The Bacelor: Make A Sex Deal

Hannah laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No,” I voiced.

She grabbed her drink from the table beside her, holding it with both hands, and she leaned forward. “I’ve been watching. I’ve known for a while. And then all the little nuggets you two were dropping just confirmed my suspicions. Exhibit A, when Oaklyn wouldn’t mention who Mystery Man was. Exhibit B, when Craig and I were alone in Ford’s kitchen and he accidentally mentioned your name and the dinner he’d thrown for you two. At your new house, which you hadn’t even told me about yet.” She rolled her eyes. “Exhibit C, when we were all together last and you”-she focused her attention on me-“wouldn’t take your eyes off my best friend. Exhibit D, when you”-she then shifted to Oaklyn-“turned into the heart-eyes emoji whenever I mentioned Camden’s name.”

“Hannah-”

“Oh, I’m not done, brother,” she said, interrupting me. “Exhibit E, what about the last-minute trip to Boston you supposedly took this week, but you booked the private jet to Sedona?” She took a sip and placed her drink down. “That took me all of two seconds to confirm, by the way. If you were really trying to be sneaky, you would have taken a commercial flight. At least, I wouldn’t have access to those flight logs.”

I’d told Craig not to say anything to my cousins, but I’d never mentioned keeping that secret from my sister.

But that was only a small part of the truth that she’d unveiled.

She’d known for a while.

Probably close to the very beginning.

She’d certainly outsmarted me.

Goddamn it.

She crossed her hands in her lap and smiled. “The plaintiff rests.” Her grin was so fucking sly.

“Just like Oaklyn said, if she had told you when things first started between us, you would have tried to stop us. Our beginning was a little unconventional”-I lifted my hand and cupped Oaklyn’s cheek, brushing my thumb over the corner of her lips-“but it was what we needed. Things had to move at our speed, on our timeline. If things had gone down differently, I don’t know if we’d be here now. Together.”

I concentrated on my sister again. “Yes, we did it all behind your back. That’s fucked up. We know that. Oaklyn has been a goddamn wreck over it. It’s made me feel sick because, like my girl, I don’t keep anything from you. And every day, we’ve talked about telling you and what that’d look like and what that’d feel like. Being in a relationship is all we want, but the thing we want equally as much is for you to support us.” I nodded toward Oaklyn. “If she doesn’t have that …” My voice trailed off. “I don’t know what’ll happen to us.”

Before Hannah could respond, Oaklyn said, “You’ve been my sister for more than half of my life, and for just as long, I’ve been crushing on your brother. I can’t imagine how that makes you feel. To know that every time I’m around him, I’m growing more in love with him. That I give him something I’ve never given to another man.”

More tears were dripping, and I didn’t stop them. I didn’t even catch the ones that rounded her lips.

“It’s horrible; it’s wrong. I despise myself for not telling you. Camden has one half of my heart, and you have the other, and to know that this was going to hurt you has completely shattered me.” She reached for one of the napkins that had been placed by the tray of food under the windows and dabbed at her eyes. “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say if it shattered me that badly, why did I do it? Why did I continue to do it? Why didn’t I come clean earlier?” She put her hand on top of mine and continued, “I couldn’t stop it. He’s everything I want, everything I’ve always wanted, and I followed that half of my heart, knowing how much it was going to destroy the other half. I should have told you sooner-I know that-but I couldn’t. And I’m sorry. I’m so, so fucking sorry, Hannah.”

The flight attendant returned with a tray of drinks, placing two glasses beside me and another two next to Oaklyn. “I’ll check back after takeoff. We should be leaving any second.”

I raised the glass to my mouth and swallowed down several gulps, keeping my eyes on my sister.

She was glancing between Oaklyn and me.

Back and forth.

With such an unreadable expression.

“You two had quite a lot of assumptions going into this, didn’t you?” She crossed her legs, moving her hands to one knee. “You assumed I would be dead set against your relationship. You assumed you wouldn’t get my support. Oaklyn, I know you’re assuming this is going to be the end of our friendship. Why?” Her tone lightened, and so did her expression.

Even her questioning was peculiar, given that Oaklyn and I were guilty as hell.

“Do I need to remind you of the conversation we had our sophomore year in high school when I came into your room after the hot tub party? You know, when you told me to stay the hell away from Oaklyn and the rest of your friends and we pinkie swore on it?”

She licked across her lips, almost like she was trying to hide her grin. “Camden, that was ten years ago.”

With my hand back on top of Oaklyn’s, the other around my vodka, I locked my grip on both and replied, “And? That was the ultimate promise between us. I didn’t think it had an expiration date.”

“And, even at that age, you were on a mission to sleep with every girl you laid eyes on. I wasn’t going to let one of my besties become the topic of any locker room. So, yeah, I banned your ass from dating any of them. But we’re not kids anymore.”

I pounded the rest of the booze, set down the glass, and reached for the full one. “What the fuck are you saying, Hannah?”

“I’m saying that once the bachelor found the right woman, I knew you’d be consumed with her. I knew you would love her. And I knew she would become the one.”

I shook my head, trying to make sense of this. “Okay …”

“For you to be happy and in love, that’s all I want.” A smile tugged at her lips. “And to hear that the person you’ve chosen is the girl I love more than anyone in this world, I couldn’t be more excited.”

“Hannah,” Oaklyn cried out, “oh my God, I love you-”Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

“Hold on.” Before my girl turned mushy and threw herself out of her seat and hugged my sister, I needed to make sure I understood what I’d just heard. “Are you saying you’re all right with this?”