Tethered To You

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I assumed Emalyn's boyfriend would be driving us home, but he's five bottles deep, and his words slur, making one long sentence of gibberish. The cousins push more drinks, but Emalyn bats them off and yanks the boyfriend to his feet. Despite being a foot taller, she manages to hold her own when helping him to his feet.

He wraps his big arms around Emalyn's small frame and whispers something that makes her laugh.

"Let's get you some water." Emalyn pats his forearm.

She tugs him towards the house, leaving me alone. Thomas's attention turns to me along with his wandering gaze. I tug on the hem, wishing this dress had more fabric.

"One more game?" one of the cousins asks.

We've had far too many drinks and there's a pile of cards discarded on the table from too many rounds of drinking games. Regardless, the cards are collected and shuffled and they look at each other.

"Strip poker?" Thomas chuckles, his gaze lingering on my exposed thighs.

"No, thank you." I shake my head.

"It's getting late," Maverick comments.

Thomas rolls his eyes and groans.

"Okay, we're off then."

There's some grumbles as they finish their drinks, but Maverick doesn't care. Once they're gone, we're the last ones left. I sip on the remainder of my drink and tap my nails on the edge of the metal chair.

"Do you think Emalyn will come back?"

"Doubt it." Mav chuckles.

"Oh." I sigh.

"Were you planning to spend the night here?"

"No, I thought we were going back to campus," I admit. "Clearly not as we're all very drunk."

"You can spend the night here then," he offers.

"Not with you."

Mav shakes his head and points to the building behind us.

"We have a guest house you can stay in."

"Really? Thanks."

I polish off the remainder of the drink and stand up. Maverick swipes his belongings off the table and follows me to the guest house. With his long legs, he easily overtakes me and opens the door.

It's a small open-planed space except for a door which I assume leads to a bathroom.

There's a bed against the far wall, then a couch separating the bedroom to the small seating area. There's also a small kitchen and a floating bench with stools.

Beside the stools is a black duffel bag.

"I'll sleep on the couch," Mav says.

I raise an eyebrow

"Emalyn converted my bedroom into her wardrobe the minute I moved out to college."

"Oh."

"I haven't lived at home for five years... so I've been moved to the guest house if I spent the night here."

"Ah, makes sense."

"Do you want a t-shirt to sleep in?"

"Please."

Maverick rummaged through the bag and produced a t-shirt which I'm sure will cover more than this dress.

"Can you help me with this dress? There's a tie behind my neck."