Page 91 of Falling Into Forever
“What the hell is happening?” I whisper.
“Life, sweetheart. Messy, happy life.”
CHAPTER25
DANTE
“Don’t be mad at her,” Grady says.
The girls went inside to clean up. Grady and I rinsed off in the lake, and I stayed with him while we waited for his brother to bring him a change of clothes.
I tuck my right arm in closer to my side, then turn my head toward him. He’s also sitting, hugging his left arm into his body, and I laugh.
“Why are Saylor’s chairs all kid-sized?”
Grady gives me the side-eye, and a hint of a smile ghosts over his face. But at least his shoulders relax. We’re sitting in Adirondack chairs, but they’re tiny and squished together so they fit at the end of the dock. We’re so big that, even if we put our arms on our own armrests, our elbows fight for space like we’re sitting in the middle row of an airplane.
Why are we cramming ourselves into opposite sides to avoid touching?
We seriously have issues. Laughter releases the rest of the tension in my shoulders, and I’m pleased when Grady shakes his head and grins.
He relaxes, too, but our elbows still fight for dominance in armchair realty.
Finally, we settle, and our elbows rest somewhere in the middle.
“I mean it,” he says, staring over the lake. “This probably doesn’t look great for her professionally, but this was the most Sassy-like thing I’ve seen her do since high school when you guys filled The Common’s sprinkler system with Dawn.”
I open my mouth to refute it because we agreed to take that secret to the grave, but he holds up a hand to stop me. “Don’t even try to deny it. Harrison charged all the soap to Dad’s account at Chancey’s Market.”
I cringe. “Dammit, Harrison,” I say, but I’m smiling. “He never was one to think things through.”
Grady chuckles. “No, he’s not. But Sass…”
“I get it.” Dragging a hand through my hair, I release years’ worth of loneliness with a long exhale. “I’m not upset with her.” Not really, anyway. “But I need to spin this so it doesn’t feed into the narrative that Malimar is spewing about her.”
“Why not tell the truth?”
If only it were that easy. “And what truth is that, all-knowing one?”
“Don’t be a smartass,” he grumbles. “She already told them it was game time. So, tell them it was family game time. That’s what you want to show the world, right, that you’re a stable, happy family?”
“Why, Grady Reid, are you calling me family?” I lift my fist to my chest and flutter my eyelashes at him.
“You’re a dick. But you know as well as I do that blood isn’t the only way to make a family. Sass is family to me.” He glares, daring me to contradict him. I don’t because I think he’s right. “That means if you’re her family, then I guess you’re mine too.”
“I love your enthusiasm.”
His head falls back against the wooden chair with a thud. “What the hell am I getting myself into?” he mutters.
My phone goes off with a series of alarms, and I lift it from the chair. The first is a text from Kate.
Kate: What the fucking fuck is this?
Kate: Picture sent.
It’s a paparazzi shot from family game time.
Me: Game night.
