Page 10 of Late Nights

“Good night, Cannon.”

And then he was gone, the soft noise of his door shutting the only sound in the quiet apartment.

I let my head fall to rest on the back of the couch. My feelings were even more confused than they had been before. Sticking to my resolve to keep my attention on school, work, and not messing with West’s friendship was going to be difficult.

Except every time I closed my eyes, that hunger in Cannon’s eyes as he looked at me flashed in my mind.

4

Cannon

Icould hear Demi in the kitchen, the sound of cabinets opening, dishes clanking, and every now and then her voice quietly singing random lines from a song I didn’t know.

I wanted to smile. I wanted to go out there and join her, to see her move around the kitchen in those sleep shorts she liked to wear paired with an oversized sweater that had a way of slipping over one of her shoulders, exposing her soft skin.

But I didn’t move. I kept my butt in bed, hoping she would eventually go back to her room so I could sneak out of here. The last two mornings she hadn’t been up this early, and it had been easy to leave without risking running into her.

Glancing over at my alarm clock, I knew I didn’t have much time left to wait her out. I wasn’t going to be late to work because I was acting like a pansy.

Last night was proof enough I wasn’t capable of being around her without saying something stupid. I closed my eyes, still frustrated at myself for telling her I didn’t have a single brotherly thought about her. The moment had felt charged, like she was able to see through the facade I constantly put on, pretending I never spared a thought about her.

What had I been thinking? I rubbed my face with both hands, wishing I could go back in time and not make that foolish comment.

The smell of something burnt wafted under my closed door.

She must have been trying to use our toaster. The numbers were all messed up on that thing. West and I had burnt our fair share of toast. For some reason we still hadn’t bothered to get another one.

Pushing back the covers, I swung my legs out and sat on the edge of the bed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait any longer. With how late it was, I was going to have to hurry to make it to the office in time. The office where I worked with Demi’s brother. The office where I worked with Demi’s father. Two Vanderhalls who wouldn’t take nicely to me having non-brotherly thoughts about their sister and daughter.

As much as Victor liked me, I was pretty sure there was nothing I could do to make him think I was good enough for his only daughter. It was one thing to take me in and help me be a great venture capitalist. But there was nothing he could do to change my past, to change who my parents were, to change that I wasn’t truly from his world.

I scratched my bare chest, pushing thoughts of my childhood away and focusing on the closet in front of me. Sitting here looking at how Demi had taken over half my closet should have annoyed me, but instead it had me smiling.

No. I hurried to wipe the smile off my lips. I was tempted to slap myself in the face. If I couldn’t even look at a closet with her stuff in it without giving myself away, how in the world was I going to fool anyone else?

Beep, beep, beep!

The smoke detector started blaring, and I bolted for my bedroom door, remembering the burnt smell I’d noticed earlier.

I ran to the kitchen to find a billow of smoke surrounding Demi, who stood near the stove. She had a dish towel and was waving it around in an attempt to dissipate the smoke in the air. Thankfully, there were no flames, just a thick smoke that caused both of us to cough.

I grabbed another dish towel and joined her. I fanned the dish towel as close to the smoke detector as I could, hoping to get it to stop beeping.

Soon the ear-piercing beeping stopped, leaving Demi and I standing next to each other in a hazy fog.

She stood there, motionless, in the kitchen, her eyes glued to me, her lips parted. I couldn’t tell if she was scared, embarrassed, or in shock.

“What?” I asked.

Her gaze didn’t waver. “You don’t have a shirt on.”

I looked down at my bare chest as if to confirm, like I didn’t know I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I always slept shirtless.

“Uh, no, I’m not. I don’t ever sleep in one.”

She swallowed, slowly dragging her eyes up, up, up until she was finally looking me in the eyes. “Oh, yeah, of course.” Her voice still sounded robotic.

Seeing her so flustered had a grin breaking across my face. I watched as she worked hard to keep her eyes on my face, but they kept slipping down to my naked chest. She might have told West she thinks of me as a brother, but she definitely wasn’t looking at my bare torso like I was her brother. Maybe I should walk around shirtless more often.

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