Page 93 of Cross-Checked

I’m still contemplating whether it’s better if I don’t say anything to Nicholas and Nicole until I can talk to him about it, when there’s a knock on my door.

In the months I’ve lived here, not a single person other than Nicholas or Nicole has ever knocked on my door. And I gulp, because I know there’s only one person it can be.

Nicole presses her lips together like she’s stifling a smile when Nicholas asks, “You going to get that?”

There’s a second knock, while I sit there staring at them. Shit. They damn well know there’s only one other person in this building who I know, and there’s no good reason he should be knocking on my door at seven o’clock at night.

“Or would you like me to answer it?” Nicole asks, amusement in her voice.

“No.” I shoot out of my chair, turning toward the entryway. If I don’t open the door all the way, and if I can stop him from saying anything, I can probably play it off like it was a food delivery to the wrong condo.

But when I pull open the door, he’s standing there in shorts and a T-shirt, barefoot, holding Abby, who yells “Ay-Ay,” and reaches her arms out to me. I can’t help but melt at the sight of them, and the way that Abby’s now saying my name.

“We missed you,” he says, his voice gruff like always, but with that undertone of affection he seems to reserve for me. And as he hands me Abby, he leans forward and kisses my forehead while pushing open my front door. He steps back quickly, with a strangled, “Oh.”

“Might as well come in now,” I say, knowing full well that Nicole and Nicholas are gawking at us.

“Uh...” He stands there, frozen, and I hold in a laugh.

“We already knew!” Nicholas calls out.

“What the hell?” I mutter under my breath, turning and carrying Abby back into my kitchen. “How did you know?”

“Well, we were suspicious when he came over to your hotel room to see Abby on a video call the first night you guys were in Philly,” Nicole says. And though she wasn’t there while we were on the phone with Nicholas, I’m sure he told her later that same night.

“Oh, hello,” McCabe says from behind me, and when I turn to see what he’s talking about, Tabitha is rubbing herself up against his ankles. I’m just about to remind him that she’s evil, when he bends to pick her up. She goes willingly into his arms, snuggling against his chest and purring.

What the actual hell?If I had tried to pick her up, I’d be covered in claw marks.

“Oh my god,” I say with a laugh. “The world’s grumpiest cat has found the world’s grumpiest man, and it’s a match made in heaven.”

“I’m not grumpy,” he all but growls, but there’s a heat in his eyes that I don’t miss. I wonder if he’s still thinking about our little tryst in the stick room yesterday like I am?

“And see,” Nicole says, “that right there? The way you just looked at her like you’d devour her if we weren’t standing here, and how you’re practically eye fucking him, AJ? You guys think you’re not obvious?” She lets out an easy laugh, because apparently we’re ridiculous for trying to hide this.

“It’s possible that we’re picking up on things because we already knew for sure,” Nicholas tells her.

“Right,” I say, narrowing my eyes. “Back to how you already knew?”

“The night you guys got back from Philly, Nicole and I were already suspicious. So we decided to wait down the hall to see if you snuck over to his place after we left. We waited, like, ten minutes, and you didn’t come out, so we thought maybe we were just imagining things. So we went around the corner to theelevator and we were still waiting for it when you finally did head over.”

I rack my brain, trying to remember how incriminating that conversation in his doorway was. Did he mention the phone sex before we shut the door? Didn’t he say something about punishing me?

“You’re really cute when you blush like that,” McCabe says from beside me.

“This is humiliating,” I mutter, hugging Abby to me a little tighter and raining kisses down on her head to avoid looking at my brother and Nicole. In response, she wraps her tiny fingers around a piece of my hair and snuggles her cheek into my chest.

“It’s not like I didn’t know you’ve had sex before,” Nicholas says with a roll of his eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about our sex life,” I rush out, nodding at McCabe, “any more than I want to talk about your and Nicole’s.”

“Why?” Nicole teases. “We have a very healthy sex life.”

“This is not the kind of thing I need to know about your relationship,” I say.

Even though we’re super close and Nicholas is in college now, it’s hard to step back from the active role I took in raising him. Coaching him through his first heartbreak, teaching him to drive a car, covering his boarding school and college tuition...those are just a few of the ways I’ve assumed a parental role over the years. He’s not technically my kid, but in a lot of ways, it feels like he is.

“Sooo,” Nicholas says as he stands at the kitchen counter, putting leftover food into the large plastic container. “I assume if you two haven’t told me, it’s not public knowledge. Who else knows about this?”

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