Page 21 of Broken Silence
Oakley’s head snapped to Jasper, and he smirked, about to say something.
“Beach party!”
His mouth closed, and he looked back at the screen.
“Okay,whathappened at that party?” I asked.
It must have been good if Jasper stopped taking the piss out of someone because of it. I hated that I didn’t know what it was. Those inside jokes used to include me.
“Nothing. Shut up, Oakley!” he snapped.
Oh, I was going to ask her about that later. It could be the perfect icebreaker. We needed to talk, but I didn’t want it to end in an argument again.
She laughed quietly, making me smile. That was the first time I’d heard her laugh properly in fifteen years, and the sound went some way to heal old wounds.
It felt damn good.
“You won’t be laughing when you’re screaming like a girl in the middle of the night because you’re dreaming the little fish are eating you,” Jasper said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Jasper performed a striptease toPoker Faceat a beach party.”
“A striptease?”
Ben and Kerry laughed. Chelsea eyed Oakley with suspicion from the other side of the room.
“It wasn’t a striptease. What the hell is wrong with you, Oakley?”
“It was a striptease. Although I don’t know if he actually went all the way. I left when his hands reached the top of his boxers.” She shuddered in disgust. “He sang and everything, though.”
Jasper mumbled a string of swear words under his breath, narrowing his eyes at his sister as if he could strike her down.
“Repeat performance, please,” Kerry demanded.
“I don’t think so, pudding.”
“Did you just call me pudding?”
Oakley shook her head. “You know nothing about women, Jasper.”
“I know enough to get what I want.”
“Pig.” Kerry scoffed.
The movie started, and everyone shut up. I was suddenly hyperaware that my arm was almost touching Oakley’s, and the smell of her hair drifted into my nostrils.
She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, and I couldn’t fucking breathe.
The air between us was heavy with unfinished business. I couldn’t focus on the movie—couldn’t focus on anything but her beside me.
Did it physically hurt her to be around me again, too?
I sat uncomfortably and forced myself to look at the screen, clenching my fists until my fingernails cut into my palms. I should have sat somewhere else because I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the beautiful blonde who had gutted me four years earlier.
I managed to keep my eyes on the screen until thirty minutes later when Kerry waved an empty bowl at me. “Your turn, Cole.”
Sighing, I grabbed the bowl and made my way into the kitchen, grateful for the break so I could pull myself together.
Away from her, things were a little clearer.
