Page 186 of Push

56

She Hunted for Answers

Gwen

Bad news was coming.

Suspicion narrowed my eyes when Toby shouldered his way through the door. Noah came next, propped on Toby’s hip, wearing a matching smile and—what the hell?—matching white T-shirts, black jeans, and white Chucks.

“Um, Tobes?”

“Hey, doll!” He struck a pose just inside the doorway. “Check out our new fit!”

After modeling their new clothes, all while my eyebrow crept higher and higher, Toby stooped to kiss me.

With one of his eyes cracked open, he upped his kissing efforts until we were locked in a full-on make-out session—minus his usual ass-grabbing. His hands were too full, cradling a baby, a bunch of daisies, takeout from my favorite Chinese place, and a bag from the ice cream shop. If Toby’s news was so badhe needed a tub of cookie dough ice creamthatbig, he was optimistic about the two spoons in the bag.

“That didn’t distract me,” I said. The fact I was almost breathless didn’t matter one bit.

“Oh, come on, that was an amazing kiss!” Toby shimmied Noah off his hip. “Chonk incoming!”

Laughing, I caught Noah, and he buried his face against my boob, his tiny fingers digging into my shirt like he never wanted to let go. I kissed the top of his fuzzy head and snuck a peek at Toby as he dumped the pile of goodies on the kitchenette’s black countertop.

“Sooo,” I sang. “What’s going on?”

“Uh, nothing.” Toby’s eyes darted everywhere. “Why would you, uh… you know… think something’s going on?”

Why indeed?“You’re a terrible liar, Tobes. Out with it. Where have you been?”

“Youdon’twant to know.” My frown made him grimace. “Right. Okay. Of course you want to know.” He gulped in a big breath. “I went to talk to Liam…at…um, you know… The Red Room.”

His face was so stricken that I covered my mouth to stop the laughter bubbling out. He was too cute. “Poor Tobes.” I patted his arm. “See anything interesting?”

“I most certainly did not, my lady. I saw a scratched wooden floor, my shoes, and your brother’s dumb face. Wait—did you?”

I shrugged. “It’s pretty hard not to.”

“You didn’t think to use a menu as a shield?” Toby’s chest puffed up. “Who’s the smart one now?”

This time, I didn’t bother holding back my laughter. “You win this round, Sir Knight. Why did you go see Liam?” I hiked Noah higher on my hip as I tugged open the drawer to rummage around for a fork. “Are you still pissed at him about the bodyguard thing?”

“Uh, well…”

“Is this a conversation to park until after dinner?”

Toby let out a massive sigh of relief. “Could we?” He slumped against the counter. “Honestly, I’m still processing a whole bunch of stuff Liam told me… And stuff I already knew… And Noah’s kinda crabby. We’ve both got a serious case of the hangries, doll.”

“Hey.” I reached out to touch Toby’s arm. “You won’t keep anything from me, right?”

“Nope. I’m spilling my guts.”

“Then it can wait.” I arched up on my tiptoes to peck Toby’s cheek. “But I’ll decide if you deserve a spoon for the ice cream once you get talking.”

“Gwen…say something…”

The hotel room was dark except for the flicker of the TV. I’d been staring at the same pillow in my lap for—shit—at least ten minutes since Toby had finished recounting a story that sounded like one of his bedtime adventures. Only this story started fifteen years ago when Liam and Elias had crafted a plan to forge a fake scholarship, and it ended with Liam thinking he had the right to decide our family’s future.

“Gwen?”

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