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“Coming again tomorrow?”
She gives me the finger and stalks off. I think I have my answer.
I roll our rings around the palm of my hand. I asked Thea if she’d wear it if I gave it back and she said yes, but I’ve still yet to return it to her. No moment seemed right, not with Cade moping around giving us sour looks. But I want to give it back to her soon. Maybe even tonight after we tell my parents. Fuck, we need to tell her parents too. I’m sure that’ll go over about as well as telling Cade.
I sigh and place the rings back in my top dresser drawer. We’re supposed to leave for my parents’ place in ten minutes. I spoke with Rae and she convinced Cade to come to the dinner.
My palms sweat.
I already pissed my best friend off by not telling him I was with his sister, so I doubt he’s going to be pleased I kept this a secret too. I pinch the bridge of my nose. I keep fucking everything up, but I’m not doing it on purpose. I’m doing what I think is right, but it’s always wrong in the end.
I force myself to stop thinking about it. I have to let the pieces fall where they may.
I head across my room to the bathroom and make sure my hair is lying flat. My mom hates it when it’s all a mess, and if I don’t have it fixed she’ll start trying to fix it even though I’m twenty-two not twelve. Moms never seem to understand when you’ve grown up. You’re always a baby to them.
When I know that my hair is decent, I open the door that leads to Thea’s room. She sits on her bed, slipping her feet into a pair of shoes. She’s dressed in a short brightly-colored dress and her hair hangs down in its usual loose waves. Like always, she takes my breath away. More so now that she’s actually mine. Before, I had to admire her from afar and pretend I wasn’t looking when I was. And I always was.
She looks up at me and smiles, grabbing her purse from the bed. “Ready to go?” she asks.
I nod. “Are we all going in my truck?” It has a second row, but with the amount of tension that’s been rolling off Cade, I think the cab of the truck would feel stifling with all of us.
She shakes her head and frowns. “No, they’re meeting us there. I think Cade wants an escape vehicle in case things get ugly.”
I clench my jaw and look away. “Right. Of course,” I mutter. Prue brushes against my leg and I bend down to pet her. “We’ll be home later, girl,” I tell her. “We’ll miss you.”
She tilts her head as she looks at me and I swear she knows every word I’ve said. She gives my hand a lick and then jumps up on Thea’s bed, lying down, and almost completely disappearing in the cloud of pink blankets.
I hold my hand out to Thea. “Should we go then?”
She nods. “Yeah.”
We step out into the hall and I call down to the other end. “We’ll see you guys there.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Rae says back. Cade says nothing, but I’m not surprised.
Thea gives me a sad look before we start down the stairs. I know she feels responsible for the strife between her brother and me, but she’s not. It is what it is.
Thea and I head out to my truck and I open the door for her, offering her a hand so she can get in the truck.
I close the door and jog around to the other side. I start the truck and sit there for a moment, not moving.
Thea places her hand on my knee in comfort. It’s like she’s telling me everything will be okay. I want to believe that.
I back out of the driveway and start the twenty-minute drive to my parents’ house. They moved out of the house I grew up in—the one across the street from Cade and Thea—a few years ago, into a house my dad designed.
“Are you afraid to tell them?” Thea asks. “About football?”
“Afraid? No. Nervous? Yes.”
She wrinkles her nose. “What’s the difference?”
“I guess being afraid implies that you’re scared, but I’m not scared I’m just … apprehensive of what their reaction will be.”
She nods. “I can understand that, but everything will be fine.”
“I hope you’re right.”
We make it to my parents’ house and I park beside my little brother’s beat-up Honda Civic.
