Page 8 of Revealing Mark

“What did you say?” I asked under my breath as we continued to pretend we were looking through the photos.

“I just told him that you were dealing with your breakup with Jack. You know, the usual heartbreak stuff,” she murmured with a shrug.

“You didn’t mention anything about the keys and stuff?”

She shook her head.

I felt relieved but it would be short lived if Mark persisted. He wasn’t someone to let something go once his curiosity had been piqued and I wasn’t sure how to deter him. All I could hope was that I got the keys back from Jack and then no one would discover he had been living with me.

My phone started to ring. My eyes met my sister’s.

I checked my phone. “It's Jack.”

Sophie nodded. I answered it. “Jack.”

The line crackled. With the conversation and music, I was struggling to hear him with the weak connection.

I stood and moved outside, away from the noise.

“Tracy…can…hear-” The line went dead.

There were no bars on my phone. I glared at my phone, wishing I was in a better spot for cell phone coverage. Holding up my phone, I tried to see if I could get a better signal. It might be better to try from my room.

I let out a frustrated sigh before returning inside to my seat beside my sister.

“And?”

“The line was so bad I couldn't hear anything and then I lost signal.” I was beyond frustrated that I couldn't talk to Jack to sort out the misunderstanding.

I propped my head up with my hand and I found myself watching Mark. He stood talking to Matthew and Sarah. I stared, unable to look away. There was something hypnotic about his mannerisms, from the way he listened intently andhow he smiled engagingly. His eyes were always sharp, taking in his surroundings. It was an inbuilt instinct from his job.

He lifted his glass to swallow a mouthful of his drink and I couldn’t look away.

“Tell me something,” Sophie interrupted me.

I straightened up, aware that I had let my guard down around my sister.

“You and Mark?” she asked softly, looking in his direction briefly.

“What about me and Mark?” I looked her straight in the eyes.

“There just seems to be… something there.”

Someone was bound to figure it out at some point, I was surprised it had taken this long.

I sighed. “Since high school.”I was usually quite open with my sister but for some reason I had never told her how I felt about Mark.

I remembered back to when it had first begun. There had been an initial flutter of butterflies in my stomach the first time I met him when Matthew had brought him home the first week they had started high school, but it was only a couple of years later when I started the same high school that my feelings had progressed from physical to something more.

I had expected Matthew tobe protective but what had surprised me was how protective Mark had been as well.That plus catching him shirtless a few times working out had been enough for me to look at him differently. The same way I looked at him now.

“Is it that obvious?” I mumbled, feeling deflated.

“A little.” I wasn't sure I wanted her honesty. If she had noticed, had others?

“You guys are always bickering.” She shrugged, and I frowned.

“We don't.”