She finally allows herself to relax and aim a grin at me. "Damn right, we don't."
I return the grin and pull my omelet back to me, stabbing a big bite onto my fork. It almost reaches my mouth when I hear Remy ask, "So then what happened with Jax last night?"
Immediately, my face flushes at the memory of drunkenly stripping in front of Jax.
At which Remy's eyes widen.
"Did you—did he—what—" is the only thing she manages to sputter.
"Nothing happened," I blurt out quickly.
I don't bother mentioning that he would never touch me. I never talked to Remy about my kid crush, but I'm sure it was obvious to a teenage girl four years older than me what was happening, and how Jax felt about it. It's always been clear that he looks at me like a friend he needs to protect, nothing more. But I never talked to Remy about how I had to get over my crush and watch Jax be perpetually uninterested in me.
I could never explain just how unlikely what she's suggesting really is.
"Oh, thank God," she says on an exhale. "I don't think I could handle that much news in one morning." She gives me a quizzical look. "So then why were both of you so weird this morning? What happened last night?"
I groan, too tired to be embarrassed about it. "I... may or may not have drunkenly stripped in front of him last night."
Her eyes widen. "You... youwhat?"
I roll my eyes at my sister. "Oh, hush. I just said nothing happened. I was just too drunk and too impatient to wait for him to leave the room before I got changed. It was a minor oversight."
She snorts. "I had no idea you were a get-naked type of drunk. Noted for future reference."
I just roll my eyes again and huff a laugh. "Very funny. Like I'm going to be getting shitfaced every weekend now that I'm single." My eyes narrow when something occurs to me. "Speaking of interesting nights, what happened withyoulast night? Since we’re on the topic of being drunk and naked."
I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've seen my sure-of-herself sister blush, but as of this morning, I'd count one more finger. Because she isred.
"Wow, that good? I always knew that man was a freak,” I tease with a grin.
My comment snaps her out of her embarrassed state because she lifts her gaze to glare at me. "I doubt you want to hear details about my sex life, Hailes."
I cringe. "No, I don't. Especially since I'm sitting in Tristan's house, who will be back soon, and who I'll have to look in the eye. Just give me the CliffsNotes version of what happened last night pre-sexy time."
She bursts out laughing. "Sexy time? We need to update your game now that you're back on the market. No guy is going to want to sleep with you if you call it sexy time."
I wave her off. "I'm not exactly the sleep-around type, despite what—" I cut myself off and swallow roughly before I can finish that thought. Remy's too protective as it is, so she doesn't need to know the details of how Steve treated me. "Stop deflecting. What happened last night?"
Her laughter dies down, to be replaced by a content smile. "We... ran into each other at the party last night. He may or may not have cornered me in the study so we could talk through a few things. And then we may or may not have spent the entire night naked in my apartment..."
I smile, feeling so genuinely happy for her that I don't even cringe at the last comment. "I knew you guys would figure it out. You're perfectly matched; it would've been insane if you two didn't end up together."
Her head drops back to the couch with a happy sigh. She looks like the definition of lovestruck—or maybedickstruck, if her previous comment held any weight.
I head to the kitchen to make Jax’s favorite Bloody Marys, and we spend the next few hours talking and laughing, barely paying attention to the movies that we put on in the background. The smile never leaves my face, my cheeks physically aching. I haven't spent time like this with my sister in far too long, and I know I'd normally feel a lot of guilt over that, but today, it's overpowered by the freedom I feel instead.
We're slightly tipsy and very giggly by the time the guys walk in the door. Tristan takes one look at his drunk girlfriend and mutters a curse. Jax just seems relieved to find me still here.
"How was the gym?" Remy asks from beside me.
Tristan strides over to her and leans down to press a hungry kiss to her lips. "Good. I can't wait to get you back in the gym with me."
I’ve never seen a smile like the one that stretches across Remy’s face at that, and even the sight of it makes my heart flip over in my chest. I've never experienced love like that, no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise.
It makes me happy for my sister but sad for my own reality.
Suddenly, Jax appears next to me and takes a seat on the armrest of the loveseat. I smile up at him when he tugs a loose strand of my hair gently.