Page 53 of Every Hidden Truth

“I don’t want to,” I admitted.

“I know.”

“But I can,” I said.

And he said, “I know that too.”

That made me pause, and I grinned, a little manically. “You’re my favorite person in the whole world. You know that, right?”

“I, uh, I do now,” he said shyly, and I wished he was here so I could kiss his face off. “You’re my favorite person too.”

To dispel the tension, I said, “We should have phone sex now.”

Ben burst into laughter. “What?”

“It’s a good distraction, and we just confessed mushy feelings. Seems like phone sex is the natural next step.”

I crawled back into the closet as he laughed in my ear. “Well, I’m already not wearing pants, so it really would be a missed opportunity.”

“You’re not wearing pants? Seriously?” I kept my tone easy as I reached out and closed my fingers around the hem of the shirt, hooking my pinkie in the belt loop of the jeans. “I can get behind that.”

As I scooched out of the closet, Ben said, “I was getting dressed when you called, hence the no-pants. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Never.” I wobbled to my feet, phone in one hand, the cursed clothing in the other. “What color’s your underwear.”

“Blue.”

“Boring. Mine’s orange. Ezzy said I looked like a traffic cone,” I said as I walked toward the stairs, holding the clothes at arm’s length.

“Why is Esther seeing you in your underwear?” he asked pointedly.

“You jealous?” I teased.

“Honestly, a little.”

“I can show you my underwear tonight if you want.”

I made my way through the house, shouldering the door to the basement open. The stairs were narrower here, and I had to steady myself on the wall. A whiff of cologne hit me, drifting from the clothes, and my stomach cramped.

“You propositioning me, Brigs?”

At the base of the stairs, I released the breath I’d been holding. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“One-track mind,” he mused.

“I’m a teenage boy. It’s kind of in the job description.” Locating the pile of clothes dedicated to Goodwill, I shoved the shirt and jeans into the mix, burying them deep enough I couldn’t see them. “Done.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. They’re in the Goodwill pile. It’s done.”

“Good job, babe.”

I froze on the bottom step. “Babe?”

Ben blew a raspberry. “Yeah, not gonna lie, it felt weird coming out of my mouth.”

There was a short pause before we spoke at the same time.

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