Page 40 of Always Been You

He puts his burger down and hands up in surrender. “Okay, don’t poison my food, please,” he says with a grin.

Grayson nearly spits his beer out. “Liv, you have been cooking him dinner every night?” Everyone seems interested in this line of conversation. Little grins are on each of the girls’ faces and even on Matt’s and confusion on everyone else’s.

“Yeah, I’m kind of living with the man. For free might I add. The least I can do is make sure he has a hot meal on the table when he comes home from work. Anyway, I enjoy cooking and I’m not a huge fan of cooking for just myself, so I make enough for four, our dinner and lunch for each of us the next day. I enjoy it. It’s not a big deal, really.”

“Dude, your sister is living with your best friend, and she cooks him dinner like every night. You’re okay with this?” Nick asks from the other side of the table. “I’m not sure I would be okay with that if it was my sister.” He shakes his head as the rest of the food is put on the table.

“They’ve been friends for as long as Josh and I have been friends. I have no problem with any of it,” Matt says as he digs in and finishes off his burger.

“So, you’d have no problem if I asked Olivia for her number, then?” Luke asks Matt.

I can feel my body stiffen and Josh’s left hand finds my leg under the table and squeezes it.

“Liv is an adult and can make her own decisions, but just know that anyone who hurts either of my sisters is a dead man,” Matt says with a look of total seriousness.

“I think Josh might beat you to that,” Hannah says with a laugh. “I swore I would have to call 911 after the incidentwith Drew at her apartment. I swore he would pass out with how tightly Josh held him against the wall.”

I look over at Hannah and glare at her. “Let’s not talk about doucheface.”

“Sorry babe, but that look on Josh’s face was one out of our books. Think Alex Volkov when Christian showed up at Alex and Ava’s and Christian was about to threaten Ava so he could see Stella.”

Zoey and Eliza point at her. “Exactly like that,” Liz says and the three of them start laughing. I can feel the heat rise in my cheeks. I remember that night at my apartment. I remember how hot it had been to have Josh stand up and protect me. At the time, I thought it was just a big brother type of thing, but now I know it must have been more. Josh squeezes my leg again and smiles at me before leaning in and finishing his burger.

Matt points a finger at the girls. “That. That is why I’m not worried about Liv living with Josh. I know for a fact that he will protect her.”

I shake my head quickly, before changing the conversation topic, “Matt, Gi and I are getting lunch on Wednesday if you want to join us?”

He nods and throws a fry in his mouth. “Sounds good. Just let me know the details.”

“How is Gi?” Caleb asks while picking at his fries.

“Who is Gi?” Nick asks.

“Gi’s our younger sister. She is studying public relations at Stanford, she’s home for the summer. Gi’s good from the last time I talked with her. She just dumped the guy she was seeing. She called him an idiotic, limp dicked, shithead, I believe. Something about being unsatisfied in the relationship,” I say.

Matt’s face goes red, and I hear choking sounds and chuckles around the table. “One, I didn’t even know she was dating someone, and two I don’t need to hear about her sex life or yours, thank you very much. We may be close, but I don’t need to know that my sisters are unsatisfied in the bedroom.”

“Hey, I didn’t say I was unsatisfied,” I say with a grin, knowing that it will bug him even more. I feel Josh tense a little beside me and look at me with an apprehensive smile.

Matt groans, “Please don’t tell me you’re back with Drew.”

I throw a fry at his head. “God, you idiot, no! I’m not back with that piece of shit.”

He throws his hands up in front of him. “Okay, I just wanted to make sure. I don’t need to know anything more about your hookups.”

Josh runs his napkin down his face. His body is still tense as he says, “I have an early morning tomorrow. You ready, Olivia?”

“Yup.”

He flags down the server and gets the bill for Hannah, Liz, Zoey, me and him.

“You don’t have to do that Josh,” I hear Eliza whisper to him, he shrugs his shoulders and whispers back so only the girls and I can hear him. “You guys took care of Olivia after that day with Drew and kept her company tonight. Dinner’s on me.” He smiles at them.

The girls all get up and meet me at the end of the table and hug me goodbye, and they each, surprisingly, hug Josh as well. He hugs them back before meeting Matt and giving him a bro hug. Matt says something to Josh, and he nods. Matt gives me a hug and we wave our goodbyes to everyone before I follow Josh out to his car.

Iflex and relaxmy fingers as Liv and I walk out toward my car; I want nothing more than to reach for her hand and lace our fingers together or put my arm around her shoulders and pull her body into mine, but I can’t.

Before we left, Matt thanked me for taking care of his sister. It made me feel a little guilty for not telling him about us, but I want to respect her wishes. Hearing Matt say Olivia is an adult and can make her own decisions gave me hope he won’t kill me when he finds out about us.

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