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“Yes, it was,” I say with my hand on the back of Sage’s chair. I move it to rest at the top of her spine, just under her neck, and I move on instinct alone. My mind hardly registers what I’m doing as I gently nudge her toward me. As she spins to look at me, our eyes meet. Then our lips.
It’s a quick kiss, but it feels monumental.
As our faces part, her gaze stays tethered to mine. When I finally face forward, I avoid the curious and shocked stares from the rest of my family.
“Let’s eat,” I say to break up the tension. As I reach for the lasagna in the center of the table, I’m feeling particularly pleased at the moment. Truett is unhinged, thrown completely off guard, and angrier than ever. And the beautiful woman at my side is the one responsible.
Twenty-Four
Adam
“Is this your room?” Sage asks as I click on the light to the large bedroom at the end of the massive hall.
“This is my childhood bedroom,” I reply as we both step inside. I shut the door behind us, mostly to get five minutes to breathe and step out of our roles. Although, to be honest, stepping in and out of the fake-dating scenario feels less and less like much of a change at all.
“Oh wow,” she says as she scans the room, walking to each wall to examine the photos hanging there. Most of them are of me and my brothers in various stages of our lives. “Look at how cute you were,” she says with a smile as she comes across one of me when I was twelve, holding baby Isaac on my lap.
I remember that day when Mom and Dad brought him home. After feeling like the odd one out with the twins for so long, I finally had a brother to myself. Or at least that’s how it felt. It was my job to protect him, to keep him safe, to be his equal.
Subtly in the back of my mind, I wonder if I failed him—a thought that’s plagued me since the day he left. I never realized in all of my years that the one person I was supposed to protect him from was our own father. Now I have no idea if he’s safe or alive or happy. He might as well be dead, but even with death, we get closure. When Isaac ran away, all we got was emptiness.
Sage turns back toward the bed and stares at it with a smile, distracting me from my gloomy thinking. “How many girls did you feel up on that bed?”
I laugh. “Zero.”
“Bullshit,” she says, cackling. “You guys have your own fucking wing in this ginormous house and you never once brought a girl in here?”
I can’t hide my mischievous smirk as I drop my ass onto the mattress. “Okay…two. But that’s it.”
She sits next to me with a teasing smile. “That’s disappointing.”
“I know, but back then, all I wanted was to be like my father. I thought I was on the right path.”
It’s quiet for a moment as she lets out a sigh and then places a hand on my thigh. “I’m sorry for causing a scene at dinner. There’s nothing wrong with saying grace. I was just trying to piss him off.”
“You did just that,” I reply with a lopsided grin. “Your grace was just fine, and you don’t need to apologize. But, Sage…” I turn my head to face her. “Is it true you’ve never sat down at a family dinner?”
She lets out a huff and avoids my eyes. Then she leans back on her elbows. “Sort of. I had a friend in high school who used to invite me over to dinner. We sat at a table like that. Sometimes Gladys and I eat together too.”
“What about your family?” I ask, leaning down on my side beside her.
“My mother had me when she was really young and when I was in high school, she remarried and had a few more kids. Her new husband was an asshole, and he hated me, so I emancipated myself at seventeen and moved away. Then, we just…lost touch. It’s sort of sad how easily she was able to let me go.”
My heart lurches as she speaks.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. As she turns toward me, our eyes meet and our faces are impossibly close. I let my gaze trail from her stunning blue eyes, down the gentle slope of her button nose, to the ring in her lip. And I find myself swallowing, almost as if…I’m nervous.
The tension grows as we stare at each other from just a few inches apart. And just when it feels unbearable, she turns away.
“I’m not gonna lie, Church Boy. It’s a little weird that your parents have kept your room so immaculate after all this time.”
I let out a sigh and shift on the bed. “It’s my mother. She thinks we’re going to need it again someday. So she keeps all of our rooms the way they were when we left. Even Isaac’s.”
Her eyes find mine again, and I instantly regret bringing him up.Please don’t ask me about him.
“Want to film a scene?” she asks, and I stare at her with confusion. Just like that, she breaks the tension.
“In here?”
