Lia’s eyes jerked back to me, wide and shocked in her face. “Umm, given the giant heart-eyed, lady boner you’ve turned my sister into, I assumed she told you that’s why she agreed, considering you guys had nothing but time to talk for days.”
I folded my arms over my chest and tried to stop looking at Finn standing next to Claire in the kitchen. He was pouring her a glass of wine, laughing in a friendly way at something she said.
Lia grabbed my arm, and I pried my gaze away from the scene in the kitchen.
“She didn’t tell me.”
Her eyes widened even further. “Bauer, I’m so sorry. I didn’t …” She shook her head. “This is not a big deal, I swear.”
My harsh, low laughter had her tightening her grip on my arm.
“Hey, I’m serious. The reason this is not a big deal is because I knew Claire would meet someone who was a better fit for her than Finn. They’re basically the same person, and she needs someone who will push her when she needs to be pushed.” Her fingers tightened. “Her crush was harmless, okay? Finn has never looked at her like that.”
My silence was starting to freak her out, but my teeth were clenched too tightly for me to try to say anything.
I chose a hell of a way to dive into the dating pool, hadn’t I?
With a woman, who was already too good for me, but now I had to come to terms with the fact that I’d only gotten my shot because she’d been pining for my little brother for years. My eyes drifted back to them, a golden couple, with dark hair and big brains and kind hearts.
“Bauer,” Lia snapped. “Look at me.”
I did, and she immediately started shaking her head at what she saw.
“No, don’t you shut down on her because of this. I will tell her this is my fault, and she will forgive me.” Her voice got wobbly. “She’s my twin, and that’s how I knew, because sometimes we know things about each other that we don’t even want to know, but simply because we feel it, okay? But please, please don’t break her heart right now because of whatever weird dynamic you have with Finn.
Please.”
It was the wobble in her voice that had me pausing.
My inner skeptic was roaring that Lia did this on purpose, but I didn’t think she’d be able to fake the panic stamped over her face or the emotion in her voice.
“You have five minutes to tell her before I pull her aside,” I told Lia. “Because there’s no way I can sit through a dinner, staring at them, and pretend I’m okay with what you just told me.”
“What are you two doing back here?” Claire asked. She was approaching us with a smile, but I could see the cautious curiosity.
Lia shared a panicked, begging look with me. “I’m just running my mouth, and Bauer is …”
Claire’s face started falling, and as her blue, blue eyes studied me, I saw her shoulders tense up. “Bauer is what?”
“I told her I’d give you five minutes,” I said flatly. “I’ll wait outside. I can’t go in there right now.”
“Bauer, wait,” Claire begged, reaching out to grab my arm. I stopped because yeah, my mind was racing, and there was no way in hell I could fake anything in front of her family, not the first night I was meeting them, but if I ripped my arm out of her grasp right now …
So I paused but closed my eyes.
“You’re freaking me out,” she whispered.
“Just … talk to your sister for five minutes, okay?”
“No.”
My eyes popped open at her firm tone. Lia said her sister’s name.
Claire’s gaze never wavered from mine. “I want to talk to you. Lia, can you please give us some privacy?”
“Claire, it’s my fault, I swear,” Lia said in a rush. “Please, let me—“
Claire held up her hand. “I never ask you to leave me alone, but Lia, this is a moment when I need you to go away so I can talk to Bauer.”
Lia’s eyes widened, and even I was surprised at Claire’s reaction. But Lia respected her twin, nodding her head slowly.
It was quiet enough in the kitchen that we’d gathered an audience.
“Shit,” I whispered. “I can’t do this in here.”
Claire let out a long exhale. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”
My chin dropped to my chest. I was going to fuck this up, I could already tell. I wish I’d never come out of that bathroom. I wish I’d told her I could meet her family another time. And I wished that I knew how to do bullshit like this with a woman who already meant entirely too much to me.
So much that the thought of her wanting my brother made me pound his stupid face in, right after I clawed my heart to try to temper this … feeling.
Staring at her, trying to figure out what I wanted to say and how and where, all I could imagine was her in that yellow dress with the red lipstick painstakingly applied. The look in her eyes when I turned around, and she saw me for the first time that she hadn’t been able to mask.
It hadn’t been shock that kept her so quiet on the drive. It was disappointment.
Which was why I turned and walked out the door, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted her to follow me.
CLAIRE
The wide expanse of Bauer’s back had never looked ominous to me.
Strong.
Capable.
Sexy.
But never ominous.
As I gaped at it, at the sight of him walking away from me, out the door that led to the garage, it was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen. Mainly because I was so confused, so completely and utterly lost, I didn’t know what the hell was going on.
Noise exploded behind me when he exited the house, and I refused to give my family a backward glance because it wasn’t like I could explain anything. I jogged out of the house and yelled his name when I saw him pace between the parked cars.
“What is going on?” I begged. “You were gone for three minutes, and all of a sudden, you’re walking out on me?”
Bauer stopped pacing, his hands propped on his hips, as he stared up into the cloudless sky.
Maybe it was a strange thing to notice, that the canopy above us was clear and bright, but it made me wish we were back at that cabin.
There we’d had blankets of white and clouds and wind to shelter our little space. Suddenly, I wanted that sense of security back.
“What did Lia say to you?” I asked quietly. It was taking everything in me not to march up to him and shake the answer out of him.
“I can see it.”
My head tilted at his strange answer. I felt like a fish that had been plopped unceremoniously out of its bowl. It was hard to breathe because I had no concept of how to navigate this. “See what?”
He exhaled slowly, finally turning to face me. “You and Finn.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.