Page 229 of Better When Shared
My heart leapt at the small victory—she wasn’t kicking us out.
“Both of us?” Kiaan glanced at the sofa, then at me, his expression a mixture of challenge and uncertainty.
“Everything in my house has dual purposes, and the sectional is designed to double as a guest bed. If you take the pillows out, each half is basically a twin bed. Unless one of you wants to sleep in the yard with the raccoons.” Skylar’s tone left no room for argument. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a word with my grandmother about boundaries and respect for privacy.”
She moved past us toward the door, pausing with her hand on the knob. “There are clean towels in the bathroom if you want to shower. I’ll be in my bedroom, making a sternly worded phone call.”
The door closed behind her with a soft click, leaving Kiaan and me alone in her space, surrounded by pieces of her life. I sat on the edge of the sofa, feeling the weight of everything unsaid between us.
“Well,” Kiaan said, breaking the silence as he dropped onto the opposite end of the sectional. “That could have gone worse.”
I nodded, surprised to find myself smiling. “Could have gone better, too.”
“True.” He leaned back, studying the ceiling. “But she didn’t kick us out.”
“No,” I agreed. “She didn’t.”
“So, how often were you sexting her?” Kiaan asked, flopping back on the couch and trying to look casual, but missing by a country mile.
“How often were you?” I countered, not entirely sure I wanted to know the answer.
Chapter 3
Skylar
I sat at the corner table of Dockside Cafe with my fingers wrapped around my coffee mug so tight my knuckles went white, trying to look like a normal human being who didn’t have two ridiculously hot guys camping out in her tiny house.
The clattering dishes and tourist chatter should have provided enough cover for my anxiety, but I could feel my grandmother watching me with that all-knowing look that made me want to crawl under the table and die.
How could she have invited them both out here? Didn’t she know how it would ruin everything?
“Your pancakes are getting cold,” Hui said, gesturing with her teacup toward my plate where blueberry pancakes sat untouched, syrup congealing around the edges.
“I’m not hungry,” I muttered, but stabbed at the stack anyway, pushing blueberries into little syrupy patterns that spelled out “HELP ME.”
Makai sat across from me, infuriatingly relaxed in a faded surf competition t-shirt, his sun-bleached dark hair falling into his eyes. Unlike me, he was demolishing a pile of hash browns and eggs like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“So,” he said, pausing to sip his coffee, “are they full-on brawling over you yet, or just bickering? I need details.”
I flipped him off. “Not funny.”
“A little funny.” He grinned, the laugh lines around his eyes crinkling. “It’s not every day my business partner has two hot guys show up unannounced to profess their undying love.”
“They didn’t—” I started, then caught myself. What had they professed, exactly? We’d never put labels on whatever this was. And the guys hadn’t known I’d been flirting with them both.
It had evolved naturally, the late-night gaming sessions turning into ongoing text conversations. And the conversations had evolved from strategy tips to life stories to explicit, sensual descriptions of what we’d do to each other if we ever met.
And now they were here, in my space, making it impossible to hide behind the screen. Forcing me to make an impossible choice.
“Did they know about each other?” Makai asked.
“I mean, we’re all friends. They know each other.”
“Answer the question, Skylar.” Makai’s twitching lips told me he already knew the truth. That I had been sexting both of my best friends in separate DMs at the same time.
My mind betrayed me again, flashing to how Kiaan had looked stepping out of my grandmother’s car, painfully beautiful, all sharp angles and intensity. And Ryker—Jesus, those shoulders. The way his t-shirt stretched across his chest. Photos hadn’t done either of them justice.
“Fuck me,” I groaned, letting my head fall forward. “Kiaan scheduled a helicopter ride for this afternoon. A helicopter! What do I even do with that?”
