Without lifting her head, Maeve held out her hand for her drink as I climbed back into the truck. “Thank you,” she murmured, noisily sipping from her paper cup. “Mmmm.”
“Want something to eat?”
“No. I’m about to die right here. Better to go on an empty stomach.”
That made me laugh. “All right. Let’s get you home.”
We rode quietly, if not peacefully, taking careful sips of our steaming drinks, letting the wind from my open window and the sound of Baltimore fill the silence. At my place, Maeve started for the stairs, pausing at the bottom. I watched her, wary, but pretty sure I knew what she was about to say.
“That can’t happen again.”
Yep. I’d known it, but I still felt it like a fine-gauged needle swirling around in my chest.
“I know. Not a good idea.”
She nodded, which made her wince and grab her head. “Well…right. I’m not even sure why it happened, given, you know, our past.”
Jab, jab, jabwent the needle.
“Alcohol and that red dress.”
Her mouth twitched and eyebrows shot up with surprise. “Oh, it’s the dress’s fault now?”
“Did you see it? That was a fuckingdress.”
She snorted a laugh, which made her clutch her forehead again. “Don’t make me laugh, Santi. My brain is close to fallin’ out. Any little jostle will send it tumblin’, I’m afraid.”
I jerked my chin toward the stairs. “Go rest. You can pack later.”
Her mouth flattened as she rubbed her lips together. “We’re in agreement, then? No gropin’ and kisses and other weirdness?”
“Was it weird?”
“The kisses?”
I nodded, amused and needing to hear her talk about kissing me a little more. I took my muffin out of the bag while she thought about it.
“No, the kisses weren’t weird, from what I remember. This, right here, this is weird.”
I took a bite, chewing slowly. Her mouth turned down, and her gaze caught on my jaw. I swallowed; she watched. “I would’ve had to question everything I knew to be true if you had said the kisses were weird.”
“Youdidseem to enjoy them quite a lot.”
I cocked my head, taking another bite of muffin. “You remember a lot for a drunk girl.”
“Luckily, my memory is my finest feature, which is why I know that’ll never happen again, no matter how un-weird your mouth on mine was.”
I offered her my muffin, and she shook her head, wincing again in the process, so I took another bite. “Gotta say, it’s getting weird now, Maeve.”
She flapped her hand around in the air. “I don’t really care how weird it is, as long as we both acknowledge there will be no more of your lips on mine.”
I bowed my head, hiding the hint of a smile I had no business having. But damn, this conversation was a lot more fun than I’d been anticipating.
“I acknowledge that.”
It filled me with regret to do so, but our situation hadn’t changed. We were still bandmates, she was still my brother’s replacement, and the seven years between our ages was a wider gap than I should have even contemplated. Plus, she kind of hated me. I’d given her good reason to, so I’d never begrudge her that.
“Good.” She lifted her foot to the first step. “I’ll probably hole up in my room all day…”