Something had been going on with her tonight, and Darcy still wanted to know what it was. She had the feeling it was behind not only her atypical responses during sex, but also behind her migraine.
And it bothered her. It all bothered her, a lot.
She wasn’t asking Juliet what was wrong because she was beingnosy; she’d been asking because she – well, because she cared. That wasn’t some cardinal sin, was it?
It couldn’t be, becauseJulietcared about her, too.
Not that she’d voiced it in that way, but… she’d humiliated Bill Hooke during that interview last month, which was obviously directly in correlation to what Darcy had told her.
Darcy didn’t really know. She’d never had a sexual relationship like this, where it was so… ongoing. Where she feltsoaligned.
With a deep sigh, she crossed to her balcony and slipped out of the sliding door, walking forward to brace herself against the railing. And maybe, possibly, she did duck her head slightly into the neck of the oversized sweatshirt she’d taken from Juliet’s closet.
It had that same dried-in-sunshine scent that Juliet’s bed did. That her hair did, sometimes. In the morning, after she woke up.
“Well, well, well, is that anewaddition to the wardrobe?” Blythe’s voice came from the balcony to her right.
Darcy startled, swearing as she slammed her knee hard into the railing. “Jesus! Haven’t you ever heard of not scaring the shit out of someone when you’re both standing on balconies dozens of stories high?”
“Must have missed that adage,” Blythe shot back.
Darcy shifted to look at her. Their rooms were in a row – Blythe had 1919, Darcy was in 1921, and Emerson was in 1923 – and they all had these small balconies. There was a slight partition between each one, but when leaning against the railing the way Darcy and Blythe both were, they could see one another.
Her sister had walked to the side of her balcony that directly faced the partition and Darcy, leaning forward on her forearms. “Yeah, that is most definitely not a sweatshirt you’ve owned.”
“I can buy new things,” she defended, feeling her cheeks heat.
“You can but youdon’t,” Blythe, accurately, pointed out. “And that’s not new; it’s worn in.”
So sue her; her favorite items of Juliet’s were ones she’d clearly had for a while, like that t-shirt still in Darcy’s possession.
She merely shrugged back, even as she rolled her eyes at herself.Great defense, Darce.
“What are you doing out here? It’s almost midnight,” she pivoted.
Blythe didn’t miss a beat. “I was on the phone with Colton. Just hung up before yougot back,” she intoned, arching Darcy a look.
“Right, right,” she muttered.
Blythe did always stay up until midnight or one when they were on the West Coast, so she could have that pre-bedtime call with Colton before he went to bed back in East Coast time.
“And how is my future brother-in-law?” She asked. “How’s the house coming along? Did he finish the kitchen reno?”
She had to admit, Blythe’s home was gorgeous. Unsurprisingly, her sister had a vision ofexactlywhat she wanted the inside to look like, and Colton, with his expertise in construction, had taken to making it happen over the last month and a half.
“Good,” Blythe succinctly answered. “Let’s cut to it: are you going to own up to having a fuck buddy or what? You think I haven’t noticed youneverstaying in the hotel almost every time we’re in L.A. the last couple of months? That I haven’t noticed you sneaking back in the mornings? Give me some credit.”
Darcy’s heart skipped a beat at the direct question, and she had to make the split-second decision: confirm or not?
She’d always said that she hadn’t come out to Blythe because it didn’t really matter. There was nothing she washidingbefore, it just wasn’t really relevant.
But with a denial on her lips right now, it… it felt a lot like a lie.
So, she swallowed that down, and felt butterflies flutter to life as she quietly admitted, “Yeah. I’ll own up to it.”
Even in the darkness of the night, she could see the laser-intensity in her sister’s stare. “So… are you finally going to tell me that the person you’re sneaking off to have sex with all of the time is a woman? Or should I keep pretending that I don’t know that, either?”
Darcy’s arms literally slipped from the railing as the shock pounded through her, her mouth falling open from it. “What?!”