Page 69 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Mom,” Mac said, the warning back in his voice.

“Georgie, want to come swimming?” Dani asked, for once helping instead of adding to our discomfort.

“Sure,” I replied.

Dani took me to my room, leaving Mac to bear the full weight of his mother’s questions about us. The blue room was really the “Blue Room.” It looked like the Blue Room at the White House—oval shape and all. Except, this room had a bed in the middle of it. The chandelier in the room was a smaller replica. The bed wasn’t tucked up against any of the walls; it was freestanding under the chandelier with tall bedposts that reached almost to the crystals dropping from the light. The ceiling, unlike the one at the White House, was painted with clouds, cupids, and harps.

“This room is?”

“Obnoxious. But Mom always puts her favorite guests here. I think she’s secretly hoping you spend more time in Mac’s room than this one.”

“I…I don’t even know how to respond to that,” I said, trying not to laugh.

“You have your own bath; it’s through that door. The door on the left is a walk-in closet. Sometimes it houses the Christmas decorations, so you may be fighting for hanging space with Mom’s angel collection.”

I unzipped my suitcase. “I won’t unpack now. I’ll just change.”

“I’ll wait,” Dani said.

I grabbed the suit that I hadn’t used since being on the boat with Mac in Rockport, changed in the bathroom, and then came back to the bedroom where Dani had sprawled out on her back on the bed.

“Are you asleep?”

“No.” Dani shook her head. “But I tell you, I probably will sleep in between rounds of tennis. Coming home is like taking a sleeping pill for me. Unwinding makes me lethargic.”

I threw on a cover-up, and we made our way down a back stairway to a kitchen that would have made the guys on The Property Brothers jealous. The French doors led to a backyard paradise: beautiful patio furniture, a huge, sparkling pool, and a white gazebo.

The humidity had kicked in, and I was grateful for the cool water as we both dove in, swimming several laps before retiring to the chaise lounges on the side. I wasn’t sure what had happened to Mac. I had expected he’d join us, and I didn’t know if I was disappointed or relieved when he didn’t. I needed time to compile some of the information I’d gathered from him in the car and since arriving at their home. I needed to realign the facts into the folders in my brain like all the other facts I gathered. Research. This time, research on Mac and his life.

When Dani and I finally went in to change for dinner, my slight unease about the whole weekend had returned. I’d just slipped back into my sundress, put my contacts back in, and swept my wet hair into a ponytail when there was a knock on the door.

I opened it to reveal Mac. He was still in the shorts and T-shirt that he’d arrived in, which made me feel better about my cotton sundress.

“I’m sorry I didn’t make it out to the pool,” he said.

“You don’t need to babysit me,” I responded, secretly glad he’d brought it up so I didn’t seem like the insecure teenager I often felt like around him.

“After Mom cornered me, Dad came back from the club and started all over again. On the plus side, you won’t have to revisit the whole ‘who you are’ thing again,” he said, smiling. His eyes took in my wet hair and makeup-less face. I had my blue contacts in today. They were the same color as the flowers on my dress, and they seemed to blend in with Mac’s and Dani’s eyes.

“It’s okay. I understand. Grandma used to give all my friends the same third degree, and after she died, Vicky kind of took up for her.”

“Vicky worked in the salon?”

“Yep, she still does, just for the new owner.”

“Was she upset that you sold it?”

I shook my head. “No, she understood why I did it. Is there a reason we are avoiding going downstairs?”

Mac was leaning against the doorframe, and I was still standing with the door halfway open. It brought us close enough that I could smell him. The salty smell that seemed to stick with him like a sea breeze. It made me want to taste his lips again, and my eyes drifted to them like they so often did. They were sexy, beautifully shaped lips and hard to look away from once I’d started.

“I just know that as soon as we go down, I’ll lose you to the chaos.”

“Chaos?”

“You’ll see. Bodies everywhere. All the talking. And you’ll get dragged into the card games whether you want to or not.”

I smiled at him, resting my shoulder on the other side of the doorframe, which brought us even closer together. So close the hair on our arms was touching even though the skin was not. It was a weird sensation, heightening the roll of thunder that always existed between us.

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