“Frankie,” Liza clipped. “Don’t say stuff like that in front of her. What is wrong with you?”
“It’s okay,” Skye cut in, trying to smile casually. “It wasn’t because of that. Just all this stuff.” She gestured listlessly at her injuries. “It makes it hard to get comfortable.” She paused, politely smiling at Frankie for a second, and then added vaguely, “We’re probably done with that…stuff…anyway. I’m leaving town as soon as I’m healed up, and all this was obviously not part of the plan. It would probably help to not complicate everything if we just…you know…didn’t.”
“Oh,” Liza said with a certain tone. Something like she was incredulous but also dismayed. “But do you think you’ll…I don’t know, maybe come back and visit?” She gave a weighted pause, and Skye absently tugged at the brace on her arm, avoiding eye contact after such an awkward question. “He likes you a lot. More than anyone else I’ve seen at least—”
“Girl.” Frankie snickered, titling her head dramatically to one side as she squinted at Liza. “You’ve never seen him with anyone else, so stop.”
“Ihavethough,” Liza insisted. “He likes to pretend like I haven’t, but I have. He must have selective memory or something, because I’ve totally seen him with women in the past, and he knows it. And if you saw the way he was withthosewomen versus the way he is with Skye, you’d know.” She bit her lip and cringed as she looked directly at Skye. “I’m sorry, I know that’s so awkward on so many levels, but I’m just putting it out there.” She leaned toward Skye wearing raised eyebrows, and she lowered her voice. “One time, he was literally shirt-off with some woman when I showed up at his house because I was dealing with some crap, and he put this woman—whoalsohad her shirt off—in a cab. Even though it was really obvious that he was into her. He was into her, and he made her leave anyway. That’s how he was with other women. I’m telling y’all. This is different.”
Skye managed to not snort with laughter as she recalled a wholesome little secret of Brennan’s that she’d figured out before the incident.
Yeah, Liza, he probably did that because he had a big-ass, secret crush on you.
“Hmm,” Skye hummed neutrally.
She couldn’t exactly say something like that to Liza. It was Brennan’s secret. He only mentioned it at all because they were still having a mostly anonymous fling, and he knew the secret was safe with her basically being a stranger. He hadn’t even spilled the whole tea about it to her. He hadn’t even specifically said it was Liza anyway, so Skye couldn’t even be sure that he was talking about her. It just seemed like he was talking about her based on other stuff she’d observed. So yeah. Smile and nod, smile and nod. No need to cause a bunch of drama in their circle of friends before leaving forever.
Frankie did snort with laughter. “Youcock-blockedhim?”
“I mean, I didn’t mean to,” Liza said sheepishly.
Frankie sucked in a breath and pealed with more laughter. “When did this happen?”
Liza shrugged, then leaned back against the couch and slowly rubbed her still-flat tummy through her fitted red blouse. “Last year. Summer. When Oscar played the Cajun Zydeco Festival. Connor and I were having averyeventful day, and then we got in a fight, and per usual, Brennan had to pat my head and go, ‘there, there, L.,’ like he does. But that time, before doing that, he straight-up kicked this totally gorgeous woman out of his house when they were obviously about to…you know.”
Frankie laughed even louder. “Oh my God, okay wait.” She sucked in a gasp of oxygen. “Wow, I don’t know what’s worse-slash-more hilarious. You going over there and interrupting him while he was half-naked with a half-naked woman, or that hemade her leave.”
Frankie was now basically rolling with laughter, and Skye couldn’t hold back her own quick, quiet laugh. It was kind of a funny visual after all. And Liza was now laughing, too.
“Yeah.” Liza’s laughter fizzled into a soft sigh. “Poor, B. He’s such a patient man.”
Skye smiled. She certainly couldn’t argue with that. “He’s a great guy.”
“Yeah, he is,” Liza underscored, squaring her hazel eyes on Skye’s face. “And not to beat a dead horse or anything, but he’s different with you. Just something to keep in mind while you guys deal with all this.”
Skye offered a blank smile. “I’ll keep it in mind, but it’s not going to happen. I can’t stay. He told me all about how he fell in love with these women in the past, and how they didn’t love him back, and he got super burned, and now he just doesn’t do relationships. I don’t either.” At least, that was one way of putting it. “He’s been absolutely wonderful, but this isn’t a permanent situation. I’m not going to be his girlfriend or anything at any point, and we both know that. He’s just taking care of me after this big, unfortunate event.”
Liza pushed a lock of her long hair over her shoulder. “I mean, I know he says that, but—”
“Hold up, what did you just say?” Frankie cut in, eyes narrowed with amused suspicion and mischief all over her face. “You saidthese women. What did he tell you? Are you saying there was someone else after Josephine?”
Skye’s eyes widened. Both women were now staring at her with captivated interest.
Well fuck.
Goddamn me and my big, fat mouth.
“Oh.” Fuck. How was she supposed to answer that? Even if she was wrong about it being Liza who Brennan used to have a secret crush on, that still wasn’t her secret to tell. Those were his feelings and his life they were talking about, and it honestly wasn’t any of any of their business. Neither her nor the two women hanging on her every word. “Oh um…hmm.” Skye tapped her chin to make it look like she was wracking her brain. “He mentioned his first girlfriend, yeah.”
Frankie stuck her neck out and raised her eyebrows. “And who else?”
“Uhhmm…” Skye shrugged apologetically. “Just…I don’t even know.”
Frankie scoffed. “Yeah you do.”
Just tell them something to get them to shut up!
Skye shook her head and fluttered her eyelashes. “Just someone who was already taken when he met her,” she offered vaguely.
