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Greer pouted as we sat on the couch. She tugged a blanket up to cover our legs like we used to do when we were younger. She was married now, living with her husband and stepdaughter outside of Salem, so it was an easy drive when she wanted to come visit.
“How was your sleepover at the Coleman house, Mom?” I asked, quite desperate for the subject change. Greer’s eyes narrowed because she knew exactly what I was doing. I merely smiled back.
“It was wonderful,” Mom said. “Olive and I had the best night. She’s an absolute angel.”
I choked on my coffee, barely keeping it from coming out of my nose. Greer gave me a strange look. “You okay?”
You’re so good, angel,he’d said.So perfect.
I rolled my lips together, nodding frantically as I tried to breathe through my nose. “Totally okay,” I managed. “Swallowing is hard, you know.”
She smirked. “Have a little practice with that last night?”
I swatted her leg while Mom groaned. “Greer,” I hissed.
Mom raised her hands and left the room. “That’s it. I’m going to unpack. Greer, thank you for driving me home. You sticking around today?”
My big sister settled into the corner of the couch and pinned me with a thoughtful look. “Yup. At least through lunch.”
I pretended her look didn’t exist, sipping my coffee and ignoring the slightly stinging ache I felt between my legs. If she only knew. Even if my brothers knew about what happened, they weren’t the ones Jax would need to worry about.
Greer would destroy him if she thought he’d taken advantage of me. A slightly hysterical laugh threatened to climb up my throat. If she only knew. One person was climbing into a bed in the middle of the night, and it sure wasn’t Jax.
I still wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t me taking all sorts of advantages.
Mom disappeared into her bedroom, and we sat quietly for a while.
“So,” Greer drawled. “You gonna make me beg for information?”
“Maybe. I didn’t make you tell me about your sex life when you married Beckett.”
“More’s the pity. It’s a good one.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “You didn’thavea sex life when you married him, he was basically a stranger.”
She waved that off. “Not for long, and we had very good reasons for that. Plus, he wasn’t a total stranger, he’s Parker’s teammate. I knew who he was. Sort of.”
It was the truth. Before our dad passed away, Greer overheard him telling Mom he’d never get to walk any of his girls down the aisle. Naturally, this translated to my slightly impulsive sister to conjure a husband to be able to fulfill that wish—one of the teammates of our brother Parker, who played professional football for the Portland Voyagers.
Luckily for Greer, Beckett was perfect for her. The calm to her … not calm. They were a perfect fit, and there was no other way to describe it. Watching them together was the thing that made me question my longtime crush on Jax. Whether it was time to let it go and find someone who completed me in that same way. Who completed me in the way our parents had completed each other.
What I wanted was a soulmate. Someone whosawme. The real me. That was always the reason that dating had been hard for me—looking for that one perfect person where they may not exist. Clinging to a crush on someone who was so incredibly not perfect, but I still couldn’t dig him out of my head, no matter what I tried.
“Anyway,” Greer continued. “Who did you go out with last night? Do I know your mystery date man?”
I could do this. I wasn’t lying. I was just … subtly bending the truth.
I blew out a slow breath. “Umm, no, I don’t think you do. We went out to dinner in Redmond. He’s … he’s in finance or something.”
She gave me a soft smile. “You had fun?” she asked lightly.
Before answering, I licked my lips and chose my words very carefully. “Dinner was fine, like I said. But after…” My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath. “After was amazing.”
“Are you going to see Mr. Finance again?”
“No,” I said. Her brow pinched slightly in confusion, but I continued before she could ask why. “It was a fun night. I don’t regret it. But … that’s all it was. One night. And he and I both knew it.”
Again, Greer studied my face, and I worried that the things I’d left unsaid were stamped all over my features.
