Thank God.
“It’s your parents.” Tyler’s gaze met hers once more, his mouth drawn into a firm line, worry written over his face. “Did you invite them to come up here with you?”
“Of course not. I told you I never see them. Why would I ask them to come up on a Sunday? I’m leaving this afternoon.” She threw herself on top of the bed, flung her arm over her eyes. “Holy crap, I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Julie? Julie, honey where are you?” she heard her mother call. Her arm dropped away from her eyes, and she scrambled off the bed, straightening her hair as best she could.
“Yeah, Mom. Hold on okay? Let me get dressed. I just woke up.”
“No need to get out of bed, hon. We brought breakfast. McDonald’s. Your favorite.” Her mother’s voice sounded from the hall.
Tyler shot her an amused glance, and she glared at him in return. So what if she loved the occasional sausage biscuit more than life itself?
“I’ll meet you in the kitchen, okay?” Damn it, she needed some pants or shorts but she couldn’t find anything. “Give me a minute.”
“Oh stop fretting, Julie. We’re coming in.” The door swung open, obscuring Tyler from view since he stood behind it and her mother and father both stopped short at the sight of her standing by the side of the bed.
She most likely presented quite the picture. Disheveled hair, man’s T-shirt hanging from her shoulders and nothing else on. Most likely she wore the just fucked glow too. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment, and she shuffled her bare feet. Her parents were going to know exactly what she was up to.
How fitting that she felt like a teenager just caught doing it with her snuck-in, hot high school boyfriend. “Hey.” She gave a little wave, not knowing else what to do.
Her parents stared at her until finally her mother spoke. “Well. I believe we’ve…disturbed you, haven’t we?”
Julie shrugged. “Kind of.”
“You have company?” Her mother’s brows lifted almost to her hairline.
“Yes.” Julie’s cheeks heated with embarrassment.
“Oh my,” her mother murmured at the same time her father clasped her by the arm. Julie noticed the McDonald’s bag hanging from her father’s other hand.
“Come on, Clara. Let’s leave Julie alone for a moment while she collects herself. And her young man too.” Her father turned her mother around and led her out of the room.
Julie ran to the door and slammed it shut, leaned against it with panting, excitable breaths. That was close. If they’d come a few minutes later, she and Tyler might have been too far gone to hear them. And her parents could’ve walked in on them and…
Yeah. She didn’t want to go there with that particular image.
“You didn’t even tell them.”
Tyler’s tight, angry voice caused her to look up. “What? What’s wrong?”
He pushed away from the wall, his walk downright predatory as he approached her. “You didn’t tell them that your guest was me.”
“I—I didn’t get a chance to tell them.” She figured they could walk out together to the kitchen and explain themselves then. Her mother was going to be beside herself. Her father was going to be thrilled too. He’d always though highly of Tyler Nichols.
But she needed to remember this was most likely nothing. Just a weekend fling, a way for the two of them to scratch each other’s itch for a few days before they went back to their busy lives.
He glared at her, the expression on his face almost as if he didn’t quite believe her. Which made her hackles rise because come on, when did she have the chance to tell them? It was bad enough what had been implied. The bed a mess, she a tousled mess and God, was that the scent of sex that lingered in the air?
She was beyond mortified that her parents had seen her this way.
“Listen, I’m not trying to hide you or whatever you’re implying,” she said, going to the dresser and yanking out a pair of pajama bottoms. She slipped them on, hopping around on one leg and most likely looking like a dork. She didn’t care. She wasn’t trying to impress him any longer. She was too pissed. “So stop glowering like that and come out with me.”
His dark brows furrowed. “Come out with you?”
“Yes, come out there with me, and we’ll greet them together. Let them wildly speculate and ask all the questions they want because I’m warning you, they’re going to ask a ton of questions. Especially my mother.” She rested her hands on her hips. “What do you say?”
He looked stunned. Did he really believe she’d be ashamed of him? That she would hide him away and not want her parents to know they’d been together. It was already too late, they’d figured out she’d brought some man up to the cabin. At least let them see it was Tyler.