“My grandma made sure I knew how to, just in case I went to any dances and so I could impress girls. Is it working?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“It is working.” I grinned. We barely started to move when the song ended and another one started. I recognized the song and let Gage lead in the slow dance.
As we danced, I laid my head on his shoulder and swayed from side to side. Everyone else in the room seemed to fade, and it was just us. Being in Gage’s arms right now, I never felt more complete.
When I was a little girl, I used to dream of meeting the perfect man who would be my prince charming. He would make me feel loved and cared for, and he would treat me like a princess. As I grew up, I realized that fairytales aren’t real. Someone will always disappoint you and life will get in the way. Somehow things just don’t end up the way you want them to.
But right then I almost believed that fairytales could happen, or something close to it. Maybe I did find my prince and things would work out the way I wanted them to. I hoped so. I had never felt something so right and real.
The song kept playing as we slowly danced with each other. His hard body was pressed against mine, making me not want to ever move. I wanted to stay right here.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed on the dance floor. The song ended and another played. This happened a few times before we finally noticed it was a fast song playing and people were trying to move around us.
Laughing with each other, we moved off the dance floor to find my brother and Macey. I had yet to see Ethan, and that actually made me worry. I hadn’t seen Amy either.
As we headed to find the two of them, we did get stopped a few times from people asking me how I’d been, who Gage was, congratulating me on the speech, asking how school was going, are my parents missing me, etc. I answered politely, but I silently was wishing no one else would stop to talk to me.
My parents did make it a thing where we should know who comes to the party so we could make conversation and not look like idiots. So I did know who most of them were, and was able to ask questions about their life and business to be nice, but instead I was wishing we didn’t get stopped.
After talking to a handful of people, we finally made it to where Luke and Macey were. They were talking to a couple as well and when we came into view, I noticed the relieved looks on their faces. Excusing themselves, they came over to us.
“Where have you guys been?” Mace asked.
“Dancing and telling Celeste off.” I wanted to tell Macey all about it since she knew exactly how she was.
“Wait, what?” She looked between Gage and me.
“Celeste showed up and kept trying to hit on Gage. I couldn’t help it, so I may have told her off and threatened her a bit.” I felt a little guilty for how I acted. I was more of a peacemaker and didn’t like confrontation, but it did feel nice saying something after so many years.
“Yes! That bitch had it coming. Finally, someone put her in her place.” Macey grinned widely. I hadn’t seen her so giddy in a while.
“Celeste, as in Celeste Mathers?” Luke asked.
“Yeah.”
“You do know her father is pretty well known around here.”
“Who cares? She is a bitch and a slut, and she has always given Car and I crap. She had it coming,” Macey said, shrugging. Luke didn’t say anything, but he shrugged. He probably had no idea what she had done in the past, but he knew better than to argue with his girlfriend.
“My girl was pretty feisty,” Gage commented, smiling down at me.
“Like a chipmunk,” Luke said, laughing.
“Why does everyone say that?” I threw my hands in the air.
“Because, Car, you are the least scary person ever. You say something mean and a minute later you are apologizing and taking it back. It is okay to be rude sometimes.”
“I don’t do that.” He sent me a knowing look. “Okay, fine, I do, but I was somewhat scary because Celeste’s face was priceless.”
“Proud of you,” Mace said. I smiled back at her.
“Hey, have the two of you seen Ethan by chance?” Luke asked, changing the subject.
“I was actually going to ask you the same thing. I haven’t seen him since we got here.” I looked around, hoping he would just pop up.
“Maybe he is just busy or something.”
“Have you seen Amy? Maybe they are together?”
“Amy texted me and said she couldn’t come. Something about family issues,” Macey said. “I hope everything’s okay.”
“Ethan will show up, he always does,” I said. Luke looked over everyone, trying to find his best friend.
“This party is so much better than last year’s,” Macey said. I had to agree, actually. The both of us had hot dates, I finally told Celeste off, I didn’t make a fool out of myself with my speech, and I noticed people were donating to the community center. If this party was always like this, I wouldn’t mind coming.
“I am going to hurry and use the restroom. I will be right back,” I said, turning to Gage. “Stay here with these two so you have someone to talk to. I’ll be only a minute.” Planting a kiss on his cheek and sending Macey a keep-an-eye-on-him look, I quickly left the group to go to the bathroom. I didn’t want to leave Gage for long. Who knew if Celeste would come back or what someone would do? With these people you never know.
Glancing over my shoulder, I smiled seeing my brother and best friend talking to Gage and keeping him company. I moved past people trying to get to the bathroom. When I finally reached the bathroom, I wasted no time in hurrying inside.
After doing my business I went to wash my hands. I saw my reflection, making me pause. My blue eyes were sparkling, my cheeks were flushed with a healthy glow, and I had a permanent smile on my face. I hadn’t been this happy in my life.
Fixing my hair and lipstick, I ran my hands down my dress before shooting myself a smile. I walked out the door and started for the ballroom to get back to everyone. Right as I was heading past a set of doors, a pair of arms grabbed me. One wrapped around my waist, the other around my mouth.
I was so surprised I didn’t even make a sound as I was dragged backwards into the room with this unknown person. The minute the doors shut, common sense finally kicked in. I flailed around in the person’s arms and started to scream around the hand across my mouth. I kicked backwards and was rewarded with a yell and a curse. The arms let go of me and I whirled around, my arms up, ready to punch. Everything I learned from Gage was coming up, and I was ready to use it on this creep.
“Damn, Carter! Did you have to do that?” A familiar voice cursed. I recognized the voice and put my hands down.
“Ethan?” It was then I noticed I recognized him in the dim light. He was holding onto his leg and had his face scrunched up in a grimace.
“What the hell, Ethan?” I yelled. I slapped his arm over and over. “Why did you do that? You scared the shit out of me. I was about to go all Rocky on you!” I punched his arm with every word.
“Okay! Okay, enough! That hurts!” He grabbed my hands and stopped me from hitting him again.
“Why did you do that?” I glared at him. “And where have you been? Everyone has been looking for you!”
“I needed to talk to you. And I was busy with something.”
“You literally couldn’t come tell me like a normal person?” I huffed.
“I wanted to talk to you without anyone around. I tried earlier, but then Harper showed up.”
“Can’t we talk about this later? Gage is out there waiting for me.”
“No, it can’t wait, Car. This is important.” The way he said it made me pause. He actually sounded desperate and scared. Two things that never came from Ethan Galloway.
“Is everything okay?” I took a step toward him, getting concerned now. I noticed earlier how weird he was acting. “Did something happen between Amy and you?”
“No, we are fine. What I am about to tell you is…insane, so listen to me before you inter
rupt me, okay?” His blue-green eyes searched mine, pleading with me to listen to him before I overreacted. The way he was talking was actually scaring me. He never sounded so serious before. I fully looked at him and found his hair was everywhere, like he was tugging on it recently, and his hands were shaking a little.
“Okay, I promise,” I said. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn’t think that would be wise right now.
“Okay…I—” He started and stopped. He took a deep breath before continuing. “I have looked into this a lot, Carter. I even paid someone to go deeper into this and make sure it is real before I told you. I wanted this to be wrong, but it isn’t and I can’t wrap my head around it.” He rambled on. “At first, I thought it was some sick joke, but it isn’t. I wanted to confront him and ask him myself, but he is never around, you know?”
“Ethan, what is it?” I placed a hand on his arm to bring him back to the main point of all this. He looked right at me and said in a firm voice, “Gage is my brother, Carter.” I heard the words, I did. They sat on my tongue for a minute before they sunk in. I stared at him trying to see if he was joking. I thought for a minute Ashton Kutcher would pop out and say, “You just got punked!” but nothing happened. Ethan’s face was grim and he looked nervous. He was staring right back at me, waiting for my reaction.
“Ethan, if this is some sick joke to play on me and Gage, I swear to you!”
“It isn’t, Carter! I swear! You think I would make this up? You think I want to believe that Gage Harper is my half-sibling? That my father cheated on my mother when I was born?” His eyes were wide and they looked glossy. Seeing his face, I knew he wasn’t kidding.
“Oh God!” I breathed out. This couldn’t be true. Gage is Ethan’s half-brother? It did make sense, though, with Gage’s story. His father was never around and when he was, it was only briefly, and he left, which caused his mom to overdose.
“I always knew he looked familiar. Like I had seen him before, but I couldn’t place it,” Ethan mumbled.
“Are you sure? Like really sure?” I asked, still not really believing it. How could Mr. Galloway cheat on Ethan’s mother? Sure, I didn’t like him, but I didn’t think he was that cold-hearted. He had another child for God’s sake!
“I am fucking sure, Carter. I went into my father’s office and found everything. Money sent to some woman named Jocelyn Harper. There were even files with call logs to some number, and when I hired an investigator, he said it was that woman’s number. I even found a letter that she sent to him with a picture of a baby, and on the bottom it said Gage Harper.”
I placed a hand over my mouth as I heard the information. It was true. I just couldn’t believe it. All this time they have been brothers and neither knew.
“How did this happen, Carter? I thought…I just don’t know.” Ethan’s voice was low, and he clenched his hands into fists. “I want to call my father and demand to know why he did this. Why he cheated on my mother and had another kid without any of us knowing. I never knew my father would do this.”
“None of us did, Ethan. We all know your dad is a dick, no offense, but not this much of one. Do you think your mom knows?” I moved closer to him.
“I don’t think she does. God, what am I going to tell her?” He sounded so broken and sad. I couldn’t imagine how Gage was going to react when he found out about this. He hated Ethan, and he hated his father for abandoning and causing his mother to spiral.
“Ethan, I am so sorry. I…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say. This was not how I thought tonight would end up. All this information was making my head pound. Something occurred to me. “How long have you known about this?”
“About a week or so. I got impatient when the investigator wasn’t turning up any information on Gage’s mother, so I did my own digging and found this all out.” A whole week holding this in. That could not have been easy or fun.
“Oh, Ethan.” I could not stop myself from grabbing him and pulling him into a tight hug. His arms came around me and pulled me tight into his chest. I could feel his body starting to shake.
This wasn’t right. Ethan and Gage shouldn’t have to deal with this; this shouldn’t have happened. It was all Mr. Galloway’s fault. I didn’t know how we were going to bring this up to Gage.
Wait? Why did I say “we”? This wasn’t my thing to tell; it was Ethan’s. But we could not tell him today. The night was going great already, and I did not want to ruin that. He was having a good time! Of course this had to happen tonight. Things were going just too well, apparently. This would break his heart and he did not need that, especially not this close to Christmas.
Pulling away, I looked up at Ethan.
“We cannot tell Gage about this, okay? Just not yet. You need to come to terms with this first, and be calm when you tell him. It won’t go well if you are too emotional about it all.”
“Are you sure? Shouldn’t we tell him?” As much as I wanted to, we wouldn’t, not tonight. Telling him right now would just make this all worse. He did not need that right now.
“Not yet. We will later. I will even be there as well.” I was firm on my decision. I just hoped it was the right choice.
“Don’t tell me what?”
Chapter Five
I froze hearing Gage’s voice behind me. I was still wrapped in Ethan’s arms. I stared up at him with wide eyes not knowing what to do. Gage wasn’t supposed to be here right now. Untangling myself from Ethan’s arms, I turned around to face Gage.
He was standing there with a hard look, but I could see confusion all over his face. I knew his mind was racing with ideas about what was going on. Nothing was happening between Ethan and I, but Gage didn’t know that. He just walked in to see me wrapped in Ethan’s arms and saying not to tell him anything.
I opened and closed my mouth like a fish. I had absolutely no clue what to say. Do I tell him about him being Ethan’s half-brother? Do I not say anything? If I don’t, will Gage hate me? I do not want to fight with him, especially about this. But I wasn’t sure if it was my place to say anything. I just did not want to see Gage hurt.
“What is going on here?” Gage asked, his tone deep and dark. I watched him clench his jaw as his eyes narrowed at the two of us. I glanced up at Ethan, who was just staring at Gage like he had never seen him before.
“I, uh…” I stuttered out. I felt like I was at war with myself. Tell him or don’t tell him. Either way, he will get hurt. He will think something happened between Ethan and me. Or he will learn the truth about his father.
“I have to talk to you,” Ethan finally said.
“Listen here, Galloway. I know Carter has been in love you since forever, but she is mine. You lost your chance to have her.” Gage growled. If it was possible, my eyes went even wider. Ethan was never supposed to know about my feelings toward him.
“What?” Ethan asked. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t glance at him. I kept my gaze on Gage.
“Gage, nothing happened. Trust me. Nothing.” I found myself going toward him. He looked at me like he didn’t believe me, but I had to get him to. He could not think I would cheat on him. For now I would push aside the fact that Ethan knew of my old crush, and just focus on the only person that matters to me.
“Gage, you have to believe me.” I came to a stop in front of him. I kept a little distance between us because I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to touch him just yet.
“What were you two doing then?” He looked between Ethan and me. I could tell he was still mad and confused.
“Uh…” I tried to think of a way to say it.
“I found something out about the two of us,” Ethan said instead.
“What do you mean? There is nothing to look into about us. I hate you.”
“Harper, just fucking listen to me, okay?” Ethan snapped. I chewed on my bottom lip as I moved to Gage’s side. He was going to need my support.
“What is it?” Gage was getting impatient.
“We are…we are h
alf-brothers,” Ethan finally spit out. Instantly Gage laughed.
“Good one, Galloway.”
“I am serious, Gage. I have looked into this and I know what I am talking about.”
“He is telling the truth, Gage.” I said quietly. I grabbed his hand, only for him to yank it out of my reach. I tried not to take it to heart right now, but it hurt.
“You are both joking.”
“I am not. I found out that my father was cheating on my mother with yours.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about.” Gage huffed.
“Yes, I do. I hired someone to look into it, and I found your mother’s number and a letter with your picture.” Gage stood there not saying anything as Ethan spoke. I could see the gears in his head working overtime, trying to make sense of all of this.
“I didn’t want this to be true, Gage, but it is. You are my half-brother, as much as we despise one another.” Gage turned to me, looking into my eyes.
“And why were you in here? Alone with him?” he asked.
“I was walking out of the bathroom and he grabbed me.” At that Gage’s eyes snapped toward Ethan. “He ended up telling me what was going on after I asked multiple times.”
I decided on telling Gage the truth. It was better than lying to him, and I did not want him mad at me. I wanted to be there for him through this because I knew none of this was going to be easy. Finding out someone is your half-brother is a lot to take in.
“And you weren’t going to tell me this, why?” His hurt tone made me swallow.
“I didn’t want this to ruin the night. We were having such a good time, and I thought if you found out, the night would be over,” I admitted, staring down at the ground. When he didn’t say anything, I glanced up at him. He was looking at Ethan. I stood there watching as they stared at one another, I guess trying to find similarities.
Silent Love Part Four_Forbidden Series Page 7
