She was definitely riding that buzzed wave with him and Kris.
Amused by her splashing, he sent another wave back her way with a wave of his palm in the bubbles.
“What did I lie about?”
He scrounged his brain, trying to think of what it could possibly be.
“Saying it was sunny at the coast last weekend? Hannah and Eric were there and said it rained the entire week.”
She glanced at him through lowered lashes, seeming extra-relaxed. From the hot tub? The alcohol? Who knew?
“Did you meet up with them? So weird you guys were both there at the same time. Seaside, right?”
Oops. Caught in a little white lie.
“Wait, last weekend? James wasn’t in Oregon.” Kris turned and glanced at him, her brows together. “I thought you said you were in Idaho at Comic Con.”
Tori’s attention whipped back to him.
Great, the secret was out.
He cringed. “I was. I just don’t like everyone at the office knowing my penchant for comics and cosplay. Some of those guys get pretty judgy about that kind of stuff.”
“So you really weren’t in Oregon?” Tori’s words were uneven. “You were at Comic Con?”
“I was.” He draped his arm over the edge of the tub and let himself remember the most amazing parts of that day.
“I didn’t know you were into that type of thing.”
He couldn’t tell by her tone if Tori was disappointed or surprised.
“James? Oh, heck, yeah.” Kristen laughed as if it were the funniest thing in the world. “That’s actually something you both have in common. You’re both, like, the biggest comic geeks and cosplayers I know.”
His sister’s words sank in, sending shock waves through his calm state.
What? Tori cosplayed?
He shook his head. “Seriously?”
“Oh, totally.” Kris frowned. “I thought you knew that.”
“Have you ever been to a convention, Tori?” Confusion drove James’s question.
Like, just howbigof a comic geek was she? Would their paths have crossed?
“Oh, now and then.” She dropped her gaze to the bubbles in front of her.
“She does the Seattle one every year,” Kris volunteered.
Mind blown.
How the hell did he not know this about her? Tori? As in Tori, the one in the hot tub with him?
The memory of the night they’d been out with Ryan and did tequila shots floated to the surface.
She’d casually mentioned the comic character, Monica Rambeau, and wanting the power to be invisible.
It’d thrown him for a loop that night, and now he saw it as the hint that she was into the same comic stuff he was.