Page 65 of Lemon Crush

Guilt was a lump of lead in my stomach. She’d been reaching out to make sure I was good instead of enjoying every minute of her cruise, and I hadn’t even told her the truth about Wade renting the apartment. Worse, I’d made her friend my accomplice. It didn’t matter that it was his idea. I’d okayed it. I was responsible.

It wasn’t the only thing I was keeping from her now. Jiminy and the race. Trading bookkeeping for home improvement help. Telling Chick I’d sell the house and move to San Diego. Now I was taking shifts at the icehouse and fooling around with Wade.

Was I in the running for worst sister ever?

Only if I didn’t come clean before she found out.

She would eventually. She always did. The last time I talked to her, she’d already known Wade was “couch surfing” at Mom’s because of Lucy and Rick. I should have corrected her then, but I hadn’t. And I knew the reason why.

It was all well and good for Wade to say it was nobody’s business but ours, but that was never how our small, dysfunctional family worked. When you grew up like we did, three girls all piled in one car while crossing the country in order to pile into one tinyapartment after another, secrets and privacy were rare and closely guarded luxuries instead of the norm. We’d all knownwaytoo much about each other’s habits and personal lives. That was one of the things Morgan hated when she was a teenager.

I could use that reasoning to justify my full-to-the-brim basket of white lies and omissions, but I also knew how much it would hurt her when things finally came to light. I couldn’t do it. Something had to give.

I would tell her about the rental agreement. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but because the call was from the ship, it would at least be short. I should warn Wade first, I thought, typing out the text before I could change my mind.

Me: I’m going to tell Morgan about you renting the apartment tomorrow. Fasten your seatbelt.

Wade called me less than a minute later.

“You weren’t gone that long,” he said when I put him on speaker. “What happened? Did you count your tips and realize you don’t need me anymore, so it’s okay to throw me under the bus?”

The sound of his deep voice brought this afternoon back in a rush and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, despite my dilemma. “The tips were nice, but no. I’m not throwing you under the bus and I still need you. For rent,” I tacked on at the end, though we both knew that hadn’t been what I was talking about. “I don’t want us to keep this a secret from her anymore. It feels unnecessarily duplicitous.”

“Good word.”

“It’s a mouthful. But treacherous sounded too extreme in my head.”

After a pause, he said, “Are you planning to tell hereverything?”

“Are you high?” I laughed before he could answer. “I’m only telling her about the apartment for now. I’ll mention the race when she gets home, though Lucy will probably get to her first. But as long as I do it before she confronts me about it, it will take the wind out of her sails and I should be okay.”

“I see you’re putting a lot of thought into this.”

“Bernie used to do the same thing with you. I seem to remember hearing about a B minus on her report card, followed by a tattoo reveal, all leading up to her pregnancy confession.”

“Thanks for the flashback.” I could hear the grimace in his voice. “That was one hell of a week. I didn’t realize she’d been spreading out the bad news with my feelings in mind.”

“We aren’t sadists, Wade. We’re trouble magnets. We know we can’t dump everything on you at once, because you need time to process. Like Morgan.” I hesitated. “About that other thing… I thought maybe we could keep that to ourselves for a while?”

Wade wanting me was mine. Something I didn’t want to share in case it disappeared.

“I was just sitting in my office and thinking about that other thing,” he drawled.

I tugged the phone closer. “Is that what you were doing?”

“I was wondering how long I had to wait before we could do it again.”

Iwondered if he’d ever had phone sex before. With a voice like his, I bet he’d be exceptionally good at it.

“On the subject of said thing, we might have to renegotiate the lease agreement,” I teased. “Orgasms of today’s caliber surely balance out the extra cash you’ve been paying me for the pool.”

That was me. Just going full Mrs. Roper like a wild thing.

“Don’t start, August. We’re keeping that separate, remember? The rental and the job have nothing to do with what’s going on between us. If you want to renegotiate the lease, we can talk aboutit next month. If you want another orgasm, you can talk about that right now.”

Oomph. That unapologetic command in his voice was doing it for me. And I did really want to talk about having another orgasm. “Whatever you say, boss.”

He breathed out a groan and I heard a door close. “Jesus. What made you decide to tell your sister about the apartment anyway?”

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