Page 218 of Dream On, Liar

It wasn't a question.

I shook my head. “No. How would I?”

“Then tell me what happened between the two of you.”

My mouth opened.

Closed.

My fingers curled around the edge of the table.

“I don't know.”

Dad's eyebrows lifted.

“Don't.” I looked at him. “I mean, I…”

The words tangled.

There were too many versions of the truth.

The paper.

The truce.

The arguments.

New Zealand.

The beach.

The hotel.

The kiss.

The clause.

The cabin.

Everything we’d never properly said.

I couldn’t pick one piece without dragging the rest behind it.

Dad stepped closer. “Ever since we came back from New Zealand, you two have been acting strange.”

I stared at the floor.

“Not just separately.” He paused. “Together.”

My throat tightened.

“Even over the last three weeks.”

I still said nothing.

“Between training camp and the final week, I thought it was simply the two of you finding a way to work past everything that had happened.” His expression hardened slightly. “But now I'm starting to doubt that.”

The silence stretched.