Page 112 of The Bluffing Game

“Do you mind if I turn the TV on?” Sage asks as she sits cross-legged on the bed.

She’s wearing long pants and a baggy T-shirt, and her hair is up in a ponytail. I think she thinks that she’s completely unattractive to me, but I’ve never found her sexier.

“Of course not,” I say. “Feel free to watch whatever you want.” I look up from the chair I’m sitting in in the corner of the room. “Do you find the bed to be comfortable?”

“It’s fine,” she says, shrugging, and bites down on her lower lip. “I mean, what would you do if I said it wasn’t?”

I glance over at her. “What do you mean?”

“What if I said it was the most horrifically uncomfortable bed I’d ever been in? Would you change the mattress and get a new one, even though I’m only going to be here for such a short amount of time?”

“If that’s what you wanted, but what a terrible waste of money it would be. I’m not a billionaire, Sage, but I can afford to get a new mattress if it’s giving you a backache.” I stand up, head over to the bed, sit on the side of it, and look over at her. “Is it giving you a backache?”

“No. I didn’t say that. I was just saying, what would you do?”

“You like to argue, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t.” She smiles and leans back against the headboard. “Anyway, I didn’t mean to distract you. I was going to put on The King of Queens, and I wasn’t sure if you were still working.”

“I’m okay. How are you feeling?” I ask her, knowing Brett had spoken with her.

I still haven’t spoken to him, and I feel bad that he was the one to deliver the news without me there.

“I feel like I don’t recognize my life. One”—she taps her finger—“I am living with you and staying in your bedroom. And that’s because, two, a guy I went on a couple of dates with is a sociopath. Three, I have zero prospects of billionaires to date. Four, the man I slept with recently is a liar.”

I press my lips together, but don’t say anything.

“And five, his son wants to call me Mommy, and I don’t even know how to respond to that because he’s so cute and life is so complicated and …” She sighs. “Now I sound like a crazy person.”

“What would you do if I said you didn’t sound like a crazy person? What would you do if I told you that?”

My phone beeps, and I glance down at it.

“It’s Brett.”

“You can take it. I’m not going anywhere. I mean, you won’t let me.”

“True,” I say. “I’ll be right back.”

I head out of the bedroom and answer the phone. “What’s up?”

“Hey. Are you alone?”

“Yes. Why? What’s going on?”

“Fuck it, Dalton. There’s an issue.”

“What?” I can feel my heart racing. “Is it Sage? Is she in trouble? Is it Parker?”

“No, it’s got nothing to do with Parker. It’s to do with Sage’s dad.”

“Oh, I know. That’s horrible. What a jackass that he⁠—”

“It’s not Mikey.”

“Who the hell is Mikey?”

“Mikey’s the third guy, the name that was given to Sage’s mom, the one I thought might be her dad initially, but it’s not him.”