My One Night: An On My Own Novel by Carrie Ryan (life books to read .txt) 📕

was actually kind of helpful. I know Dillon’s hot,” I said.

Corinne laughed. “Hell, yeah, he is.”

“Anyway, I’m still trying to get over the fact that I think I’m dating him. I wasn’t really ready to use that term, yet here we are. But the fact that you just said that about the whole not-cheating thing and everything means maybe I need to have a conversation about who we are to one another. But that’s something for another day. You did make me feel better, though, even though I’m still nervous. Now I’m just going to pretend that everything’s not tumbling around in my head, and I don’t want to throw up.”

The doorbell rang, and my phone buzzed.

“He’s here!” Corinne said, clapping her hands. “I’ll go get him.”

“No, it has to be her,” Natalie said, pulling Corinne back.

“But doesn’t she need to make an entrance?” Nessa asked.

“Not necessarily. If it’s a date in which he’s just coming over, maybe it needs to be her so he doesn’t realize we’re all here waiting and watching in the wings,” Mackenzie explained.

“I really think I’m going to throw up,” I said. “Also, please don’t wait and watch in the wings.”

“Don’t leave him waiting,” Mackenzie said and pulled at my hand. “It will be fine. I’ll go study with Natalie in her room. If you need a buffer, we can come out and have a conversation. But he doesn’t even have to know we know he’s here.”

“You sound like you know what you’re doing.”

“Sanders and I’ve been dating since the cradle. And he always has tons of either school friends or work or family friends that date a lot. That means I’ve always had to watch the girls with the guys figuring out what they’re supposed to do. I’ve taken some notes.”

“We need to talk sometime,” I said.

“You’ll take her help but not mine?” Nessa asked.

“I always take your help. I think that’s how I’m in this situation.”

“No, that was my help,” Corinne added helpfully.

“He texted again,” Natalie sing-songed. I groaned, grabbed my lip gloss, and ran towards the door. Somehow, I had my phone in my hand, redid my lip gloss, and made it to the door while stuffing everything back into my pockets and was only breathing a little heavily. I looked behind me and saw that the girls were gone as if they hadn’t been there at all.

I opened the door and smiled, trying not to look like I was out of breath. “Hey there.”

“Are you okay? You look flushed.”

I closed my eyes and let out a curse. “It’s a very long story that means nothing. But I’m great. Hi.” I went to my tiptoes, kissed him softly, and took the coffee from him that had an E on it.

I took a sip and groaned. “It’s perfect.”

“Nonfat sugar-free caramel latte with actual caramel on top to negate the sugar-free.”

I cringed. “I like caramel. But I try to be good. It’s just like asking for a double burger with extra cheese, extra-large fries, and a diet Coke. But it makes sense in my head.”

“I don’t mind. I go full-on sugar. Although Pacey reminded me that I’m not going to be young forever and that I should probably start watching my figure now or will end up with a beer belly before I’m thirty.”

“Do you even drink a lot of beer?”

“My family owns a brewery, and I’m probably going to be working at it or something like it for the rest of my life. It could happen.”

I tilted my head. “I’ve met your brothers. Well, at least two of them. They didn’t have beer bellies.”

“It is my hope that I at least have Aiden’s and Cameron’s genes.”

I frowned. “But not Brendon’s?”

A look crossed Dillon’s eyes, and I frowned harder, pulling him farther into the living room. “What did I say? I’m sorry. Is there something I’m supposed to know? I forgot.”

He let out a breath, his gaze going dark for a moment. “No, it’s just…I wanted to talk to someone, and then I realized later that I didn’t know who I was supposed to talk to. And now I don’t know. Let’s just talk about your test.”

“No, let’s not.” I pulled him past the kitchen, the living room, the closed doors of everyone else’s rooms, and into my bedroom. I locked the door behind us, aware that even though my friends wouldn’t come in if they were all leaning against the door trying to listen in, they could end up opening it by accident. I had to trust that they wouldn’t do that, but tonight was a weird night.”

“Talk to me.”

“I don’t know. It might be too much. I don’t want to put all of this into your head or add to your burdens.”

I set my coffee down and pulled him onto the bed with me. We sat cross-legged facing each other, and I just stared at him. “I think we’re doing this whole one-night-stand thing completely terribly.”

He smiled softly. “I don’t think you can count it as one anymore.”

“True. And while I’m not great at labels because they scare me, I think it’s okay if we talk to each other about what’s on our minds. I would like that. I don’t know if I’m good at the whole just-casual-sex thing.”

Dillon shook his head. “I’m not either.”

Relief flooded me. “Oh, thank God.”

His lips quirked into another smile. “Yeah, same. I think I tried it once and ended up feeling like shit afterward.”

“With Mandy?” I asked softly, not knowing if I wanted the answer.

“Yeah, though I thought we were something more. She only saw me how she wanted to. And I didn’t like it.”

“That’s not nice.”

“No, we had our roles laid out before us, and I didn’t fall into line. But I don’t want to talk about her.”

“Then talk to me about what’s on your mind. For real.”

“Shit. Okay, so about the whole genes thing… Brendon isn’t actually my brother.”

I blinked. “What?

“It’s a long story.”

“If you’re up to telling it, I’d like to hear it.”

He met my