Page 81 of Show Off

“Hey now!” Lana waves her arms. “Children present.”

Amy looks up, confused. “Where?”

Cooper lets go of his wife to rope an arm around Lana’s shoulders. They’re both laughing as he attempts a noogie.

“Cut it out, asshole.” She squirms away and slugs Cooper in the gut, but they’re both laughing.

“Assault,” Cooper yells to his wife, but Amy steps back.

“You’re on your own with this one.” Amy’s smile shifts to mine and I smile back.

My brother and I used to roughhouse like this. Would we still be doing it now if?—

“Brat.” Cooper steps back with a grin, smoothing his shirt as he looks at me. “When you’re the second-to-last youngest of six, you take what you can get.”

“Noted.” I never considered the pecking order in such a big family.

“Anyway, congrats.” He solemnly looks from Lana to me. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple.”

I frown at them all, struggling to grasp what’s going on here. “Can someone please explain how everyone seems to know we had sex?”

Amy laughs as the other two look startled. “I mean, just to be clear,” she says, “I think we were all just betting on whether you’d wind up dating.”

Oh.

“I wasn’t.” Coop’s eyes glint with mischief. “I don’t need details, though.”

Lana blows a shock of hair off her forehead. “If I thought it would bother you enough to offset my own discomfort, I’d give youallthe gory details. So many details. More details than you could possibly?—”

“Congratulations.” Cooper looks serious as he meets my eye. “Lana’s great. I knew you’d eventually notice.”

The blessing touches me in ways I don’t expect. “Yeah.”

“Come on, Coop.” Amy steers him gently to the side. “We’re running late and Nick’s going to eat all the lemon-lime vegan muffins you’ve been going on about.”

Coop tips his head toward the bakery. “Want to join? We’re meeting Lauren and Nick for breakfast.”

“Some other time.” Lana loops her arm through mine, which feels better than holding hands. Call me a pig, but I like the feeling of a beautiful woman on my arm.

This beautiful woman in particular.

“So,” I say when her brother’s gone. “Looks like Lauren and Nick will know in the next five minutes that you and I are sleeping together. Do you need to stop and call Mari?”

She laughs and stops to uncoil Mouse’s leash from the tree she’s managed to wrap it around. My big dog wags and licks Lana’s face. “Oh, don’t worry—I’m sure someone’s texted her by now.”

“Huh.” I’m not sure how I feel about that. “Guess it’s good to have everything out in the open. No secrets.”

My words hang heavy between us. I don’t even realize what I’ve said until Lana looks up at me. “You think I should tell them.”

It’s not a question, and she’s not talking about the sex thing. “What you shared last night?” I shrug and watch Mouse sniff a dandelion. “Seems like something they might want to know.”

Lana doesn’t answer right away. We’re alone on the path, but still. I understand secrets like this one call for discretion. I do havesometact.

“I don’t want to hurt them.”

“Hurt them or your mother?”

She bites her lip. “Them. If they find out I’ve known this long and never told them?—”

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