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“Then what is this about?” I waved my arm in the direction of my brother and the living room, in case she wasn’t clear.
“Cadence?” Cam called up the stairs before she answered. “You ready?”
Sara pulled me in for a brief, tight hug, then nudged me on my way. “Go. I don’t know any more than you do, and there’s no better way to find out what he wants than to let him get to the point.”
“Fat lot of help you are,” I muttered.
“It’s always better to come straight out with the truth, you know. Even if it hurts.”
“I can’t.” I blinked hard to show the tears threatening to fall who was boss as I headed down the stairs with my sweater draped over one arm. And it was the truth, as far as I could tell. There were some things in life that I simply wasn’t capable of doing, and telling my brother any of this beyond what he’d already discerned on his own was definitely one of them.
Sara did have a point, though. Maybe I would have to find a way to come clean with some of it. But how much? I wasn’t sure.
Cam winked when I reached him. His attempt to put me at ease didn’t do a darn thing to calm my nerves. He already had my coat and purse out of the closet, and he held them out for me before opening the door and heading down to his truck. I quickly donned my coat and hurried after him.
“Confession” by Florida Georgia Line poured through the speakers when I climbed in.
He backed out of the driveway without saying anything. I glanced over at him, watching the street lights flicker over his face as I tried to figure out how much he’d caught on to and what I should force myself to tell him.
“So you’ve been here almost a month now, and we’ve hardly talked,” he said, his tone conversational. “Things going all right?”
“Going great.” However casual it was starting, this conversation wasn’t going to be so light and breezy for long. I had no doubt about that. “I think I’ve spent more time with Sara and the kids than with you.”
“Part of the deal, playing in the NHL. My time’s not my own. You’ve been busy, too.” He cocked his head in my direction for a moment, just long enough for me to catch the wary expression drawing his brows together. “You and Sara getting along all right?”
“We always have. You know I adore her.”
His chuckle was loaded with sarcasm. “I do. I’m aware you’re nuts about her mainly because I love her. I think you’re stretching things to say you’ve always gotten along, though.”
“It’s not like we ever argued.”
“Argued? No. Only because she bites her tongue all the time. You drive her up the wall. At least most of the time. The two of you are as opposite as it’s possible for two people to be. I know she loves you even though you can be trying for her—for the same reason. You’re my sister, and she loves me, so she’s determined to put up with all your antics that drive her berserk. But you haven’t been. Not since you arrived.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He shrugged. “You’re always so bubbly and energetic and over-the-top happy. She’d been bracing herself for your arrival. But you’re as docile as ever.”
“Maybe it’s only that Connor’s being wilder than usual, so she doesn’t notice me as much.” But I hadn’t been myself lately. Cam was right, whether I wanted to admit it or not. If anything, I’d been practically morose, for me. Sara definitely hadn’t seemed as annoyed by me as she typically did, but then again, we’d been distracted by everything I’d told her about Guy. Our relationship was evolving from where it had started, back when she and Cam had first gotten together. Now we were much more equal than ever before. On level footing. I was no longer the obnoxious seventeen-year-old kid sister.
Cam didn’t even bother rebutting my suggestion. I hadn’t fooled him at all, apparently. My heart sunk.
“Everything okay with Anthony?”
“Everything’s great with Anthony. Better than expected.” I tried to force the usual lightness into my voice and not let on how unsettling today’s practice had been. It hadn’t had a darned thing to do with Anthony, after all. My brother wasn’t often able to tell when I was putting on a show for his benefit, thank goodness. “Why shouldn’t it be?”
“Because you and Sara were both acting funny when I got home this afternoon, and the only thing I thought of that was different was you’d had practice this morning. I wondered if anything had happened to upset you. And because you faked being too tired to come to the game tonight.”
“I was tired. I am tired.”
“I bet. It’s hard work, lying all the time.”
My breath all left me in a flood. “What do you mean?”
Cam came to a stop at a red light. “Only that I’m aware you and Sara are keeping something from me. I’ve always been able to see straight through you, and I can’t always tell what Sara is holding back, but I do realize when she’s trying to keep me in the dark.”
“See straight through me?” I fiddled with the buttons on my coat.
“Yeah. You’ve never fooled any of us. Not me, not Mom, not Corinne or Chloe. Yes, you’re as happy as a clam a lot of the time, but we know there’s a lot more to you than simply that. We know you use your smiles and personality to hide when you’re hurt.”
