That left us kids alone and unsupervised. I took Rhett back to my room, to show him around and also get him alone. My heart started pounding the moment I shut my door. I was burning up inside my snowsuit, and I desperately wanted to strip out of it, but I needed one more answer from him. “Why didn’t you return my call or my text? I tried to reach you three days ago. I left a voicemail.”

“I know. I got your message.” He stepped into my room further and sat down on my bed, almost like it was familiar to him and he did it every day. “Honestly…I was scared you were trying to reach me to end things. And if you were going to end things then wanted you to have to do it in person. If I’d known you were going to be as sweet to me then as you’re being today, I wouldn’t have hesitated to call.”

“Oh.”

“I wanted to call. Pretty desperately.”

“Well, you’re here now.” And I was so happy and grateful. Taking the zipper to my suit in my hand, I started to slowly unzip. “And I missed you so freaking bad.” I kept unzipping, past my chest, then my stomach, and straight down.

Rhett suddenly stood up. “Jesus, Sydney. Nope. Sorry, baby. Nope. We can’t do that.” He started backing away toward my door. He backed into my dresser and nearly fell over, but he righted himself and kept backing. “I want to do that. Believe me, the need to be inside you is already killing me. I’ve been going out of my mind the last few days, not even sure if I’d ever get to do that with you again. But not now, not here with your family. Your brother already hates me…so, actually, I shouldn’t even be in your room with the door closed. He’s probably already assuming the worst. So I’m going to go out there and make that pie for that Heath kid, family friend of yours, since that kid is so obsessed with pie. And…I’m gonna go do that.” He stumbled into the door.

I couldn’t help but laugh. He was flustered and it was sexy as hell. “Okay. But tonight. After everyone goes to sleep. You better be in here.”

He reached for the handle.

“Rhett—I’m serious.”

“I’ll be in here. Don’t worry.” He came back across the room, all confident and cocky now, and pulled me in for one more kiss. It was a kiss that let me know he certainly wasn’t about to deny me sex tonight. It left me in one hell of a turned-on state, feeling like tonight was an eternity away. I moaned in protest against his mouth because I did not want him to go help Heath with that pie. “Fine,” he suddenly said and he pushed the material of the snowsuit down over my shoulders. “You win.”

He was peeling my snowsuit down, kissing so deviously in every spot he could, feeling his way, letting go completely, and now I was the one who had to deny him. “No, you’re right. Now isn’t good.” If we did had sex now then it would just be rushed and I wanted more than that right this second. Turning around, I wiggled away from him. I started to pout, mostly because I couldn’t have him and suddenly I’d never wanted him more.

“Tonight,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “I love you.”

I had no idea if he’d meant to say those last three words or if they’d just sort of slipped out. He’d never said them before and part of me wondered if I’d even heard him correctly. Either way, he didn’t wait around to see if I’d reciprocate.

He only left my room.

And he left me out of breath.

CHAPTER 18:

RHETT

Pumpkin Pie time. Right now. In the fanciest freaking kitchen my poor eyes had ever beheld. And Heath was like a child. He’d never made anything that required cooking before and the guy was fascinated by everything I showed him. The pie we were making wasn’t complicated—the crust was premade and the filling was canned. Then when all that was put together, all that was left was to pop it in the oven and bake it.

John hovered. He pretended not to be paying any attention, but he was. It was obvious that he was curious. He may have even been more fascinated than Heath. Or maybe he was just waiting for me to screw up. Either way, he was lingering and he wasn’t treating me like a leper. Not at the moment, at least. Secretly, I’d googled the recipe just to be certain when the others weren’t looking. I was good, but I wasn’t that good. Like I said, the crust was premade.

Sydney was still in her room. I didn’t know what had come over me when I said it, but I was basically freaked the hell out about my ‘I love you’ drop from earlier. It was no secret—between me, myself, and I—that I loved her. I’d felt this way for quite some time. But to say those words out loud? What the fuck was thinking? She was probably equally freaked out and about ready to take off running in the opposite direction.

My stomach was in knots, as I made the damn pie, and as I waited on her. Before my big word slip, I’d thought I’d finally cracked Sydney’s code. The girl required a few things: sex, patience, a certain amount of humor, kindness, and honesty. She responded well to all of those things. What she didn’t respond well to was…too much too fast. And saying those words now was definitely way too fast.

Finally, to my relief and to my apprehension, she came out of her room and joined us in the kitchen. She’d changed from her snow gear into jeans and a soft sweater. She didn’t say anything at all as she came into the room. But she approached me, as if nothing different had happened earlier, and sat in the empty barstool beside mine. It was all so very causal. And I didn’t know what to think.

“It smells really good in here,” she commented.

“It’s the pie,” I replied lamely. No shit it was the pie. Obviously.

“How much longer on it?”

“Twenty-two minutes,” Heath rattled off like a ticking clock. “Twenty-one now,” he updated as the real clock changed.

“The pie is for tomorrow, Heath. Remember?” I reminded him for about the eighth time in the last half hour. I don’t know what this guy’s obsession was with pie, but I knew we were going to have to eat it tonight anyway, despite my reminders. We were all bored, stuck inside, and I think this was the first cooked anything these people had seen in days.

“Okay,” she said. “Maybe we all could watch a movie while we wait? Or I think there might be some board games in our living room.”

“I’m down for Risk,” John threw out there.

“Sounds good to me.” Sydney hopped up from her seat. In doing so, her fingers kind of brushed my fingers…in a very on-purpose sort of way. She had something in her hand as she did this and she slipped whatever it was into my hand. The others in the room noticed nothing. Whatever she was doing, she was doing it discreetly. “You want to play Risk?” she asked me, not acknowledging whatever message she was trying to get to me.

“I don’t know how,” I answered. “But sure. I’m just going to go find the bathroom first.”

“Down that hall.” She pointed. “Second door.”

I followed her instructions, leaving the others for a moment. Using the bathroom wasn’t my concern, figuring out what I was holding in my hand was. The moment I was alone, I quickly unfolded the piece of notebook paper she’d handed me. The creases in it were old—meaning this wasn’t a fresh piece of paper. I guess she hadn’t had anything new to write on? Maybe this family was so posh that they only used computers to write with in their house. Weird. It didn’t matter though. I was too curious to care at this point. The note read:

Come find me when you’re no longer jail-bait.

Wait. What? For a moment I couldn’t breathe. The words were in my own handwriting. Because I’d been the one to write this note. To her. Years ago. The day we’d kissed beside the dumpsters in the cold. She’d kept it. She’d fucking kept it. I couldn’t even believe it.