings.” She paused, straightening her shoulders. “And if you hurt my sister after everything she’s been through … or if I find out you’re just using her…” she trailed off and the warning in her words lingered in the air between us.
“I don’t want to,” I told her, guilt flooding every cell in my body and sending the semi-erection I’d had all through our baking adventure wilting like an ashamed flower. Because wasn’t that the deal I’d made? I was going to use Juliet, with her permission, to advance my own career, to land myself the financial security I hadn’t found so far. “Of course,” I said, my stomach twisting with what felt a lot like a lie.
“Good,” Tess said, standing and carrying her cup to the sink. “Well, thanks for your help with the cake, movie star Ryan McDonnell. I can get it from here.”
