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A door slammed and they broke, freezing for a second, their mouths just a millimeter apart. It could only be—Jagg eased back and twisted around to… Ford, right there, glaring at them.
Oh, shit. They’d talked about keeping them quiet. They were a secret. Well, no, not anymore.
“Ford…” she said, bracing for a reaction.
Her brother didn’t respond and flipped the turn to stalk toward his room. She tried to push Jagg away, but he set a hand on the counter beside her thigh.
“Leave him,” he muttered.
“Leave him?” she asked. Ford’s bedroom door slammed. “What the hell…? Why didn’t he—”
“Because he doesn’t want to say now something he’ll regret in the morning. It’s been a long night.”
Of all the reactions she’d considered her brother may have, none was not on the list.
“We can’t let him think this is adrenaline. If he thinks we’re screwing around for—”
“He needs time to process.” Stepping back, he took her hands to slide her off the counter. “Whatever he thinks, and if he wants answers, he knows where to find us.”
“I don’t want to hurt him.”
“You can’t pressure him.Your brother prefers to think, then act. Got me out of trouble more times than I can count. Opposite of Strat, he must get it from your mom.”
“Oh,” she said, her breathing getting deeper. “Will he call my dad?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Do you care?”
“Yes, I care. I—”
“Everyone is safe, everyone is alive. Tonight could’ve gone a different way for all of us. If he calls Strat—”
“My father will come racing over here and probably wrap his car around a pole in the process. If he’s mad—”
“He won’t call Strat. Why would he?”
“We should go in there,” she said, worrying her lip. “We should speak to him. Explain it to him.”
Jagg smiled. How the hell could he smile? This was a disaster.
“You don’t want his knee-jerk reaction. Trust me. You harass him and he’ll only shut down. No one forces Ford to do anything. Give him space. Give him time.”
“How much space? How much time?” His easy smile poked at her. “How can you be smiling?”
“Because he knows. It’s out there now. This is a blessing. We’ll take whatever he wants to give out, but we don’t have to worry about keeping secrets.”
“No, just making amends,” she whispered. “What if he tells us to end it?”
“Don’t upset yourself thinking about things that haven’t happened yet. It is what it is. We are what we are.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means relax. Take a breath. And see the positive.”
“What’s the positive?” she asked, going with him when he moved, their hands still joined. “It’s positive if he accepts us. It’s not if he tells us to break up.”
“The damage is done, Genny. We’ve crossed the line. We can’t uncross it.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t ask us to,” she said. “Are you sure we shouldn’t go talk to him? If he’s up all night—”
