“It is kidnapping when I am suddenly grabbed from Macey’s car and thrown over a shoulder! How was I supposed to know I wasn’t going to get killed?” I threw my hands in the air.
“They are just two guys from the gym here that I got to help me out.”
“But I didn’t know that! For all I knew I was being led to my death and would never see my family again.” I could tell Gage was trying hard not to roll his eyes at me.
“Carter. I brought you here so I could apologize—” Once more I interrupted him.
“You literally lured me down here to apologize?” I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him.
“Yeah. I thought it would maybe be romantic.” He rubbed the back of his neck and actually looked embarrassed.
“Romantic? You think throwing a girl over the shoulder of some Shrek dude, and bringing her down here to say you are sorry, is romantic? Man, you need to read the dictionary on what that word means!” While I was angry, a part of me was touched that he put some thought into this. Definitely not how I thought this day would go.
“Carter, will you listen to me?” He reached out for me, but I took another step back.
“No, Gage. A week! A whole week of nothing from you. No texts, no calls, nothing. I even went to your grandmother’s house to make sure you were okay and not rotting in a ditch somewhere. You couldn’t have texted me letting me know you were okay at least? I was beside myself thinking something happened to you after you left the Christmas party! For all I knew you were in an accident or something.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t—
“I’m not finished yet!” I put my hand in the air and stopped him. “I get that you needed time, but you didn’t even have the courtesy to text me or anything! I didn’t do anything wrong. I found out about the news the same time you did, so it wasn’t like I knew a whole week and never told you. All I wanted was for you to be okay and have a good night instead of getting things get ruined. But I get yelled at and accused of things instead!
“Gage, I love you! I wouldn’t hurt you, but you can’t seem to see that. You can’t see that I am here for you and that I am not going anywhere. Why can’t you see I don’t like Ethan anymore? Why can’t you trust me to only be in love with you?” I yelled.
“Because, Gage, I am not like that. I am not like those girls you have slept with who don’t care about you and sleep with every other guy on the side. When I love someone, I—”
This time I was interrupted. A pair of lips pressed against mine and stole the words that were coming out. I stood there frozen for a second as Gage’s lips moved against mine. It only took a second before I was kissing him back.
My hands came up and gripped his t-shirt in my fists, and I pushed myself harder against him. The kiss turned rough as we both fought for control. I wanted him to feel how hurt I was that he didn’t talk to me for a week. I wanted him to feel what I was feeling at the moment.
After what felt like an eternity, we pulled apart. I opened my eyes and looked up at him, panting. Both of us were breathing heavy and just staring at one another.
“Carter, I am an idiot. No, I am a fucking moron. I shouldn’t have said those things and I shouldn’t have walked away. But that is what I do—when things get bad, I run. I was just so surprised and shocked at what was coming out of Galloway’s mouth I didn’t know what to do,” Gage started to say.
“I needed time to think, to wrap my head around the fact that I now have a half-brother and that my father is actually alive. For so long I imagined he died and that is why he stopped coming around. It wasn’t until Ethan came around did I realize what I did.”
“Wait. Ethan came to see you?” I pulled back a bit to see his face better. That was shocking.
“Yeah. He came by and we…talked.” For some reason I didn’t believe talking was involved, not when Ethan was sporting a new bruised cheek lately. He said he got hit from a lamp as he was moving his room around; which of course no one believed.
“He made me see this isn’t so bad. It won’t be that terrible having him as a half-brother. And more importantly,” he gazed into my eyes, “he made me realize I hurt you and that I needed to make it up to you.” He sent me a smile.
“I guess getting Reggie and Mark to help out wasn’t exactly a good idea, but in my defense, Macey said it would work and it did.” I shook my head at that. Of course Macey was involved. I knew she was a part of something the moment we pulled up here.
“What I am trying to say, Princess, is that, I love you and that I am an idiot. I will always be an idiot, but I hope you are willing to stay by my side when I am. Because I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
All my resolve in being mad at him disappeared at his words. At least I was able to yell at him for a minute. Of course I forgave him; it was hard not to when he was saying such wonderful things to me.
His arms were wrapped around my waist and my own still gripped his shirt as I stared at him. He was an idiot, an idiot for pushing me aside but…he was my idiot.
“Fine. I guess I will,” I said, and slowly a smile appeared on my face.
“So you forgive me?” He looked at me, hopeful.
“Yes. But…you aren’t fully off the hook. For putting me through hell for a week, you have to do as I say for a few days.”
“But I have a whole romantic thing going on right now. Doesn’t that count for anything?” He gestured around the room.
“Only a little. Take it or leave it?” He was quiet for a minute before he sighed.
“Fine.” He grunted, but I knew he didn’t really put up a fight. “Only for you.” His head came back down and his lips grazed mine. Smiling, I used his shirt to pull him down and pressed my lips harder against his, fully kissing him once more.
When we pulled away a few minutes later, the two of us were grinning like fools at one another. He unwrapped his arms from around me, only to grab my hand.
“Now…welcome to the date where I beg for your forgiveness.” He swept his free hand toward the table set up. He led me over to it, and I noticed there were plates underneath the table and there was in fact a bouquet of lilies sitting there. Two seats were set across from one another, and it actually looked really thought out. I knew Gage didn’t do this all on his own, though; Macey definitely had a hand in it.
“Part one is a nice meal.”
“Part one? You mean there is more?”
“Of course! I have a lot of making up to do, so there has to be more than just food. Although knowing you, food would have been enough.” He chuckled, letting go of my hand and moving to pull the chair out for me. Raising an eyebrow at his gentleman act, I slid into the chair.
“Did you make the food?” I asked, wanting to peek under the cover that was placed over the food, like at a fancy restaurant or something.
“Of course.” I looked at him for a second before I lifted up the lid. I couldn’t help but laugh at what I saw. Sitting on a plate was…pancakes. In different shapes. It looked like he tried to make shapes out of them, but they ended up looking like blobs. A few looked a little burnt, but a big difference compared to a few weeks ago when he and Dylan helped me make some.
I glanced up and saw Gage staring at me waiting for my reaction. In the candlelight his eyes were sparkling.
“They look amazing.” I smiled.
“I know they aren’t exactly pretty, but I’ve been working on it. I may or may not have went through a whole box of mix in the last few days.” If it weren’t so dark in here, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that his cheeks were pink.
“So, you had this all planned for a while, then,” I commented.
“Kind of. It took me a few days to figure out what to do and how to do it,” Gage admitted. I smiled, feeling my heart swell. It was very sweet how much thought he put into this.
“Well this is a good step toward me forgiving you.” I reached for the syrup that he put on the table, ready to dive into my pancakes. I was starving, and even though they looked weird, the pa
ncakes smelled good.
Gage leaned forward as I went to take my first bite, as if he were afraid I wouldn’t like them. Even if it wasn’t going to, I would lie and say they were great. Eating a piece, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. It didn’t taste of any ingredients that shouldn’t be in there.
“Taste good?” he asked impatiently. Swallowing I nodded.
“They taste really good. Like really good.”
“Good.” He seemed relieved and poured syrup on his own.
Watching him eat, I couldn’t help but be happy. And to think only ten minutes ago I was screaming at him for having those two guys kidnap me. I wasn’t going to let him off the hook so easily, but this was a start.
Chapter Eight
“Why did I agree with this?”
“Because you are an idiot.”
“Thanks for reminding me, Luke,” Gage muttered.
“Stop whining. I am almost done,” I scolded. I grabbed his wrist so he would stop moving his hand. He was messing up my paint job.
“Dude, you really shouldn’t have agreed to this. I know my sister, and she will make sure you regret accepting doing whatever she wants,” Luke commented once more. He was leaning against my desk with his arms crossed over his chest, watching us. He couldn’t help but make comments every now and then.
“I’m realizing that.”
I grinned as I finished up what I was doing. Because Gage said he would do whatever I wanted to get back on my good side, I was kicking off one of his many punishments. Painting his nails. He said he didn’t like it, but I bet he secretly did. I was even trying my best to paint his nails perfectly.
I was nice enough to let him pick out a color, which of course ended up being black. I didn’t want his nails too plain, so I grabbed a sparkly red I had and got to work. Just to do one hand had taken me about fifteen minutes, and only because Gage kept moving and complaining. It would have taken me five minutes, but no, he had to be difficult.
“Carter, I don’t want to do this,” he said, complaining again.
“Too late. I only have one nail left to do.” I rolled my eyes at him.
“You are taking too long!”
“I wouldn’t have taken so long if you would stop moving!”
He grumbled under his breath as I finished the last design I decided to throw in at the last minute. Luke decided to talk to Gage as I finished up. I was so focused on what I was doing I didn’t even hear a word they said.
“Done!” I exclaimed and dropped the toothpick I had. “Now you can look.” I leaned back with a proud grin on my face. I decided that instead of just doing a plain black nail, I mixed it up.
All of Gage’s nails were done in black except two that I left plain. On top of the black I put a thin layer of sparkly red to make them pop a bit more. Then to make it more Gage-like, I added skulls on his ring fingers—the plain black ones. The skulls took the longest, but they looked pretty good, considering I’d drawn them by hand.
I sat there watching him look at his freshly painted nails. I held back a laugh at how weird it looked for him to have them painted, but of course he somehow made it look good.
“So, what do you think?” I asked after a minute of silence. Even Luke came over to see what I had done.
“Okay, even I have to admit they look really cool,” Luke said, staring down at Gage’s hands.
“Thought you would like a skull to make it more ‘manly’.”
“They look…pretty damn cool,” Gage finally said. He looked at me with a smile. I couldn’t tell if he were being serious or not, but it didn’t matter.
“Luke, are you next?” I asked, grinning.
“No, thank you. It may look cool, but I am not letting you take my man card, unlike Gage.”
“Fuck off.” Gage grunted.
“Luke, come on!” Right as I said that, my bedroom door opened and in walked Ethan.
“What are we trying to get Luke to do?” he asked, looking around. He noticed Gage staring at his hands, so he made his way closer. When he saw them, he laughed loudly. “You let her do your nails?”
“I didn’t want to!” Gage said defensively. I saw his cheeks were tinted pink. My grin got wider, but I held back any comment.
“I’m trying to get Luke to do it now,” I said.
“Hell no!” Luke yelled. Ethan just shook his head while laughing.
Things had gotten better between Ethan, Gage, and I. It was slightly awkward for a few days after I learned about his old crush on me, and knowing that he now knew about my own crush on him. But it seemed, after I made up with Gage, the two of us just came to the conclusion that we would never happen. Ethan was still the same annoying Ethan that I had known my whole life.
Things between Gage and Ethan were better as well. They were both trying to get along, and get to know one another more. Their hatred for one another seemed to be fading slowly, and I thought them spending time together was helping that. I caught them multiple times actually being civil to one other.
I liked seeing them get along. It made hanging out with everyone a lot easier and less stressful. Them spending time together was good for them as well. They needed to learn more about one another and come to terms with the fact that they were related. As far as I knew, Ethan hadn’t spoken to his parents yet about it all. They were supposed to come home sometime in the new year, so that was probably when he would confront them.
When my own parents found about Ethan and Gage being half- brothers, they were stunned to say the least. They weren’t necessarily friends with Ethan’s parents, just because my mom hated how they left him behind a lot growing up. My mom loved him as a son, so hearing that his dad cheated with another woman, let’s just say my mom was pissed. My dad had to talk her down from calling them and bitching them out.
After the surprise wore off, both my mom and dad were fine with it. I think everyone was surprised at it all—how out of everyone, it was Gage he was half-brothers with.
By far Luke had the best reaction. I told him on Christmas Eve, before everyone came over for dinner. He didn’t believe me at first, but after having Ethan say it, he just stood there. His jaw was slack, and he just stared at Ethan almost like he had something coming out of his eyes. His exact words were: “Fucking hell. Small world.”
Then he turned and left the room. Luke almost looked like a zombie as he walked down the hallway, muttering something under his breath. When Gage came over a bit later, Luke literally stood there staring at him. He looked Gage over as if he were inspecting him or something. Poor Gage had no clue what was going on.
He finally got over it after Macey slapped his head and whispered something in his ear. Macey of course already knew about it. She’d pulled the information out of me while I was sulking for an entire week. She knew when you were hiding something, and there was just something about her that made you spill it.
She was just as surprised by the news, but got over it quickly. She didn’t pull a Luke and stare at both Ethan and Gage, at least. However, I did have a talk with her about getting two huge guys basically kidnapping me. I wasn’t really mad at her since Gage and I made up, but I couldn’t believe it was her idea.
The last person we told, or so I thought, was Dylan. I thought Gage hadn’t told him, but it turns out he called Dylan the next day after the party. My one wish was to have seen his face when he told him. I know for a fact Dylan freaked out at the news. It really should have been recorded.
With everyone knowing, things were back to normal. It didn’t cross anyone’s mind anymore, and Ethan and Gage were grateful for that. They were not the type to talk about their feelings or anything like that.
“Why would I want to get my nails done? I am a man! A man does not get a manicure,” Luke said, puffing out his chest.
“‘Man?’ Luke, you screamed bloody murder at the spider in your room two days ago,” I commented as I put all my nail polishes away. “Men do not scream at spiders.”
“It was a hu
ge-ass spider!” I’d seen the spider and it wasn’t that big. I was not a fan of them, but I didn’t scream as loudly as Luke did. Originally, I thought the sound was Macey getting killed.
“Sure it was.” Ethan smirked at him. He took a seat on the bed behind me.
“It was! It was the size of my palm! Who the fuck wants to be near a spider that big?” Luke held his hand out, showing us the size of his palm. The three of us started laughing at Luke’s terrified expression.
“Fuck off, you guys,” he grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting.
I got up and put my stuff away while the three guys started talking. I looked over at them, smiling. I liked that all three got along now, and they acted like close friends.
“So what are we doing tonight for New Year’s? The usual, right?” Ethan asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Sounds good to me.” I shrugged.
“What is the ‘usual’?” Gage asked, looking between us, confused.
“Every year each of us picks out a big bottle of soda, we each pick out a game to play, and we order whatever food we want to eat. One year we had Chinese, pizza, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and then a bunch of desserts,” I answered.
My parents always went to some party with Macey’s parents, so we were left home. We could have held a party or even gone to one, but we’d had this tradition since we were in middle school, so why break it now? Plus, we had a few more people to add this time.
“Dylan and Anna are coming over, right?” I asked a minute later.
“Yeah, they are. They should be here soon.” Gage nodded, his fingers already moving to pick at the nail polish.
“No!” I quickly went for him and grabbed his arm to stop him. “You aren’t ruining my paint job. I worked hard for that,” I scolded him. Ethan and Luke snickered.
“I am not wearing this around everyone,” Gage said in a hard tone.
“Yes, you are. Part of your punishment.”
“I think having you paint them was enough punishment.” The tortured look on his face made me soften a bit. He was being very sweet and let me paint his nails. I couldn’t punish him too much longer.
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