Page 38 of With a Broken Wing
“Whatever you want, sunshine.”
My bouncing legcame to a sudden halt when Demetri reached out and grabbed my thigh with his hand. “You have been squirming since we left New Orleans.” He watched me out of the corner of his eye, a glint of amusement in his glare.
“I’m just really excited.” This had been the longest I’d gone without seeing Jules since we became friends. Before that would be a maximum of a week. We were all that way, and now Katie was in Grand Rapids, Jules was in Chicago, and I was just kind ofeverywhere. For now.
A pang of anxious sadness settled in my gut, anxiety about Fisher’s promise threatening to tie my stomach in knots. I quickly flipped back to excitement when the car pulled up in front of a large white house.
It was a two-story villa directly on the bay just north of Miami, with a beautiful pool and an even more beautiful view. The house was even better in person than it was on the listing.
“Oh my god, we’rehere!” I squealed, grabbing onto Demetri’s hand and pressing my lips to his cheek.
He turned to face me, a hunger in his features that wasn’t there a minute earlier. I licked my lips and took a deep breath, leaning forward again and covering his mouth with mine. He slipped his tongue past my lips, and I sucked it into my mouth, running my tongue along it and smiling when he groaned.
“If you keep doing that, I’m going to keep you in the backseat of this car and not share you,” he said, pulling his mouth from mine.
I gasped and jumped out of my seat, reaching for the door. “Nope. Not happening. I have a best friend to hug.”
Jules waited in the front entry with the door wide open, bouncing back and forth between her feet. Seeing her had me practically jumping up the stairs, and I was grateful I didn’t trip. I dropped my bag on the porch, running full speed towards my best friend.
She opened her arms, and when I reached her, I jumped. “Fucking hell,” Demetri muttered behind me as we fell to the ground. We laughed, the kind of laugh that makes your eyes water.
“Shut up, Demetri,” I snapped, planting a kiss on Jules’s cheek. “I missed youso much!”
“God, I missed you so much too! I get so lonely without you and Katie!”
William cleared his throat next to us, reaching down and pulling Jules from the ground. “Lonely, hmm?” he said, leaning into her and slapping her ass. “You don’t seem verylonely.”
“I said what I said,” she huffed out. “I missed my best friend.”
Jules grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her to the open living room. Our shoes clicked against the beautiful wood floors as we entered the white, well-decorated space. White sofas and lamps were perfectly arranged, woven orange throw pillows adding a pop of color. The modern half-glass staircase took you to the second level where the rooms were.
“I’ve been so ready for you to get here! This pool has been calling my name, and I told William he has to behave, so he’s been pouting.”
“I have not been pouting. Don’t push it, baby, or I’ll show you exactly how misbehaved I can be,” William said, and Demetri scoffed behind him.
“You’re going to make me regret this, aren’t you?” He shook his head, grabbing both of our bags and heading for the stairs. “I’ll put your bag in one of the rooms, Andy.”
Andy. My name sounded strange on his lips. He had called me by my name before, but not like this. It sounded so… normal. “Uh, thank you.”
“I’ll show you the rest of the house,” Jules said, as if she’d lived there for months and hadn’t arrived only an hour earlier. I was the one who had booked the house, so I’d seen all the pictures. Still, she grabbed my hand, leading me into the beautiful modern kitchen.
I loved the marble tiles on the walls, and the island counter that took up most of the room but somehow still left plenty of space. It was the kind of house I could only dream of living in, and for the next week, it was all ours, but I couldn’t get excited. I could only think about the fact that the same lips that had kissed me in the car said my name like it tasted sour.
At the top of the stairs, there were three doors. “The master is on the main level. William claimed that for us,” she said with a wink, and a flood of jealousy ran through me. “I’m not sure which room Demetri put you in, but this room has thebestview because it’s not blocked by any trees, so hopefully it’s this one.”
When she opened the door, my bag was sitting on the bed. I gasped. She was right. The floor to ceiling windows doubled as glass sliding doors, leading to a balcony that stretched the length of the second floor and overlooked the pool and bay. Palm trees waved in the breeze, and I listened to the waves crash against the water while I inhaled the salty scent.
“I could get used to this,” I said with a wink. “They’re going to have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.”
“I already tried to convince William to buy it.” Jules laughed, and I couldn’t help but join. Would William really just buy the house because she loved it? I couldn’t imagine what that would be like. “He said no. That if he was going to buy a beach house, it wasn’t going to be in Miami.” She rolled her eyes, mimicking his voice.
“I don’t sound like that.” William stood behind us, the smirk on his face proof he was holding back laughter at Jules’s imitation. “I just came to tell you to enjoy the pool. We will join you ladies later for dinner, but it’s all work and no fun when Demetri is around. You know how he is by now, I’m sure.”
I tried not to stumble over my agreement. Jules giggled when he winked and pulled her in for the kind of kiss that made your knees buckle beneath you. “Oh my god, you two! Get a room thatisn’tmine, would ya?”
I threw a pillow at Jules, laughing when she finally pulled away, flushed. William wiggled his eyebrows at her and left, and Jules turned to me. “Okay, now Ireallyneed to get in that pool.”
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