“For fuck’s sake—”
I punch his arm, and he lets out an exasperated sound. It’s the system in place. I can’t help that. “Sorry, bro.”
He sighs. “We’re just not keeping tabs on each other. We’re still together. We’re still fu—screwing.” He turns to me and points. “Do not effing punch me.”
I clap. “You managed to avoid an f-bomb. Barely.”
“Progress,” Connor chimes in with a smile. Ryke even looks surprised by the compliment, not even a backhanded one. Maybe he can tell Ryke’s seriously frustrated today.
Lily walks further in the kitchen. “Are you sure, Ryke?”
“Yeah, Lil,” he tells her, sincerely. “We’re not like you and Lo, okay? We like to give each other room to breathe.”
“We breathe,” Lily defends our relationship. My brows rise. Let’s not kid ourselves. We struggle with our codependency on a daily basis.
“What in the world are you wearing?” Rose asks her sister. Lily waddles her way to the fridge. I want to wrap my arms around her and pull her close to my chest. I hesitate because A） we just had sex and I’d rather not tease her too much and B） that codependency, room to breathe thing.
“It’s cold in here,” Lily explains.
Everyone looks to Ryke, the person who constantly lowers the thermostat. He glowers. “It’s summer. It gets hot.”
Lily shuts the refrigerator door, empty-handed, and snatches a banana from the countertop. “I also have an announcement.”
Everyone quiets, and I go rigid. Whatever it is, she hasn’t told me. Her eyes flit to mine briefly before they focus on her sister. “I’m going to remain inside the house until I have the baby. I can’t risk having a limo-delivery. The only times I’ll leave are for doctor appointments.”
Fine with me. Knowing she’ll be at home actually eases my worries. Someone will always be here with her.
“So that’s the real reason you’re dressed like the abominable snowman in July,” Ryke says like it’s not his fault for keeping the house cold if she doesn’t meet the light of day.
Lily shoots him a middle finger and begins unpeeling her banana. I grin. God, I love this girl.
“Hey, guys.” Daisy slips into the kitchen with a yawn. “What’s everyone doing today?” Her hair is still platinum-blonde, but she wears it in a braid. She hangs around by the stove, putting distance between herself and Ryke.
“Taking care of a baby,” Rose says easily.
“I have her, darling,” Connor replies. “You can spend the day with your sisters.”
Rose speaks in French with Connor at this, and Lily eats her banana slowly, watching them talk in the foreign language with no real clue what they’re saying. And then she focuses on Ryke and Daisy, and I see the fear flash in Lil’s eyes. No one wants their relationship to work more than her.
“Can you two just hug it out?” I tell my brother and Lily’s little sister.
Daisy breaks into a charismatic smile, and she faces her boyfriend. “Do you want to hug me?” she asks playfully.
“No,” he deadpans. He better be sarcastic, and I hate that I can’t tell.
Daisy only smiles more and she stretches her arms out on the counter. “Do you want to…” And she mouths, fuck me?
Oh shit.
“Every fucking minute, Calloway.”
I punch his arm, and he turns around and decks my bicep with the same force. “Jesus Christ,” I curse. And he double taps me again for those words. Shit.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” he tells me.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I wave him off. It’s better than a swear jar. Money isn’t a big enough penalty.
Lily is still entranced by Ryke and Daisy. After a couple seconds, I catch her attention, and her gaze falls on mine. I motion between us with my hand, and then I make a crude gesture with my mouth and my tongue. I watch her freeze, the banana mid-air while her face flushes in a deep shade of red.
Her eyes dance around the room, checking to see if anyone is watching us. They aren’t.
And then she points to her chest and mouths, me?
I nod. Yes, Lil. You. Two more seconds later, I close the space between us and I have her wrapped in my arms. These are the kind of embraces I live for.
{ 33 }
LILY CALLOWAY
Still no photos of Jane Cobalt.
The headline on today’s Celebrity Crush article has Rose full of glee. Since Jane was born, she’s been on a mission to keep her daughter away from paparazzi. Yesterday, Rose stepped outside the gated neighborhood with Jane, taking her to the Calloway Couture boutique, and cameramen swarmed her.