Page 30 of The Temptation of Truth

“Be honest. Have I made you uncomfortable?”

My head jerks upward, my eyes colliding with Mabel’s. From what I’ve learned about Mabel in the last few days, I shouldn’t be surprised to see concern there, but I am. I bounce my attention to the hotel door behind her. We’re at Sav’s suite. Family breakfast. I take a deep breath, force a smile, and look back at Mabel.

“No, you haven’t.”

It’s not a lie. She’s made me feel a lot of confusing things in a short period of time, but none of them has been discomfort.

“Are you sure? Because it wasn’t my intention. I was just teasing.”

Teasing.

Justteasing.

Not flirting with me. Not making fun of me, either, but...

I resist the urge to frown, but I picture myself stomping on the embers of disappointment I feel glowing in the pit of my stomach.

“I’m sure,” I say, my voice tight as I nod multiple times. “I’m not at all uncomfortable.”

Mabel scans my face, the lines between her eyebrows deepening for a moment before she finally returns my nod.

“Okay.” She gestures to Sav’s suite door. “Sustenance awaits.”

It takes a good ten minutes to settle back into my thoughts before I’m able to enjoy, as Mabel called it,family breakfast. I try my hardest to keep my eyes off her despite the strong force trying desperately to pull them in her direction.

I try but I fail.

I was just teasing,she’d said. Not flirting.

It shouldn’t feel like a letdown. It shouldn’t make my brows slant and my shoulders droop as if I’d been filled with the weirdest, most confusing kind of hope, only to have it popped in an instant.

I’m married. I have a husband. And moreover, I’m not even into women.

What happened with Mabel...

It was teasing. Playfulness between friends. Completely and totally normal. I’m just not used to it because it’s been so long since I’ve had a friend outside of Brady.

Of course Mabel wouldn’tactuallybe flirting with me. I’m definitely not her type, and I wouldn’t even know what it felt like to be flirted with, anyway.

Of course I am not disappointed.

Because I feel absolutely no attraction, whatsoever, to Mabel Rossi.

7

MABEL

“How’s Bossgetting along with Aurora?”

Sav shrugs as we step onto the stage for sound check.

“I think she likes her. It’s just the subject matter that she hates.” She pauses to take her guitar from a roadie with a thank you. “They’ve decided to meet once a day for an hour and then plan additional help as needed. They had their first real tutoring session this afternoon, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to either of them about it.”

I fold my arms across my chest and watch as she hooks the receiver for her in-ear monitor on the band of her jeans, then checks the tuning on her guitar. We’ve been doing this for over a decade, so everything is like muscle memory at this point.

While I’m waiting for my own in-ear monitor, I pull my phone from my pocket and check my texts, but the messages I sent Kat last night are still unread. She’s posted to her social media stories, so I know she’s probably seen my texts despite the time difference, and her lack of response has my chest growing tight with anxiety. I pull up a browser and refresh my earlier page of search results, but no new photos pop up on the screen.I try not to acknowledge the small bit of relief at not seeing any new Kaz photos.

“Have you talked to Kat?”