Page 65 of These White Lies

I slump onto the bed, picking at a stray thread in the comforter while I try to convince myself to be sensible. A knock on the door startles me out of my thoughts. Crossing the room on bare feet, I open the door to find Brady on the other side.

His hair is damp and curling slightly at the ends, clearly straight from a shower of his own. Dressed in gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt, that clings to his chest and shoulders like a second skin, he looks like my own personal form of punishment. My body thrums with a want I can’t seem to smother.

“The pizza’s getting cold,” he says simply.

I sit on the sofa, while Brady carries his slice several feet away and leans against the kitchen counter. We eat in silence, but I can almost hear the tension crackling in the air.

My stomach knots for reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. I catch myself stealing quick looks at him, trying to guess what’s going through his head and whether he notices the heat creeping up my neck. He, on the other hand, seems perfectly composed, as if nothing between us has shifted at all, leaving me feeling foolish for still being caught up in it. Finally, I can’t take the quiet anymore.

“Brady…” I set down my crust. “What about my family?”

He pauses mid-chew, swallows, then wipes his fingers on a napkin. “What about them?”

“Should I… warn them? Call them? Tell them what’s happening?”

He leans back slightly. “No.”

“No?” My brows draw together.

He shrugs. “It’s unlikely they’re targets. You aren’t close to them, right? You haven’t been back to Blue Ridge since the Thanksgiving holidays.”

A cold jolt runs through me. “Do I want to know how you know that?”

“Probably not.” He says it so casually it makes my skin prickle.

It’s an odd feeling to know that Brady knows so much more about me than I know about him. It feels unfair, and I don’t like that it makes me feel I’m at a disadvantage.

“I was invited on a ski trip at Christmas.” I’m not sure why I feel the need to explain myself to him. “With clients. It was important for me to go.”

“Okay.” His tone is mild, but I bristle.

“My brother and sister were there. Between them and their kids, it’s chaos. I doubt anyone noticed I wasn’t there.”

He arches a brow.

“It’s… my family is complicated.”

Brady steps forward to take another piece of the pizza, folding it in half to eat, his eyes fixed on me.

“There was no major falling out or anything.” The words spill before I can stop them. “I’m busy. When I left for college, I had to focus on my goals. It was hard to get back during every college break with internships and everything, and then I was working. Frankly, we don’t have much in common anymore.”

“They’re your family.”

“I know, and I love them. It’s just… I don’t have a lot of time off.” Brady grunts. “It’s not one-sided, you know.” I know I sound defensive, and I am. “They could come to Atlanta to visit me.”

“True. Why don’t they?”

“They don’t like Atlanta.” It slips out before the thought fully forms.

Brady looks skeptical.

I blow out a long breath. “Look, my parents were thrilled when I was top of my class in high school and, as the oldest, always picked up the slack with my younger siblings while they worked. I don’t blame them,” I hurry to add. “Running a small business is hard. I know that, and they provided a wonderful childhood for us. I’ve always been driven. Once I started dating Keith and eventually married him, we created a life in Atlanta that was different from the one my family led. They told me the traffic was too stressful, and it would be easier if I went north to see everyone at once.”

“So, you come by your stubbornness genetically?” He quirks an eyebrow.

I offer him a half-hearted smile. “Pretty much. To be fair, it makes more sense for me to go to them, but I just don’t have time.”

It’s a lie. I stay away because I feel like an alien when I’m there, and I can barely look at my sister and not think about what I took from her.