Bang, bang, bang.
“I said I’m coming. Chill out,” she mumbled as she finally reached the ground level. Fifteen steps later, she tugged the door open only to have five-feet-eleven inches of excitable male grab her in a bone-crushing hug. “Ralph,” she choked out against his slim chest. She squeezed him back. “Oh, my God.”
There shouldn’t have been an ounce of liquid left in her body, but the tears came from somewhere. Flowing out of her unchecked, they soaked Ralph’s cashmere sweater.
“Oh, sweetie,” he crooned as he rocked her back and forth right there in her open doorway with the chilly air flooding her home.
“Are you really here? I can’t believe you’re here. You shouldn’t have come. You’re too busy,” she said into his slender but firm chest.
He snorted. “My best gal needs me, I’m there. Even if I have to fly across the country all night to be with her.”
“Oh, Ralph, I love you.” One minute in his presence and already the world had righted a fraction.
“Not as much as I love you, my Mickie.”
A throat cleared behind Ralph, which had her wrenching back and peering around his shoulder. Jagger stood there with a puzzled, slightly judgmental frown on his face. “Uh, sorry to interrupt, Mickie. I just needed to drop off some caulking materials for the crew who’ll be finishing up the master bathroom this afternoon.”
Before she had a chance to reply, Ralph was on it. “Well, hello there, handsome. Mmm, they grow ’em big up here in the northeast, huh?”
She pressed her lips together to keep the laugh inside as Jagger’s eyes flared wide. The pale pink cashmere sweater Ralph wore with his designer jeans, five-hundred-dollar Gucci shoes, and Ray-ban aviators perched on his head made for a look not common in rural Vermont. Trendy Ralph would stand out like a rose in a wheat field among the flannel-loving, boot-wearing locals.
Poor Jagger had no idea what to do with Ralph. At least with Ralph blatantly hitting on him, Jagger no longer assumed she’d moved on from his brother less than twenty-four hours after they’d broken up. Or whatever they’d done since there had never been a conversation about officially being together.
“Uh, hey, man, I’m Jagger.”
“Ralph,” he said as he extended the back of his hand like a princess waiting to be kissed in greeting.
“Nice to meet you.” Jagger took Ralph’s hand in an awkward grip and gave it a shake.
Michaela had to bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. “Sorry, Jagger, come on in. It’s cold. Ralph is my best friend, and he’s visiting from LA. I wasn’t expecting him, so it’s a wonderful surprise.” No point in hiding where she’d lived now.
“Yesss,” Ralph said, drawing it out. “Please come in, handsome, and bring your…caulk.”
She elbowed her friend’s ribs. “Down, boy. Pretty sure he doesn’t play for your team.”
“They all don’t. Until they do,” Ralph crooned.
Jagger laughed then stepped into the house. At least he’d lost the deer-in-the-headlights look. “Well, I don’t, but who doesn’t appreciate being called handsome?”
Ralph pouted. “Well, you are that. Handsome and so big.”
Jagger laughed again. “He’s a pistol, huh?” he asked her.
The breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding whooshed from her lungs. Back in LA, no one thought twice about being out and proud. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe the entire world was as accepting. Small towns were notorious for being more conservative, but she was beyond relieved to learn those closest to her would embrace her best friend with open arms.
Though she may have killed any closeness to the Bensons with yesterday’s outing of sorts.
Speaking of…
“Thanks, Jagger.” Her face heated, and she’d have dived down the hole if the floor opened up beneath her. “Um, did Keith speak to you yesterday after he left here?”
He set the tubes of caulking on her counter and whirled to face her. Ever her champion, Ralph stood at her side, ready to leap to her defense. His silent yet steely support enabled her to meet Jagger’s skeptical gaze without the morbid embarrassment and shame she’d been expecting the next time she ran into any of the Bensons.
With a sigh, he folded his arms across his chest. “He did not. He wasn’t exactly in an approachable mood, so we decided to give him until this afternoon before we pounced.”
She nodded, absorbing the information. So, Ronnie, JP, and Jagger still weren’t aware of her true identity. Part of her, a huge part wished it could stay that way. To beg Keith to keep it under wraps and never speak of it again. But that seemed unfair.
Lying to his family on her behalf would only drive a rift between him and his siblings, as well as eventually tear their friendships apart. She trusted them all to keep her confidence but didn’t have the energy to deal with it at the moment. Let Keith bring them up to speed later when they descended on him for details.