Page 74 of Out of Bounds
“Carbs and caffeine, little sis. And no, you didn’t fall off your horse, you fucking nailed both your events.” She rocks into my shoulder.
“Where’s Annie?” Colton asks, next to sit and simultaneously beckoning over a member of staff.
“Sleeping. I left a note on her pillow to tell her I’d take her some breakfast back up if she wants to lie in. She could do with it.”
“There’s no way she’ll skip breakfast with Darcy here,” Sas says, chuckling.
“Can we circle back for a second?” my sister asks. “You left a note on herpillow?”
My attention shoots to Quinn across the table. “Not likethat.” Even though, yes, I went down on his sister last night and it blew my fucking mind. “Our rooms are adjoining and we—” I’m not sure making it sound like Annie and I were pillow talking for hours is going to sound much better than having oral sex with her, so I decide to quit talking, much to the amusement of the women at the table.
I’m not amused. I’m guilty as hell. In my mind, I drew an arbitrary line last night that I wouldn’t have sex with Annie but today, sitting with my buddy and teammate, I feel dishonest and disloyal. Everything I’m not and don’t want to be. “Thanks for that, Darce.”
She snorts. “Any time.”
But I still check back to Quinn, who shrugs. He knows I wouldn’t go there. OrthinksI wouldn’t. Except I sort of have.
“Seriously, though, I see the way you look at Annie,” my sister goes on, as if she can’t read the fucking room. “When you think no one is looking your eyes are all—” I jab my leg against hers –the fuck?
“She’s a friend, Darce. Moreover, she’s Quinn’s sister.”
As if destiny is trying to torment the shit out of me, I look up from my plate to see Annie. Her long hair is plaited down her back and she’s wearing one of her patterned dresses that sits off her shoulders and swishes when she walks in those cowboy boots she loves.
She doesn’t look hungover at all. In fact, she looks reenergized. Like a woman who really needed the one-night break she got. I knew last night she wasn’t drunk – I wouldn’t have let anything happen between us if she had been – but seeing how fresh she looks is confirmation that she was sober enough when she wanted me.
Sober when she sent me back to my own bed right after.
That twist in my gut that’s starting to play on my mind, screw with my head, and absolutely terrify me, returns.
She spots us and beams to the others as she waves, then her eyes briefly meet mine and I don’t like what I see.
“Morning, y’all,” she says, looking back to the others as I stare at her, feeling as burnt as I did last night. As if the only person who fell for us last night was me.
“I already ordered you horchata,” I tell her.Talk to me, Annie.“I was going to bring it to your room. Want me to get it now?”
Finally, she meets my eyes and we’re locked in an unspoken conversation for long seconds – if only I knew what she was saying. Then she smiles and my heart starts racing. “I got your note. Thanks for letting me sleep. It was bliss. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t wake up before the birds.”
I nod, still mentally all over the place. Hating how this is confusing as hell but knowing that I feel something for the woman locked in my gaze that I haven’t felt before. A pull from somewhere deep inside me.
I sense Darcy staring at me, searing me with that sibling instinct that I know is bang on. I’m falling for Annie and Darcy knows it.
“Oh my God!” Sas says, like she’s finally coming to life, and cutting through my emotional spiral. “Have you seen the link that Sienna just dropped into the group?” Sas is fixed on Colton, though she has the attention of everyone at the table.
Colton takes her phone from her and presumably hits the link. “The fuck? That’s not real.”
“What is it?” Annie asks.
The way Colton and Sas look at each other across the table makes me lean over my buddy’s shoulder to see the social media post displayed on the phone screen.
What the…?
“Sienna sent us a link to a post about Auston,” Sas says.
“Sienna? As in your brother’s PR, who’s looking out for me?” Annie asks.
I get to the end of the social media post. “That’s not real,” I say, even as my stomach flips at the thought of what I’ve read.
“What’s not real?” Annie asks. “And why in hell do you guys have a group message chat about me without me in it?”
