A Redo (Sterling Shore 6)

With a mumbled curse, I climb out of bed, feeling the bottom of the silk gown slide down my legs to puddle at my feet. Melanie told me she bought it for me for Christmas, and I’ve honestly never slept in anything so soft and luxurious. Hell, it’s a gown for sleeping, but it looks better than most dresses I’ve worn.

The pale pink material is smooth with soft edges—not lace. And the split to the thigh is purely for the purpose of walking. I think. It’s actually sort of sexy, but I think it’s meant for walking, since it’d be hard to do without the slit.

I make it to a split in the hallways which almost looks like a four-way stop. And I tilt my head at what’s coming at me from the right.

“He drank the sleeping-pill soda over an hour ago. He should be down for the night,” Brin giggles, holding a cowboy hat in her hand.

Ethan is laughing as he holds several tubes of something in both hands. Is that body paint?

Maverick is on the other side of her, also laughing, and he clutches a pair of fuzzy, pink handcuffs and tubes that match the ones Ethan has. I’m staring, tilting my head, doing all I can to add up the impossible math.

What… the… hell?

They all three stagger to a halt when they see me, and Brin squeals a little as though I just scared her. My eyebrow cocks, and Brin looks back and forth between the guys on either side of her before her gaze lands on the cowboy hat in her hand.

A horrified expression crosses her face before she quickly rambles, “It’s not what it looks like!”

I have no idea what it looks like. Maybe my mind is in the wrong place due to the action and carnal sounds I was subjected to earlier. Because I feel like I left the middle of a porno and stumbled into the beginning of another.

“O…kay…” I just let the word trail off, and Maverick bursts out laughing as I walk on, pretending as though that wasn’t one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.

It takes a while to get to the other side of the house. I have a feeling Wren wanted me as far away as possible. Maybe going to his room is a bad idea.

When I finally reach the east wing, it takes me only a minute to remember which rooms are which. I peek into Angel’s room, and smile when I see her still sleeping peacefully under the glow of the nightlight. Quietly, I shut the door, and I move to the door where I know Wren is.

I hope he doesn’t get pissed about being woken up.

Just as I raise my hand to knock, I hear a voice that startles the hell out of me. “Allie?”

Twirling around, I release a breath as my eyes fall on Billy Prize. He runs a hand through his short, dark hair as his eyes rake over me from head to toe.

“I was… um… just coming to talk to Wren,” I ramble, sounding guilty of something. “I think I need another room.”

Without shame, he lets his eyes hover over my chest for an awkwardly long minute, before I finally cross my arms over my braless breasts. His eyes come up as a slow grin spreads across his lips.

“Sorry. Just wasn’t expecting you to be in the hall and looking like that. Especially not in front of Wren’s room. I was actually surprised to see you two come together, considering all he did to you.”

I’m not sure what that means. Everyone knows Wren and I have been trying to build a bridge over the pit of our past. And I really don’t like the drunken, leering look in Billy’s eyes right now.

“Wren and I are friends. We have a daughter, after all. It makes sense to be friends.”

I spin around, knocking on the door this time, but no answer comes.

“He’s dead to the world, most likely. If you need another room, I’ll find you one.”

Billy isn’t a threat at all. Just because he’s bitter doesn’t mean he’d ever do anything that would make me slap him, but I still don’t even want to talk to him. After what I saw at the party, I’ve quite possibly decided I never want him around me.

“That’s fine. I’ll just keep trying.”

I knock again, but there’s still no answer.

Billy laughs softly from behind me. “I get it. You don’t like talking to me. Wren has that effect on people. Everyone thinks they see this great guy. But one day you’ll see he’s really the guy who screwed you over that night, and you’ll need a friend that understands.”

I turn as he offers me what he probably thinks is a charming smile, but I’d like to just slap him. I never had siblings, but I’d like to think we wouldn’t hate each other.