Chapter 21

Sidney opened his eyes and glanced down at Misty. She was still asleep with her head on his chest, and his arm wrapped around her. He also noticed that they were both still completely naked. He squeezed his eyes closed as he remembered last night. What the hell had he been thinking?

He knew what he’d been thinking. He’d wanted Misty, simple as that. He’d thought about it before yesterday, but he hadn’t really seriously decided to go for it until she kissed him at the fair. It may have been an accident, but he couldn’t get the memory of her lips on his for that brief second out of his head. He’d just wondered what it would be like to really kiss her. They’d managed to pretend it hadn’t happened, but internally he couldn’t forget.

When he’d woken up and realized that he’d pulled Misty into him in his sleep he’d decided that they really needed to talk. He had to tell her that he was starting to develop feelings for her. He wasn’t sure how that was going to pan out with her recent revelations, but he couldn’t go on pretending they were just friends until he knew how she felt about him.

He’d started to bring up the kiss so he could bridge into it, but then he’d made the mistake of looking right into her eyes. He forgot everything he was going to say when he did. He’d struggled to force his brain to function when she’d licked her lips. He didn’t know if she’d done it on purpose or not, but it had been game over. He’d given in to his desires and kissed her.

When she didn’t pull away, and instead had kissed him back he felt relief. Maybe that meant she felt the same way. Then she’d pulled away. When she started talking he realized that he just couldn’t hear what she had to say right now. He wanted to choose the words, make it quick and as painless as possible so he didn’t have to be humiliated.

When he’d said to her that he knew she was going to tell him that they were just friends, he’d been hoping against all hope that she’d disagree with him. He silently begged her to disagree with what he said, but she hadn’t. She’d repeated it. And he’d felt like someone had knocked the wind out of him.

Every hope he had of maybe someday having a relationship with her when she was ready was thrown out the window. She just saw him as a friend and that was that. Even so, he still wanted to know what it would be like to be with her. He figured this was his one and only chance and so he’d gone for it. And it had been better than he could have ever imagined. He just hoped now as he looked at her asleep in his arms that she wouldn’t resent him for it. The last thing he wanted was for things to be awkward between them.

He heard a deep intake of breath come from Misty and then she cuddled into him a little more. He watched as her eyelids fluttered a few times before slowly opening. Even though he tried to tell himself to relax, he felt his body tensing a bit. Now he just had to wait to see what her response would be. She looked up at him with wide eyes like she’d just remembered what happened.

“So how about last night?” she asked, immediately closing her eyes and wincing like she couldn’t believe she’d just said that. He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit to himself. “I’m sorry, was that really inappropriate?” He couldn’t hold it in this time. He let out a laugh.

“Inappropriate, no. Unexpected, yes,” he told her. She gave him a smile before sitting up, pulling the sheets up with her to keep herself convered.

“So do we talk about this or just let it awkwardly stew?” she asked. He shook his head with a smile. If there was anything he knew about Misty, it was that she was always going to surprise him and make him laugh.

“Which are you leaning towards?” he returned. She bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling as she thought about it.

“I’m thinking we should probably talk and I should probably be dressed for it,” she replied.

He agreed and turned his back to her to grab his shorts off of the floor next to him. He took longer than necessary so that she could grab her clothes and get them on before he turned back around. Despite the fact that he’d seen her naked last night, he wasn’t sure how she felt about being naked in front of him right now. It was tough not to turn and take a peek, but he managed to be good about it.

“So,” she started looking around the room as she sat Indian style on the bed.

“So,” he repeated leaning back against the headboard. It was probably a little bit selfish of him to force her to be the one to start talking, but it had been her decision to do it and he didn’t exactly relish the thought of being the first one to speak.

“I guess all I want to know is if you think things will be weird between us now,” she said.

“I don’t want them to be,” he replied. She nodded and was quiet for a moment.

“I mean, we’re two adults who are completely capable of making decisions and dealing with them after right?” she asked.

“Right,” he agreed. She fidgeted with her hands like she was nervous about something.

“I hope this doesn’t sound weird, but I can’t lose you.” Her words surprised him and his eyebrows shot up in shock. “Somehow in the past two months you’ve become my best friend and I really don’t want to lose that because we slept together.”

“It doesn’t sound weird because I feel the same way,” he told her in relief. She smiled over at him.

“Good, then it’s settled. We’re fine. Everything’s fine.” It sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than stating it. She then looked right at him. “Is it going to happen again?” Her question took him aback. He wasn’t expecting her to ask that and he didn’t honestly have an answer. If it was completely up to him then hell yeah it was going to happen again, but it was a little more complicated than that.

“Do you want it to?” he asked curiously. She heaved a large sigh and narrowed her eyes at him. What had he said wrong?

“Why do you always do that?” she shot at him, sounding a bit miffed.

“Do what?” he sincerely wondered.

“Answer questions you’re not completely comfortable with with another question so that the onus is off of you?” Dammit, she’d caught him. No one had ever called him out on that ever in his life. Leave it to Misty to be the one who did.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. She didn’t say anything and he figured he was waiting for an answer to her first question. “Honestly I have no idea because I don’t know how you feel about it.”

“I don’t know either,” she muttered. They sat there in silence for a while mulling over things. “I guess it’s kind of silly to worry about shit that hasn’t happened, huh?” He smiled and nodded.

“I guess so,” he agreed.

“Okay, well, we should go pick up Bauer. I feel awful ditching him with my parents every night. Especially since tonight was supposed to be the only night I did,” she said standing up from the bed.

“What’s going on tonight?” he asked.

“It’s Evanne’s birthday tonight. The reason I came home, remember?” He did now. He got out of bed and they both got ready to leave. There were still some lingering questions in his head about everything, but he doubted they were going to be figured out today.










Sidney and I spent the afternoon with my family. He and Nick were getting along really well now that Nick had actually met him. My parents also seemed to like Sidney as well. Of course, they weren’t meeting him thinking he was my boyfriend, and that changed things. I felt another shot of pain when I thought about that. Sidney would never be my boyfriend.

I think the reason that we stayed with my family all day was because of last night and this morning. I knew that we were going to be okay with each other, but I think we were grateful to have other people around us for the moment until we could both get our heads back on straight. At least that’s how I knew I felt.

All five of us took Bauer out for a long walk through the woods behind my house. There were numerous trails winding in all different directions back there and it was a beautiful day out. As soon as we were away from the roads I let Bauer off his leash and we chatted as he sniffed around.

He laughed as I relayed stories about getting lost and ending up miles away from home because of a wrong turn. He laughed even harder when I told him about the time we’d gotten caught up in a rain storm and the path we’d taken had been washed out and we had to wait the storm out until a friend’s father drove out on his four wheeler to lead us down another path.

When we got back to the house it was time for us to head back to the hotel and get ready for the night. It seemed like the walk in the woods had cleared the air and we were back to laughing and joking around with each other on the car ride back. We took turns in the shower and then got ready next to each other in the bathroom.

“Misty!” I heard Evanne cry out when we walked into the designated restaurant for dinner.

A smile broke out over my face and I ran over to her, wrapping her in a hug. Evanne was my best friend from home and the only one who hadn’t stopped talking to me while I dated Zeke. She’d never liked him, but she’d loved me more than she hated him. She was more like a sister than a friend.

“Happy birthday, Evie!” I said to her during the hug. We broke apart and she glanced over at Sidney. “This is Sidney. Sid, this is Evanne. No matter how many times you hear me call her Evie, don’t call her that. I’m the only one who can get away with it.”

“And I still hate it,” she joked as she shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Misty’s told me a lot about you.”

“And the same to you. Happy birthday,” he told her. We sat down at the table with the others and I introduced Sidney to everyone.

It was like we hadn’t missed a beat being apart for the past two months. Evanne and I were in rare form that night. She was the funniest person I knew and she always said the same thing about me. When we were together everyone around us took notice. Forget the sweet Lucy and Ethel references we’d heard from people all our lives. We were more like Thelma and Louise. Trouble followed us everywhere. We liked to think of ourselves as "smooth criminals."

Somehow during dinner I’d managed to talk the bartender into give us a couple of free rounds of shots. Okay, not somehow. Evie and I shamelessly flirted with him until he agreed. It was just how we were. No one was safe when the two of us set our minds to something. After dinner was over we piled into the limo that had been rented for the night and headed out.

We spent the night barhopping because most places will give out free shots for a birthday. I’m not sure we paid for drinks most of the night. Sidney fit right in with my friends from home. On more than one occasion Evie made sure to tell me that she loved him. I couldn’t help but smile at how well he fit in with us. Even though he wasn’t nearly as crazy as we were he still managed to come out of that shell of his.

When the bars closed the limo brought us all home one by one. I gave Evie a long hug goodbye when we were dropped off knowing that I wasn’t going to see her again before I went back to Cole Harbour. I promised to call her once I was back and then Sidney and I went inside.

As we got into bed that night I was glad to note that there was no awkwardness at all between us. In fact, he gave me a kiss on the cheek before turning over and falling asleep. While the pain of knowing nothing would ever happen between us was still there, I was also happy that nothing had changed.