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“Of course, we’ll give all this a chance, and like I said, we’re just looking out for you.” He tapped my fist, a little relief there when he did. “But you can do us a solid and not give us any more reasons to worry. Last year was shit, and none of us want a repeat.”
No, we didn’t, which was why I was laboring as much as I was lately. That was the last thing he’d ever know, though, him and the guys. We couldn’t have any more shit years.
It might just break us this time.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Ares
“So, Ares is seeing someone. Someone at school…”
The roll flew down the wrong pipe at dinner that night.
Coughing that shit back into the right one, I hit my chest, and my mom dropped her fork from across the dinner table. She started to get up, she and my dad both, but they stopped when I raised my hand.
“I’m good.Fine,” I cut before facing my twin. Despite me about to fucking die over here, she appeared completely calm. As if she’d said nothing really. My eyes narrowed. “Sloane…”
“What?” Sloane folded her fingers. “You weren’t going to tell them?”
I wasn’t. That wasn’t a part of the plan. School stuff and Fawn were definitely staying at school. My jaw moved. “Hadn’t planned on it since wejuststarted seeing each other…”
“So, it’s true, then?”
Fuck.
Mom’s attention pinned to me. Dad’s too after what Mom said.
Between the pair, my sister and I were basically their clones. My dad was Middle Eastern and white and Mom was Latinx and white. Mom was fairer than Dad, her hair straight and darker, and both could easily pass for models. Being a mix of the two, I one hundred percent took advantage of that shit every waking day of my life. It was easy, so yeah, I took advantage of it.
Mom’s brow lifted. “Ares?”
My gaze on my sister, I gripped my goddamn fork. “Yes.”
“Honey…” I honestly wished my mom’s word followed some kind of curiosity, judgment even. Like why in the fuck her twenty-year-old kid—who’d nevereverspoke words about dating anyone—was suddenly seeing someone only weeks after being back at school.
It would have been better than her smile.
Her finding this weird would have been so much better than beingpleased, and my dad grinned to the nines with her.
“Ares…” he said, his head cocked, eyes bright. My dad was a naturally happy person, but lately, he hadn’t had a whole lot of things to be happy about.
Knowing I’d been the reason for that, I kept my mouth shut. To the right of me, Sloane lifted her head. “Her name’s Fawn Greenfield—”
“Sloane.” I didn’t know what game she was playing here, but she needed to stop playing it. “What are you doing?”
The question held a double meaning, my eyes on her. The gym had held me up, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her about her contacting Fawn. I’d gotten home and dinner was ready.
Normally, this table would hold more people. My brother, Bru, obviously couldn’t be here since he was overseas, but sometimes the guys would join us or even Thatcher’s sister, Bow. They all opted to have dinner with their own families tonight, a rare occurrence since Sloane and D were always all over each other. With as tense as things had been at the gym, I knew he only wasn’t around so I’d have an opportunity to talk to my sister.
A silent exchange passed between my twin and me, her eyebrow arched as if to say, “What?”
I shook my head, our parents all smiles.
“Well, I don’t know why you wouldn’t say anything.” Mom shook my arm, squeezing. “This is, well, great.”
“Yeah, it is.” Dad folded his long wingspan. Sloane and I got our heights from him. He nodded. “You said this is new?”
“Yes, real new.” I forked peas. “That’s why I didn’t say anything. Didn’t want to make a big deal about it.”
