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“I told you—you talked me up here, I’m entitled to the full experience. Not just the abridged evening.”

“I think you just enjoy tormenting me,” I said, reaching for her hand, but then thought better of it and settled for hooking my arm through hers. Everyone else had disappeared from the hall, but I wasn’t going to risk it. “I’ll have you know, Dillon Sinclair, I can give as good as I get.”

“I’m counting on it,” she whispered, before drawing me from the alcove to rejoin civilization. “Now tell me, what are your two truths and a lie?”

“I can’t tell you before the game,” I faked indignance. “That would be cheating.”

“Then give me a preview of how to play—something different than whatever PC banality we’ll have to suffer the rest of the evening.”

I stopped a dozen steps from the open doorway where I could hear Darlene ordering her husband to open a bottle of Brut. Dani was arguing with Tom. My parents, I knew, would be sitting on the couch nearest the fireplace. Dani’s little brother, Marcus, would be watching silent videos on his phone. And Carter would be on the loveseat beneath the painting of a fig Dani loved to boast had cost seven hundred thousand dollars. An odd flex, I always thought. For seven hundred Gs I wanted a lot more than abstract fruit on a wall.

“Fine, but you’ll never guess correctly,” I postured.

“We’ll see.”

I rolled my eyes at her cockiness, secretly loving it.

“I’ve had a one-night stand.”

“Okay.” She waited.

“I’ve never been to Wales.”

Her lips twinged. “Okay.”

“I’ve never slept with a woman.”

Her smile widened. “Okay.”

“Well? Now you’re supposed to guess which one isn’t true.”

“A guess, by definition, indicates uncertainty.”

“And are you so positive of being right?” I baited, already knowing she would be. I’d made the answers easy enough. She already knew I’d never been to the UK. And, well, the other two didn’t take much deducing to determine which was which.

“A hundred percent.” She fiddled with the tie of my dress, letting the black satin slide through her fingers. “The only question I have is whether you want to turn one of your truths into a lie?”

I could feel the pounding of my heart in my bones again. “I don’t know—do you think there’s a last-minute flight from San Jose International to Wales?” I leaned closer to her, lowering my voice. “We could convert both truths then.”

I loved knowing how badly she wanted to kiss me. Knowing, for all of her bravado, how easy it was to put a crack in her veneer. Slowly, purposefully, I tugged the tie of my dress from her fingers, edging closer still. “And that way,” I whispered, “it would also prevent you from turning my lie into a truth.”

Her lopsided smile appeared as she worked out the implication. “No flight across the Atlantic necessary to safeguard that lie, Kam-Kameryn. I already canceled my hotel. You’re stuck with me for at least a few days.”

Before I had time to respond, Darlene’s voice called out from the threshold.

“Are you planning on joining us, Kameryn, or shall I start charging you rent for my hallway?”

I took a staggering step away from Dillon and lunged toward the door.

Smooth move there, moron.

I may as well have shouted “no incriminating behavior here, Mrs. Hallwell. We’re certainly not talking about punching a stamp on my lesbian card as soon as we escape your heteronormative compound.”

Instead, I smiled brightly and asked if I could be of any help with the dessert tray.

The chitchat. The game. The champagne. It all felt endless.

I’d once again taken a seat by my parents—directly next to the fire, as anticipated—and mentally twiddled my thumbs as Uncle-This and Cousin-That took turns boring everyone withI’ve never had liposuctionandI attended Bill Gates birthday party.