Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

Sophie

I called Kaylee the next night while Reid was at Sapph and told her everything. It felt like the right thing to do. She was surprised, but she seemed generally okay with my relationship. She had moved on and was happy in her relationship. It was water under the bridge, basically.

It was still going to be awkward for a while, and I’d have to deal with that. If Reid could go to therapy and handle her shit, then I could handle mine. Was it fair that we had to deal with this in our new relationship? No. But that was life. It was hard and it was messy and it was complicated. Sometimes you fell for your sister’s ex. We were moving on.

I had fallen for Reid. Hard. I knew I was in love with her during that night after the party when we’d given ourselves to each other completely. There had been one moment when she’d looked up at me and I’d known .

It had all hit me in an overwhelming rush that stole the air from my lungs.

I loved this woman. I loved Reid Hayward. A wild, enormous, unbelievable amount.

Now I just had to figure out if and when to tell her. This was so soon, and I didn’t want to scare Reid with my feelings.

The rest of the week we spent with each other. We’d trade off nights at our places, switching back and forth because we could. Our things migrated back and forth with her stuff showing up at my place and vice versa. It was almost like having two apartments. We traded spare keys like it was no big deal and I’d lay in her bed and sleep while I waited for her to come back from Sapph. I tried to stay up, but it didn’t happen.

On Sunday we slept in and I was the first one to wake up since she’d gotten back from Sapph in the middle of the night.

Not wanting to disturb her, I managed to get out of bed and sneak to the kitchen. We were at Reid’s so it took a little looking before I found everything I wanted to make her chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. I threw some bacon on a tray in the oven and some frozen hash browns in her air fryer.

“Are you making me breakfast, baby?” a sleepy voice asked, and I turned to find Reid leaning against the wall and watching me. She called me baby all the time now and I loved it. Almost as much as I loved her.

“Yes, I am,” I said, flipping a pancake and exclaiming when it stayed together.

“Mmm, it smells amazing.” She hugged me and kissed my neck.

“I used both kinds of chocolate chips for you,” I said.

“You take such good care of me,” she said, swaying us gently back and forth.

“Yeah, it’s almost like I love you or something,” I said before thinking.

Oh. Crap .

Reid froze for a moment.

“What did you say?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Well. Might as well go for it.

“I love you.” Reid’s hands were rough as she turned me around so she could look at me.

“Say it again,” she demanded, fingers digging into my skin.

“I love you.”

“Fuck,” she said, closing her eyes. “I love hearing that.”

“You do?”

Her eyes opened and she gave me that smile I adored so much. “I do. And I love you too.”

“Oh my god,” I whispered. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m serious. Shocked the hell out of me too, but I do, Sophie. I love you so much.” She hugged me hard and I grabbed onto her like I was drowning.

“I love you,” I repeated just for the joy of it.

“I love you,” she echoed and we both started giggling. A second later, the smoke detector went off.

“The pancakes!” I yelled as Reid waved a dish towel to clear the air.

“The only good thing if you burn this apartment is that we can just move into yours.”

I tossed the burned pancake in the sink and sighed.

“Well, I ruined breakfast.”

Reid reached for me again. “You didn’t ruin anything. Burned pancakes with you are better than perfect pancakes with anyone else.”

“Agreed,” I said, and she captured my mouth.