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“Exactly what I thought.” With a chuckle, Fallon took another sip of her wine and settled back into her chair.

Savannah’s stomach churned again, but this time it was filled with curiosity and arousal. It had been a long time since she’d felt that. Making direct eye contact with Fallon, Savannah was determined to give as good as she got.

“And when will you try a mixed drink?” Savannah picked up her own glass, biting her lip and looking directly into Fallon’s dark brown eyes as she took a long, slow sip. Was she actually flirting with someone? It almost didn’t feel real.

“We’ll have to see now, won’t we?” Fallon winked and then froze, as if catching herself being out of character.

Savannah held onto that. If Fallon was relaxing, even a little, around her, then she was going to call that a win. She didn’t suspect that Fallon was someone who relaxed even the slightest, ever. Not after seeing her the few times they’d met.

“I am sorry about your brother. I’m not sure I’ve said that yet.”

“Oh.” Tears sprung into Savannah’s eyes. “Thank you. And I’m sorry about your parents.”

“Don’t be sorry for him.” Fallon’s face hardened. “He doesn’t deserve any pity.”

Savannah nodded slowly. “All right, then I won’t.”

Fallon spun her wine glass in a circle on the table with two fingers. It was as if this was her tic of discomfort. Savannah had picked up on it when they’d gone to the wine bar before. She grasped for some kind of topic, something to ease them into a more gentle conversation.

“I had forgotten how catty girls could be in elementary school. Brinley has a fourth grader who won’t stop bullying her.”

“Girls can be cruel at any age,” Fallon said, her voice distant. When Savannah looked up, Fallon stared into her wine glass.

“Yeah, they can be. I try to keep my girls in line with that, and show them how to support each other.”

Fallon frowned.

“At work, because I work with a lot of girls.” Savannah squinted. “I run a figure skating company, one that trains girls for the elites.” Savannah hesitated, wondering if repeating information that Fallon had forgotten would be helpful in any way or if it’d put her off.

“Right.” Fallon sucked in a sharp breath. “I never had an interest in having children. I didn’t think it would be fair, and I didn’t want to repeat mistakes.”

“That’s understandable.” Savannah played her fingers over her napkin, worried that she was going to make a wrong step in this conversation. “When I was younger, I wanted a slew of kids. One right after the other. But after Brinley was born, my ex shifted, and the thought of bringing another child into that was unimaginable.”

“Did he hit you?” Each word was like a dart to Savannah’s heart.

“No.” Savannah frowned. “Sometimes I wish he had. Then maybe someone would have believed me sooner—or better. Or I would have believed it sooner.” She mumbled the last part.

Fallon nodded slowly, sipping her wine again. “Abuse comes in all forms.”

“It does,” Savannah agreed. She hadn’t meant to bring such a downer of a subject to the table, but there was something about Fallon that allowed her to go deeper than she normally did with anyone else, even Kyla. Then again, since Conrad, Savannah had avoided relying on Kyla. She didn’t want to tax her sister-in-law too much or put her under any more stress than necessary.

“But you got out. Something my mother only managed to do in death.” Fallon tilted her wine glass toward Savannah and knocked back the rest of the liquid.

Was every conversation this morbid between them?

Perhaps it was all because of how they’d met.

Savannah drank as she pondered. Their food arrived soon enough, and she was cutting through her steak when Fallon rolled her shoulders and blew out a breath. “I brought my aunt here a while ago. She’s not into fine dining, but she puts up with it because I like it.”

“She doesn’t like it?”

“Too rich for her.” Fallon’s lips twitched. “Tia is down to earth in every sense of the word.”

“Is she? And you didn’t inherit any of that from her, I suppose.”

“None.” Fallon chuckled. “None at all.”

“I hope Brinley inherits a whole lot more from me than from her father.” Savannah saw the wince in Fallon’s gaze, but she didn’t want to explore it. Was it simply because she’d talked about her ex being not the greatest person in the world? Or was it a reminder of Fallon’s own father? “I wanted Brinley to have the sibling experience that I had.”