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“What are your intentions with Sage?” Trace asked quietly
He was taken back by the question. “We’ve been dating a few weeks,” he said. “I don’t know. I enjoy spending time with your sister. I’m sure she told you that I had a thing for her years ago but moved.”
“She did,” Trace said. “And sometimes people hold onto that and force it to work when maybe it won’t.”
He frowned. “I’m not into forcing anything. I know what that is like in life. I’m taking things as they come. I liked your sister back then because she was a cute girl who was friendly to me when many weren’t. When one of her friends wasn’t nice, she’d apologized back then. She didn’t need to do it, but it went a long way with me. Twenty years later she still apologized for it.”
“Sage carries things with her for a long time,” Trace said. “She always has. She’d be pissed if she knew I was saying this, but she never feels as if she is worthy of people. When stuff falls apart she blames herself and beats herself up.”
He would have never expected to hear that about Sage.
“I don’t plan on messing up or having anything fall apart, but that would be between us, don’t you think?”
“I’m glad to know you’ve got a backbone. She wouldn’t want to be with anyone she could walk all over either.”
“Jesus,” he said. “I can’t figure you guys out. You’re busting on me about how tough your father and you and your grandmother are. Then you’re telling me to stand up for myself. What gives?”
“Sage is complicated,” Trace said. “She wouldn’t admit it, but she is. I don’t want to see her hurt is all.”
“I don’t plan on hurting your sister any more than I hope she doesn’t plan on hurting me. It’s the best I can give you right now.”
“It’s good enough,” Trace said.
The girls came in after that and they watched the rest of the game. They ate an awesome lasagna that he’d be dreaming of for years to come.
When he was leaving Trace’s house with a plate of biscotti that Violet had made, he figured he survived that dinner better than Sage had.
“Sorry my brother was a jerk.”
“He wasn’t,” he argued. Unless she heard the comment when she was in the kitchen. They were talking low enough.
“Trace is pretty laid back, but he worries.”
“Why don’t you tell me why he worries,” he said. “It’s like the timing of it wasn’t that great when you dropped your statement earlier.”
“It’s nothing,” she said.
“Or something that brings your family rallying around you.”
She let out a sigh when he started his truck and pulled out. He assumed he was just returning her to her place. She hadn’t seen his yet and hadn’t even asked to.
“I was dating someone I worked with before I moved here. It didn’t end well. He didn’t stand behind me when he should have. Worse yet, he left the company suddenly and broke up with me and left me there to deal with the drama.”
“Sounds like a dick. What kind of drama are we talking about? Like screw-ups or theft?”
“No,” she rushed out. “That would have been easier. Henry was a manager in another department. My career seemed to be stalled, and then when we were dating, I got a promotion.”
“And many felt it was because of him?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I didn’t believe it. I was working my butt off and doing a great job. I was told it was long overdue. But people talk and he never denied that he put a good word in for me. When he left, the crap just piled on more. There was no one there to stand up for me. It’s a rough industry to begin with.”
It all made sense now.
The guy didn’t stand behind her.
Wasn’t loyal in the least.
“I’m sorry you went through that,” he said.
