Chapter 26
WILL
“Val, how much longer are you planning to torture us?” I demanded.
We were at Friday dinner, and Val had brought samples from the office, asking our opinions, calling us her testers.
The girls’ group, which comprised Lori, Hailey, Maddie, and Paige, was ecstatic trying out everything, giving Val detailed reports on every fragrance.
“Until you give me your opinion,” Val replied sweetly.
“Why do you need our input on women’s fragrances?” Jace voiced my exact thoughts.
“Because I want to know if you’d like these on a woman. It’s an important part of research.”
Jace and I carefully avoided looking at each other.
I was always up for helping my sisters, but the most I could come up with was I like it or I don’t like it. Val wasn’t satisfied with that. She prodded us with questions like “How about the undertone? The finishing notes? Do you feel the pepper at all? Would mint be better?”
Milo had been the only one to escape this, and that was just because he was spending the night at a friend’s house.
Graham and Landon were sharing my conundrum, but we all tried our best. We had our eyes on the prize. Dinner. Except the girls were having too much fun trying out the samples… so much fun, in fact, that it didn’t look like we’d have dinner anytime soon.
“That guy I danced with the other night asked for my number, and we went out on Wednesday,” Val told the girls.
She’d lowered her voice, but even so, bits of the conversation filtered through the living room. The girls were sitting at the dining room table, and the guys and I in the seating area on the other side of the room.
When the word tongue reached our ears, Landon cleared his throat loudly. “Val, how about continuing girl talk another time? We can hear you, you know.”
Val glanced over her shoulder, smiling sheepishly. “Oops, didn’t realize I was talking so loudly.”
“Who is she talking about?” Jace inquired. “That guy from the girls’ outing two weeks ago? He seemed like a schmuck.”
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Brother, don’t get her hackles to rise, or we might not get dinner.”
Usually Jace wasn’t one to jump the gun.
That was my role. He took most things in stride, but he’d been on edge lately.
He’d started dating a woman he was very much into, and discovered that she’d been more into his fame than into him.
It didn’t use to bother him, but my brother was changing.
He was generous and trusted easily, which could be a bad combo, and I’d always worried for him.
Val finally showed us some mercy, and we moved on to dinner.
“Will, I’ve heard the case against the guy in charge of the car robberies was dismissed by the judge,” Landon said after we’d all eaten and headed back to the sitting area.
I nodded. “Yeah. Fight’s not over yet, but chances are high that the guy will walk away without a charge.”
Val’s eyes widened.
“Don’t hold back. I can feel you wanting to say something,” I urged.
She cleared her throat. “Maybe I’m just secretly observing.”
I didn’t manage to hide my smile. “Your secret observations are usually followed by comments.”
She pressed her lips together, then turned to Hailey. “We didn’t even get wind of this.”
“Yeah,” Hailey replied. “How did we not pick up on this? You’re not displaying your usual broody forehead.”
Val pointed to Paige, who was sitting next to me. “Is this your doing?”
Paige flashed my sisters a grin, then half turned to me. “I think it might be.”
Her left hand was on the table, and I covered it with mine. “I’m not going to confirm that. Might give certain people crazy ideas.”
Paige wiggled her hand out of my grasp, pinching my thigh. Val was 100 percent on point. Paige was changing me. Or rather, I was willing to change for her.
Even when I wasn’t with her, I found myself thinking about her, brainstorming about where to take her on dates.
Pleasing Paige had become a goal. Right now, I was monitoring the Griffith Observatory reports for a meteor shower viewing.
She’d talked a lot about constellations that night on my balcony, so I thought she’d like this.
When it was time to pop open a new bottle of wine, I offered to get it. Val was on my heels. We needed new glasses as well because we were moving from white wine to red wine.
I hadn’t even realized that I’d whipped out my phone to check the Griffith Observatory homepage until I saw my sister peeking.
“Hey, stay out of my business,” I admonished.
“But maybe you need pointers.”
“Nope, I’m good.”
“I always knew it.”
“What?”
“That you’ve got a dreamy soul hidden deep inside there. Very deep.”
“What made you think that? I was a punk growing up.”
“No, you were trying to be a punk, big difference. You were a sweetie underneath it all.”
I stared at my sister as I grabbed the bottle and a few glasses, and she grabbed the rest. Sweetie, really? Out of all the ways she could have described me….
“Please explain,” I said as we made our way back to the living room, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it.
“Well, you always pulled a lot of stunts, but you were so sweet with Lori and Jace and Hailey. Always volunteered to do activities with them. Even read them bedtime stories when Landon and I were working.”
I tried to school my expression, because… damn, she was right. I hadn’t done those things only out of a sense of duty, but because I’d genuinely enjoyed it. Spending all that time with my younger siblings had earned me snickers from friends at school, but I’d never cared.
“And what about you, lovely girl? More lemonade?” I asked Paige after Val and I had given everyone a glass.
“Yes, please.”
She wasn’t drinking wine tonight. It had been two weeks since the condom incident.
She’d been so scared that night. I’d wanted to take away her fears any way I could.
She’d seemed to relax after our conversation, but a part of me was still wondering if she’d been so terrified because she didn’t see this going where I did.
I’d been thinking about the possibility that Paige could be pregnant.
.. a lot. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but a part of me was hoping the odds would work out.
Was it crazy? Maybe. But so were my feelings for Paige. Intense and wild.