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Chapter TWENTY-ONE

He starts sketching eagerly. "That's good, Jess. Really good." He doesn't talk, just sketches and sketches, and I find myself getting sleepy.

Sometime much later I feel him sink down beside me and tug the quilt over us. The studio is dark now. He slides an arm around me and pulls our bodies close. His bare legs spoon into mine, his chest is against my back and his lips touch my neck, my shoulder. "You're the best thing that's happened to me in a long, long time," he whispers.

Sleepily, I cover his hand with my own. He sighs against me, a man letting go of a heavy burden. It touches me deep in my gut.

"I love you, Jess," he says just as I'm sliding away into sleep. I think it, but the words don't make it to my lips.

I love you, too.

* * *

I'm awakened by someone knocking on the front door. A woman. "Tyler. It's Kate."

His sister.

Tyler isn't here. It makes me feel a little lonely that he left me there. I peek at the easel, but the work he did last night is nowhere around, and the sister is banging on the door again. "Tyler, come on. I see your car!"

Frantically, I look around for something to put on. I'm still wearing his shirt, and with my overnight bag forgotten in the car, the only other thing I have is the pink dress from last night. If I put on my dress, I'll have to do the walk of shame.

Aside from wrapping up in the bedspread-also a great look-there's nothing.

I tiptoe through the house. Tyler isn't in the kitchen or the bathroom or the living room. I can see the bed in his room from the kitchen door, but he's not there, either.

"Oh, for God's sake," says evil sister, "I see you, girl! Open the door."

Cheeks as hot as sin, I don't know what else to do. She's peering in through the window of the front door, and here I am in his shirt. Taking a deep breath, I tug on the hem of the shirt, then open the door and try to look like I know what I'm doing. "I don't know where Tyler is."

She pushes by me. "I'll wait." Her gaze skims down my barely dressed self. "Didn't Lena give that to him for Christmas?"

She knows Lena? It shifts everything I know about her and him, and in a very unpleasant way. I say nothing, suddenly wanting the shirt off my body.

"Excuse me," I say, and retreat into the bedroom, where I look in his drawers for something to put on that doesn't make me feel like White Trash Slut #62. He doesn't wear boxers and his shorts are all way too big, and I'm almost in tears, thinking of her out there and me hiding in here.

Finally I take my dress from the chair and slide it over my head, struggling to zip it up. It's slightly wrinkled, but still beautiful and very expensive. I toss his shirt over it defiantly and pad into the other room, brushing my hair. "Would you like some coffee?"

She scans my new outfit and shakes her head.

Well, I do. Buttoning the shirt to keep my dress clean, I make a pot of coffee and put some bread in the toaster, wondering where the hell Tyler is. The clock says it's 8 am, and we both have to be at work this morning.

Kate comes and leans on the doorjamb. She's athletic-looking, with tanned arms showing in a sleeveless tank, and crisp white shorts, her feet in tennis shoes with socks that barely show. "What's your name again?"

"Jess."

"Kate."

I look at her. "I know."

Her eyes are as beautiful as Tyler's but not quite as green. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen. Almost twenty."

"Jesus," she says. "You really are a baby. At least he usually picks a grown woman."

My cheeks flame, and I remember how she made me feel before. I'm not going to buy into it this time. I look at her. "I've been on my own for almost a year."

My toast pops up and I grab it. I'm smearing butter on it when Tyler's footsteps sound on the porch. Relief pours through me, but when he blusters, "Kate? Where are you?" my heart sinks at the weirdness in his voice. It's a repeat of the last time.

He comes into the kitchen carrying a canvas bag of food. I see a bakery bag on the top, and my heart softens. He went to get breakfast! He glances at me in my weird outfit, and two bright red bands of color burst over his cheekbones. His gaze slithers away, but not before I see his horror at the situation.

Smoothly, however, he sets the bag down on the table and starts taking things out of it. "What can I do for you, Kate?" he says in a perfectly calm voice. "You remember Jess. I'm sorry I didn't introduce you properly before. Jess Donovan, my sister Kate."

"We met." Her gaze dismisses me. "Can we talk? In private?"

Tyler meets my eyes, as if to make sure we're okay. I nod. "Can I get the keys to your car?"

He pulls them out of his pocket and tosses them to me. "I'll be right back."

Carrying my toast, I pad out to the car in bare feet and unlock the trunk, grab my clothes and pad back in.

Brother and sister are talking in the studio, and I try to shut out even a stray word, but between the front door and the bathroom door, I catch a snippet.

"...slumming it with young girls and grow up?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, you'd be okay with taking her to a family dinner, then?"

"You don't know her," he says, which sounds like he's standing up for me-sort of.

But I don't want to hear any more. I close the bathroom door and start the shower to shut them out completely. That thick dread is back in my gut, stealing away all the pleasure of the morning.

I'm getting sick of that bait and switch, let me tell you.

* * *

It's only as I'm getting dressed that I realize I forgot to pack one important thing. A fresh pair of underwear. Under other circumstances I'd just wear the ones from yesterday but...they're on my bed at home. My work skirt is black denim and plenty long enough. There's no help for it. I'll have to work commando. Maybe, I think, smiling to myself in the mirror and remembering the outrageous sex we had last night, it could add some interest to the day. I'll wait to tell Tyler until later.

It gives me a cheerful secret that balances out the tension Kate brought with her.

When I come out, dressed and braided and made up, Kate is gone. Tyler smiles and comes over to kiss me. "How's my girl this morning? You ready for breakfast?"

"I'm good." He smells great, like soap and shaving cream. "You must have been up for a long time."

"I really didn't sleep." He gives me a funny tilt of the head. "It was great."

I pull back and look at him. His eyes are slightly red, but otherwise, he looks as amazing as ever. "Good work session, then?"

"Maybe. I might have figured out some things." He brushes the hair back from my face. "We'd better eat before we're late for work."

He's set the table with pastries and cantaloupe and coffee. It's a peaceful scene, so much better than when Kate was here. "What did your sister want?" I ask lightly.

"There are some family issues brewing, and she wants my support against our mother and older sister."

"I got the impression before that you were enemies."

He shrugs a little. "Enemies unless we're allies." He sips his coffee, his eyes cold. "Necessity makes bedfellows of us all."

I let it go.