Page 30 of Fake It Till We Fall
“I’ve never seen you like that before. Or since,” he continued. “She broke your heart, Gray. I won’t let it?—”
“It wasn’t her.” I spun around, cutting him off. “She didn’t breakmyheart, Reid. I did that all on my own.”
“You and I both know that’s bullshit.” Reid took a step toward me.
I opened my mouth to protest, but what was the point in arguing with him? There was no one more protective of me than my twin brother, and I knew his heart was in the right place. I also knew he’d never understand how I felt about Harper back then. Or now.
They weren’t feelings that could be shut off.
“I don’t want you to get hurt again, Gray. I’m just trying to?—”
“Drop it, Reid.” I held up a hand. “Because it’s not real this time. You know that. It’s all for Willa.” The lie hung heavy between us. “Like I said, it’s just for the holiday,” I muttered with a shake of my head and turned away before he could call me out on it.
“Right,” he said easily, like he didn’t believe a word of it.
I know he didn’t.
“I mean it, Reid.” My voice came out sharper than I meant it to. “Harper and I…it’s not like that anymore.”
I picked up the clipboard again and walked past him, but he turned to follow me.
“Because you don’t want it to be? Or because you’re scared it could be?”
Something in my chest twisted, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. “I don’t have time for this, Reid.”
“But you have plenty of time to dance with Harper in the middle of the plaza?”
That did it. I slammed the clipboard down on the workbench, the sound echoing through the warehouse. “I told you to drop it.”
My brother didn’t flinch. “You’re still in love with her.”
“Get out.”
“Gray, I’m?—”
“Reid.” I leveled him with a look that could have splintered wood. “I don’t have time to deal with this right now. Ollie’s coming in for a meeting any minute, and I need to be ready. Grab your order and go.”
For once, he didn’t argue. He studied me for a long second. I could see there was more he wanted to say. Finally, he shrugged. “Fine. Lie to me all you want, brother. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re lying to yourself.”
With that, he scratched his signature on the paperwork, hoisted the boards onto his shoulder, and walked out the back.
Everything he’d said, and everything he hadn’t, hung in the quiet after he left.
The worst part was…he hadn’t been wrong.
Harper
The smellof garlic and simmering tomato sauce filled the air, a sure sign that Kevin was settling into his new role. In the days since he’d started, I already felt a lot of the pressure ease off, and I know Grandma did too. In fact, I hadn’t seen her in the kitchen since right after I’d arrived.
Which was a good thing. She needed the time to rest and recover from whatever it was that was ailing her. I’d reached out twice to her doctor, but he cited privacy concerns for the reason he couldn’t tell me anything about her condition. Not that I’d really expected him to. But despite my persistence, Grandma insisted she didn’t want to burden me with things I couldn’t change.
I wouldn’t push it for the time being. But if she didn’t tell me what was going on soon, I was going to have to press the issue.
With a sigh, I looked back at my laptop, where I’d been going through the numbers.
“I thought lunch services stopped a few years back?” I asked Erin, who sat at a nearby table, wrapping cutlery rolls.
“It did,” she confirmed with a small shrug. “They were too hard to staff, and it took too much out of Willa to do a full day. She insisted on hanging on to the weekend breakfasts for a while, too.”
