• • •

When we returned to the house, Farrah was sprawled out on the couch watching television, wearing nothing but a bikini top and short shorts.

Fuck me.

Really? I manage to avoid her for days, and this is how she’s dressed the first time I see her again?

“It’d be nice if you put some freaking clothes on,” Nathan said.

I swallowed hard.

“I thought I was alone.” She sat up. “Where were you guys?”

“Applebee’s. Celebrating,” he added with a smile.

“Celebrating what?”

“I got the dealership job!”

Her tits bounced as she got up from the couch. Jesus. I forced my eyes away.

She pulled Nathan into a hug. “I’m so proud of you. That’s the best news ever. I wish I had known you were going out to celebrate. I would’ve joined.”

“Well, you weren’t home, and it was an impromptu decision,” he said.

“I’m so happy!” She patted him on the back.

“Thanks. I gotta take a piss,” Nathan said, brushing past her to walk through the kitchen to the bathroom.

It took a few seconds for me to realize I hadn’t moved, and that I was gawking again. Farrah smiled as she stood in front of me, seeming to appreciate my admiration of her body. Had I always been this obvious? In the past, I’d thought I’d only snuck looks at her, but maybe I hadn’t been so slick. Maybe she’d noticed all along.

Clearing my throat, I said, “You should put some clothes on.”

Her chest heaved. “Because you like looking at me?”

Yes. “It doesn’t matter what I like.”

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” she whispered.

The sound of Nathan’s footsteps approaching caused my body to jerk into motion. Walking past Farrah, I headed straight to the main bathroom. I tore my clothes off and turned on the cold water. Getting in, I let the shower rain down over me, praying it would wash away my guilt.

Chapter 9

* * *

Farrah

I’d just gotten home from work when the doorbell rang.

Peeking through the peephole, I saw Nora holding a stack of pita bread.

I opened. “Is that for me?”

“I need something to spread on it. We don’t have anything at my house. My mom needs to go shopping.”

“Come on in.”

Nora’s uncle owned a Middle Eastern bakery nearby. She told me he got up at, like, two in the morning to bake bread and often had so much of it, he’d drop a pile off on their doorstep a few times a week. She shared it with me frequently because she and her mother had a surplus in their freezer. Although, she never seemed to have anything to eat it with.

I walked over to the fridge. “What did you have in mind? Cream cheese…peanut butter?”

“What about butter?”

“That sounds good. We can warm the bread first, make it nice and toasty.”

She rubbed her belly as she took a seat at the counter. “Yum.”

“I thought your mom told you not to leave the house,” I said as I opened the package of bread.

“She did. But I don’t think she would mind me being here.”

“Okay, but can you text her that you’re here so she knows?”

Nora nodded and pulled out her phone.

I took out some of the pita and popped it into the toaster oven. “How was school today?”

Nora shrugged. “It was okay.”

“Learn anything interesting?”

“Not really,” she muttered.

I chuckled. I used to give my mother the same kind of answer when she’d ask me. She used to pressure me to think of one thing I’d learned, and never accepted my original answer of “nothing much.”

“Why do you look sad?” Nora asked.

“I do? I didn’t realize that. I just remembered something that made me a little nostalgic.” I shook the thought from my head. “Anyway, what else is new with you?”

“Not much. How’s Jace?”

I still regretted telling her about my crush, so I skirted her question. “How’s Shawn?”

“He still doesn’t know I’m alive.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes that can be better than the reality. He can never hurt you if he doesn’t know you exist.”

She looked over at the toaster oven. “The bread is gonna burn.”

Shit! I jumped. “You’re right. Thank you.”

Having retrieved the bread just in the nick of time, I buttered it. The comfort I took in devouring that warm bread dripping with butter was just what the doctor ordered.

“This is really delicious,” I said with my mouth full. “Thanks for bringing it.”

“Thanks for being home so I didn’t have to eat it alone.” Nora grinned. “And for the butter.”

“You’re always welcome over here. I just like it when you ask permission first.”

“Can we go swimming?”

I stopped chewing for a moment. “I suppose, but you’d have to ask your mom if it’s okay.”

She texted her mother again. After a moment, her phone dinged with a response and she frowned.

“Mom wants me to go home and do my homework instead. She says she doesn’t want to be worrying about me swimming while she’s at work.”