“Was he good?” Zeta asked, crouching down beside Elisa to rest an elbow on her shoulder.
Elisa snorted out a shocked laughed. “Zet! You can’t ask that.”
“Just did.” Zeta preened, giving Elisa’s shoulder a little nudge with her arm.
Bria bit back a grin. One of the best ways to help Elisa through an anxiety attack was to make her laugh. Distracting her with humor helped her mind release all the feel-good neurotransmitters—dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. Making Elisa smile and laugh had become an art form for Bria and Zeta when she was at her worst a year ago. Bria’s sex life was always Zeta’s go-to to make Elisa laugh. For Bria, it was their parents’ ludicrous hairstyles when they were teenagers. She kept a whole slew of images of their mom and dad from the 80s on her phone especially to make Elisa laugh. That and really bad cartoon Aquaman gifs.
It had been a long while since the gifs and photos had been required, but it hadn’t taken Zeta long to go straight to her weapon of choice.
Bria didn’t mind. If kissing and telling was needed to help Elisa, then kissing and telling it was.
“He was fucking incredible,” she said, rolling her eyes to emphasis just how incredible Owen had been. “At everything. He made me freaking come three times with just his—”
“Dio,” Elisa slapped her hands to her ears, laughing. “Stop. Stop.”
“He’s funny, smart, very good with his hands and his tongue,” Bria went on, her heart thumping a little faster at the memory of all the minutes she’d spent with him. “Uncomplicated. Grounded. Unpretentious. Did I say funny? And he picked up a towel from the floor. Couldn’t leave it there. He has fantastic taste in films and books, and oh, he loves The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Can you believe it? I’ve finally found a guy who not only knows of Hitchhikers, but actually loves it. He freaking quoted it to me. I think I’m in—”
She stopped, a prickling heat crawling up over her scalp. Biting her lip, she frowned, slumping a little, her heart hammering in her throat.
“Huh,” she muttered, lifting her stare to Zeta and Elisa.
Was it possible? Had she actually gone and fallen in love with Owen? Had she?
“Huh what?” Elisa asked, studying her.
Zeta’s eyes narrowed. “Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking, Bri?”
Bria swallowed at the desert suddenly making itself at home in her mouth. “Do you think love at first sight is a real thing?”
Elisa’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
Zeta burst out laughing. “If it was going to happen to anyone, it’d be you.”
Bria blinked.
Elisa chuckled, nodding as she smiled at first Zeta and then Bria. “It’s true, sis. You’re the one who always lives life without a safety net. Of course you’d be the one who’d fall in love with a total stranger straight away.”
Bria stared at them. It wasn’t love. She knew that. Not yet. But holy shit, it could be. Really quickly.
“By the way—” Elisa reached forward and gently squeezed Bria’s hand, “—if this is part of your plan to help me tonight, it’s worked. Spectacularly.”
Zeta snorted. “You might be feeling better, Lis, but I think our big sister is now shell-shocked.”
“Never seen her shell-shocked before.” Elisa flashed a mischievous smirk. “It suits her.”
“It does not.” Bria threw up her hands. “I’m not shell-shocked. I’m…”
“In lurve?” Zeta drawled with a grin.
“Oh, shut up.” Bria glared, straightened to her feet and pointed back and forth between her sisters. “This moment, this right now, this is about Lis, not me. We’re fixing Lis up.”
“Oh, I’m well and truly fixed up.” Elisa’s grin mirrored Zeta’s. “I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”
Zeta burst out laughing. Elisa beamed.
Bria sighed and then chuckled. “Well, at least you’re not freaking out any more.” She shot a look over shoulder. Was Owen still out there on the other side of the palm-tree screen? Waiting for her?
God, she hoped he was. She really did like him a lot. More than she ever had Simon. She’d never even considered the L word with Simon, and here she was pondering if it could be a part of her vocabulary with Owen already…