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He moves in closer. “Let’s play a game. A truth for a truth?”
The back of my neck heats. “So, I ask a question, you answer it honestly? You ask a question and I have to answer it honestly? Sure. I have nothing to hide.”
Sloan takes his time thinking of the answer to my first question. On the other side of the table, I can hear my phone vibrating. “I think…” he says. “I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up any other way. Those guys are like my brothers. When shit happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. On the other hand, when shit happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
“I don’t understand.”
He shakes his head. “It’s my turn.”
I steel myself. I have no idea what he’s going to ask. He looks into my eyes for a long time, then he finally says, “Do you like Alec?”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation.
“Just yes?”
“What do you want me to say? Do you think I would let someone touch me like that if I didn’t like them?”
He looks at his hand around my shoulders. My body heats.
The waitress brings out our food, so we stop for a second. When she’s gone, Sloan says, “I’m convinced some girls do.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Fine. Your turn.” He takes his hand away from my shoulder and bites into one of his chicken strips, waiting for me to ask something.
“Your Mom and Dad…they don’t come to a lot of things.”
His gaze flicks over to mine. “Is there a question in there somewhere?”
“Are they still together? Happily together?” I quickly tack on.
My stomach roils with the anticipation of his answer. This year, my parents aren’t going to be going to anything together unless they need to keep up appearances. And who knows if that will last. Or if one of them gets a boyfriend or girlfriend, they definitely won’t pretend anymore. Of course, when they officially announce it, all bets are off, too.
His gaze softens as he looks at me. “They’re together, but they shouldn’t be. They haven’t been happy in a long time. In fact, they haven’t been happy since I was born.” He takes another bite and gazes out the window in front of us. “My parents do things just to piss one another off, and they don’t care who gets caught in the crossfire. But then when we’re out at some Senatorial thing, it’s all smiles and cheek kisses, and sometimes I just want to tell the whole world what it’s really like living in the Ivy household.”
“What’s it really like?”
He raises an eyebrow. Surprise colors his face like he didn’t expect me to care, and even though this is the second question I’ve asked him in a row, he actually answers. “It sucks. Think stiff family dinners when you know your mom just got back from vacation with her boyfriend, and your dad is screwing his secretary. It’s layers and layers of lies, so nothing feels sacred anymore.”
I reach out to touch his thigh. “I’m so sorry, Sloan.” At least I haven’t had to deal with that yet. Neither one of my parents are seeing anyone else at the time being.
He looks down at my touch. I try to pull it away, but he puts his hand on mine, keeping it there. “Don’t.” After a minute, he says, “My turn. What’s your end goal if you get on the team?”
“To help the team.”
“No, I want to know what your goal is in trying out for the team.”
I narrow my eyes, but I’m pretty sure I know what he’s getting at. “I want to start.”
“You think you can?” he asks, like he expected me to answer that way.
“That’s two questions,” I tell him, not wanting to get into this. Like he said, they’re all best friends. They also all saw Lake cheat and none of them said anything.
“You owe me one,” he says.
I sigh. “Yes,” I finally say. “I think I can.”
His hand squeezes mine. He doesn’t say whether he thinks I can or not, but I haven’t asked him either. Yet. “Doyouthink I can?”