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I locked eyes with her. “I would pay you cold hard cash to say something like that to him.”
Harlow burst out laughing, and Sage cracked a tiny smile. “No, you wouldn’t.”
“Only way to find out, kid.” I jerked my chin up. “You guys coming or what?”
They shared a wordless exchange, and Harlow conceded with a nod, then looked over at me. “Sure, thanks for the invite. I’d love to see your sisters again, since someone seems to have scared his family off from dropping by,” she said.
I held her gaze unapologetically.
Harlow rolled her eyes. “Give me five minutes to change.”
“That’s all?” I eyed the hair.
She smacked me in the stomach as she passed. “Make it three, now that you said that.”
Three and a half minutes later, Harlow skipped down the steps, having swapped her shorts for leggings and the NYU shirt for a soft-looking denim button-down. The pencil had disappeared, and her dark hair was slicked back into a low bun at the nape of her neck, a few stray hairs framing her face. Her lashes were … lashier. Darker. Something a bit more than they had been.
“How did you do that so fast?”
She winked. “It’s a skill, I know.”
Sage was outside waiting for us, and I pulled a book from the package I’d had delivered earlier that day. “Ready? Just needed to grab my book in case I have time to read tonight.”
Harlow wasn’t looking at me as she tied the laces on her tennis shoes. “At your family dinner?” she asked.
I flipped through the book, pausing to study the back cover. “You never know. Besides, this looks good.” I started reading from the description. “In the harsh backwoods of the south, you never know who’s watching the sins being committed, but I do…”
Harlow’s hands slowed, her whole frame going stiff as a board. Slowly, so very slowly, she lifted her gaze to the book I was holding in my hand.
With a snap, I closed the cover and flipped it so she could see the front clearly.
The Sin Watcher by Hollis King.
Her face went white. Her eyes huge in her face.
“That little traitor,” she breathed.
“I’m excited to start it.”
“Sage Margot Keaton,” she yelled, storming past me. “You are in so much trouble.”
I left the book sitting on the table, and as I exited the house, I whistled a happy little tune.
The three of us piled into my truck. Sage was still laughing about the book, Harlow could hardly look at me, and I was in the best mood I could remember in a long time.
Even walking up the front porch steps at the main house, I didn’t feel that sucking sense of unease in my gut, the one I always got going inside the house now. Sage and Harlow followed me, and I was so much more focused on them, and praying that Cameron would behave his damn self that I hardly spared a glance at the chair my dad always used to sit in every morning.
Hand on the doorknob, I paused and glanced over my shoulder. “You ready for this?”
Harlow nodded. “Yup.”
Sage looked between us and shrugged. “How should I know? I’ve never done it before.”
I was smiling when I pushed open the door, and the sight of Harlow and Sage behind me raised the noise level about thirty percent. There were shrieks and hugging and a lot of oh my gosh, look at you! being tossed back and forth.
Adaline hugged her a couple of times, gushing over Sage and immediately hooking her arm in Harlow’s to drag her into the kitchen.
“Nice to see you, too, Adaline,” I called out when she completely ignored me.
