Page 6 of So Much More
I huff out a breath. “Fine. It’s true. I want what you and Ash have. Are you happy?”
“I’m not happy you’ve been hiding this from us.”
“It wasn’t hard.” Randall runs a hand through his dark hair. “You and my brother have been a little wrapped up in each other lately.” He quickly adds, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’d be the same in your shoes.”
“So that’s all you do when you’re together?” Leslie asks.
Randall and I nod.
“You don’t kiss?”
We shake our heads.
“You don’t … do other things?”
We shake our heads again, but then Randall says, “Sometimes I give her a foot rub.”
If I were next to him, I’d elbow him in the ribs.
Leslie’s gaze bounces between us a few more times. “I’m not sure what you mean by … that word I don’t want to hear from you again.”
“Does it matter?” I ask, as Randall says, “We can show you.”
I gasp. “We’re not showing her!”
“Get over here so I can cuddle the heck out of you, Wendy O’Halloran.” His demanding tone sends a shiver through me.
“Go on, then,” Leslie says with a grin, clearly having noticed my physical response to him. “Show me how you do it.”
“No, I’m not doing that in my office!”
“Then cuddle Leslie,” the man himself says. “There’s room right here next to me.” He has the gall to pat the couch cushion.
“No!”
“I guess I’ll have to explain it to her then,” Randall says.
My, “Please don’t,” is completely ignored.
“It’s not always the same,” he begins, as I bang my head on my desk again. “But usually we start out with her sitting sideways on my lap, like this.” I can imagine he’s gesturing with his arms, but I refuse to look up. “Then she lays her head on my shoulder, which is easy for her to do since she’s such a tiny little thing and I’m not, and then I put my arms around her, doing my best to cop a feel without seeming to do so.”
My head pops up. “You do not!” Though I can’t say I’d mind if he did.
He chuckles. “No, I was checking that you’re listening and not giving yourself brain damage over there.” He continues the torment with, “Sometimes we spoon on the couch,” and I groan. “I’m always the big spoon, obviously, since I’m twice her size. We tried it the other way one time, but that was a colossal failure. Her nose poked my back, which was ticklish.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Are you done?”
“No, I haven’t told her about—”
“Enough!” I cut him off. Although I have no idea what he’s about to say, I know I don’t want Leslie to hear it. “Let’s keep at least some things sacred here, all right?”
Randall holds his hands up. “Got it. The rest is sacred.”
“Thank you.”
Leslie says, “You two realize you’re playing with fire here, right? One of these days one of you might want more, and what if the other person doesn’t want that? What happens to your friendship? What happens to your working relationship?”
It all falls apart.
