Page 110 of The Oath We Give

“No thanks needed. This was all you.” I pat her back softly, clearing my throat as I pull back. “Go celebrate with your family, and tell your mother I said hello.”

I watch her disappear into the crowd toward her family, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. Not because she hugged me but because of the blatant physical affection in public. Being seen as soft by all these people, like I care? Make me a target.

“You’re really good at this.” Sage’s sharp voice floats over my shoulder.

Turning to face her at my side, I smirk. “Standing and looking pretty?”

She arches an eyebrow. “You think you’re pretty?”

My mouth drops open a little before her mouth melts into a warm smile. For a second, I’d seen a glimpse of the girl I’d seen in high school. The infamous mean girl everyone was so afraid of.

“Just kidding.” She nudges my hip with hers. “The teaching thing—you’re good at it.”

I’m uncomfortable with all this praise today. It’s not a normal thing in my life, never has been, and suddenly, there are kind words everywhere, more than I’ve heard over my entire life, and I don’t know how to handle it.

“So, you two fucked?” she asks bluntly, smirking at me with a knowing glint in her eyes.

I cough, taken aback. “What? No? Why do you ask? Did he say—”

“Rook guessed. Said Silas had postorgasm glow.” She laughs.

“Isn’t this awkward for you? Talking to me about this after he dated your sister?” My shields slam upward, hoping she’ll back off before I slip up and say something that has no business being said out loud.

I deflect and bite when people get too close, but Sage has teeth too.

“Sweetheart, don’t try to mean girl me.” Sage’s eyes flame with the challenge, blue eyes burning as she glances down at her red nails. “I’ll hurt your feelings.”

I doubt anyone, including me, could out-bitch Sweetheart Sage Donahue. Her wrath is notorious.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I just…” I bite the inside of my cheek. “Talking about shit like this makes me uncomfortable. I’m bitchy when I’m uncomfortable. We’re just—we’re friends.”

Friends who may have or may not have fooled around. Friends who are in a fake marriage. It’s a weird friendship, but that’s all it is. That’s all it can ever be.

“Sure you are. That why he just showed up?”

I turn from her smirking face, ready to ask what she means, when I catch a glimpse of Silas’s towering frame stalking through the front door. “Why is he here?”

He’s still wearing his suit from work, the costly material stretching over his shoulders, tapered to fit his waist. He looks expensive, important even, and I’m unsure how people manage to believe he married me.

Which makes me remember we have an event with his company coming up. Meaning I’ll need to figure out a way to convince people I’m someone Silas wants. Someone deserving of his last name.

Fuck me.

“Because he cares.” Sage leans toward me, whispering, “No one cares like Silas Hawthorne. We all have a curse, Coraline. That’s his.”

Sage moves away from me, leaving me to fend for myself as I silently pray he doesn’t find me, but it’s impossible. It’s like he has some kind of radar for me.

I decide to meet him halfway since his eyes have already found mine, and once we are close enough to one another, he’s the first to speak.

“This place looks great.”

“The girls were a big help. Thank you for calling them. You didn’t have to come though. Work must be busy.”

I shift beneath his hard gaze, unwavering from my face like he doesn’t want to look anywhere else but me. The attention from someone so intense is overwhelming.

“This—” He motions to the space around us. “—Light, helping these girls, it’s important to you, yeah?”

I nod quietly, unsure how to answer with words, so afraid to show anyone, especially him, how much I care.