Page 68 of Something Spontaneous

I drop my head and groan. “No, not that. Well, not just that exactly.”

“Oh, so you’re going to finally admit that you are? At least we’re getting that out of the way.” She arches a brow at me in a challenge.

I glare back at her because, as much as I’m uncomfortably diving into my feelings, I’m not ready for that conversation.

“No. She doesn’t know about…” My eyes fall to the rippling blue water and then over to my gym bag, where my prosthetic is.

Her eyes widen with alarm. “You guys have been doing… whatever you’ve been doing, and she didn’t notice you have a prosthetic?”

“It’s been… heated and complicated.” That’s putting it lightly. It’s always been fast, intense, and so goddamn perfect. We’ve been so frenzied that I’ve also never had time to take off my pants or shoes on any of those occasions.

“Nope. Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“Then why did you ask? Because let me assure you, I would be happy to never say the word panties or discuss my sex life with you ever again.”

“Glad we can agree on that.” She smirks, but her eyes soften when she sees that I’m still in the pool and not amused. “Look, I don’t know what exactly you two are doing, but it definitely seems like you’ve moved on from the ‘hating each other’s guts’ phase. If you want any chance at something going forward, you’re going to have to tell her. Honesty always wins, and that’s not something you can hide forever.”

I consider scowling at her because I don’t want to have this conversation, but I settle for a single nod because once again, my sister is right. Lying to myself, not talking things out, and keeping secrets from Josie is what ruined everything between us years ago. I never thought I’d be in the position to ever see her again, much less spend time with her and have the chance to talk about anything meaningful.

“You know I hate it when you’re right.”

She huffs a laugh. “Perks of being the little sister. I’m always right.”

She crouches down and pats me on the head like I’m an obedient dog. I think about grabbing her arm and yanking her into the pool, but the sound of the kitchen door clanging open signaling Josie’s return erases any thought from my mind. She has a bottle of wine in hand, but the way her bikini top shows off her tits and the way her board shorts hang on her hips makes my mouth dry. If I stare any longer, I actually will have another reason not to get out of the pool.

My sister stands and walks across the patio toward Josie and the back door.

“I’m going to grab some snacks. Have fun, you two. Please keep it in your pants,” she says, looking over her shoulder as she goes inside. She casts me one last glance and mouths tell her.

I raise my hand and make a one-fingered gesture, and Josie gives her a confused look, but she shrugs and keeps walking to the table where she pours herself a glass of wine. Then she saunters over to where I’m still standing in the pool.

She sits down cross-legged on my towel next to the ladder and grins at me.

“So, how did she find out exactly that we’ve been, you know? Something about panties at the diner?”

“I swear to god, can we please erase that word from the English language? Hearing my sister say it earlier has forever tainted the word.”

She laughs. It’s light and airy, at odds with the devious grin on her face. “No, messing with you is so much more fun. Come on, tell the story.”

“Ugh. Fine. After that night in the garage, I stayed up doing laundry because I couldn’t sleep.”

“Are you saying sex with me was so good it left you unable to sleep? That’s a high compliment, Sly Sterling.”

I roll my eyes and continue. “Yeah, well, I guess I was pretty out of it because I left them in my pants when I washed them. When I went to pay for breakfast at the diner the next morning, they fell out of my pocket and yeah, Sisi saw.”

Rather than being mortified like I was, she cackles.

“No! They didn’t?”

“Yes, they most certainly did.”

She laughs again, so hard this time that she wipes a tear from the corner of her eye. “Thanks for taking the bullet and being the one to tell her at least.”

“Yeah, like I really had a choice after that debacle. She kept going on—asking who they belonged to and saying that word loud enough for the entire diner to hear. I needed her to shut up, so, yeah—here we are.”

“Oh, I would have paid to see that.” She taps a finger to her lips, drawing my eyes to her mouth. “Actually, you could totally have your own content page, except instead of spicy stuff, it’s just you getting embarrassed by your sister. People would pay good money to see the grumpy, broody Sly Sterling getting humbled by his spunky little sister.”

“Is that why you came over here? To advise me on starting my OnlyGrumps page.”