Page 110 of Hot Mess
“I hate you right now.”
“I can live with that.” Daniella wandered over to the door. I managed to wiggle into my sexy-tight skinny jeans and zip them up, just as she threw it open.
Ashley was standing there, fist in the air, just about to knock.
“Good morning,” my sister said.
“Hey,” he said, looking from her to me. “Good morning.”
“Hi,” I said, breathless. I smoothed my hands over my hair, which I hadn’t brushed yet, and smiled. “Great timing. We’re totally ready.”
Dani shut the door and smirked at me from behind his back.
“You… uh… remember Daniella,” I said, awkwardly.
Ashley turned to look at her, and Dani gave him a little wave. “’Sup.”
“Hey,” he said. Then his gaze swept over her.
She was wearing a fashionably holey T-shirt with a chick in a bikini on it, and the wordsSwim, Drink, Sleep, with a white miniskirt and wedge sandals that made her legs look about ten miles long, her hair all beachy-perfect waves.
And seeing her standing there next to him? Kind of made me want to barf.
On paper, my sister was probably the perfect match for Ashley Player.
And I hadn’t even looked in a mirror yet today. Or brushed my teeth.
He looked around my place. “You like flowers, I take it?”
I did like flowers. I had fresh ones in about five different vases, and about twenty images of them, framed photos and paintings, all over my walls. He was studying one of my favorites, hung just inside the door; a print of one of Imogen Cunningham’s sensual black-and-white studies of calla lilies from the 1920s.
“I kind of collect them,” I explained. Then I tossed my sweats and the panties I’d slept in under the bed, quickly, when he wasn’t looking. “I got my first one when I was a little girl, and then I just kept getting more…”
“Fascinating,” my sister said.
I tossed her a set of eye-daggers, then smiled at Ashley as he turned back to me. “If you’ll excuse me, I just need to do a super-quick hair brushing.”
I didn’t reallywantto leave the two of them alone together, but I forced myself into the bathroom, where I brushed my teeth, threw on some makeup and brushed my hair in record time.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my sister. I did, of course.
We’d both obeyed the Cardinal Rule, religiously, since adulthood. I was pretty damn sure she’d never touch what was mine, or even what she suspected Iwantedto be mine.
However. Just because she wouldn’t touch didn’t mean she couldn’t have feelings. And feelings had a way of wreaking havoc on things… Even on the most solid sister relationship.
I would know.
If Daniella and Ashley hit it off—like the way they seemed to the first night they met—and he decided he still liked her, I’d just have to die a little bit (or a lot)… But I’d have to bow out.
I knew that.
Fortunately the walls were thin, and I could hear them talking. I didn’t exactly press my ear up against the door, but I listened.
Small talk. In fact… she was asking him if he thought it was going to rain. I happened to know that Daniella Vola hated small talk. She had a strict policy of never talking about the weather.
Which meant only one thing. She had zero personal interest in Ashley Player, and she wanted me to know it.
She knew I was listening.
