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Val finally showed us some mercy, and we moved on to dinner.
“Will, I’ve heard the case against the guy in charge of the car robberies was dismissed by the judge,” Landon said after we’d all eaten and headed back to the sitting area.
I nodded. “Yeah. Fight’s not over yet, but chances are high that the guy will walk away without a charge.”
Val’s eyes widened.
“Don’t hold back. I can feel you wanting to say something,” I urged.
She cleared her throat. “Maybe I’m just secretly observing.”
I didn’t manage to hide my smile. “Your secret observations are usually followed by comments.”
She pressed her lips together, then turned to Hailey. “We didn’t even get wind of this.”
“Yeah,” Hailey replied. “How did we not pick up on this? You’re not displaying your usual broody forehead.”
Val pointed to Paige, who was sitting next to me. “Is this your doing?”
Paige flashed my sisters a grin, then half turned to me. “I think it might be.”
Her left hand was on the table, and I covered it with mine. “I’m not going to confirm that. Might give certain people crazy ideas.”
Paige wiggled
her hand out of my grasp, pinching my thigh. Val was 100 percent on point. Paige was changing me. Or rather, I was willing to change for her.
Even when I wasn’t with her, I found myself thinking about her, brainstorming about where to take her on dates. Pleasing Paige had become a goal. Right now, I was monitoring the Griffith Observatory reports for a meteor shower viewing. She’d talked a lot about constellations that night on my balcony, so I thought she’d like this.
When it was time to pop open a new bottle of wine, I offered to get it. Val was on my heels. We needed new glasses as well because we were moving from white wine to red wine.
I hadn’t even realized that I’d whipped out my phone to check the Griffith Observatory homepage until I saw my sister peeking.
“Hey, stay out of my business,” I admonished.
“But maybe you need pointers.”
“Nope, I’m good.”
“I always knew it.”
“What?”
“That you’ve got a dreamy soul hidden deep inside there. Very deep.”
“What made you think that? I was a punk growing up.”
“No, you were trying to be a punk, big difference. You were a sweetie underneath it all.”
I stared at my sister as I grabbed the bottle and a few glasses, and she grabbed the rest. Sweetie, really? Out of all the ways she could have described me....
“Please explain,” I said as we made our way back to the living room, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it.
“Well, you always pulled a lot of stunts, but you were so sweet with Lori and Jace and Hailey. Always volunteered to do activities with them. Even read them bedtime stories when Landon and I were working.”
I tried to school my expression, because... damn, she was right. I hadn’t done those things only out of a sense of duty, but because I’d genuinely enjoyed it. Spending all that time with my younger siblings had earned me snickers from friends at school, but I’d never cared.
“And what about you, lovely girl? More lemonade?” I asked Paige after Val and I had given everyone a glass.
