Page 78 of Forged By Sacrifice

I cast my eyes at her hair, the almost black strands pulled up into another ponytail, the white streak barely showing.

“You hardly ever wear your hair down,” I said.

She ran her hand over the ponytail. “It’s just easier up.”

I didn’t want to tell her about the dreams I’d had of taking it down. Of running my fingers through her hair and tugging it so she had to come closer to me and my lips. I cleared my throat.

“That’s not enough beans, Miss Astrella. I need the good dirt. Like diarrhea kind of dirt.”

She showed me her muffin. “Please, I’m eating.”

“Eating isn’t getting you out of this one. I need at least one thing to hold over you, as you’ve got about twenty on me now.” I leaned closer to her, elbows touching, faces inches apart.

She sat there, thinking. She finally blew out a breath, and I could feel it over my skin and could almost taste the blueberries on my lips.

“I wet the bed until I was nine,” she said quietly.

My eyes widened, because I hadn’t expected her to disclose something that personal. And yet, she had. A dark secret that not many people would have shared unless they were being tortured to do so. My heart twisted with happiness that she had felt comfortable enough to tell me something so deeply private. To open herself up to me in a way she hadn’t before.

I couldn’t help myself anymore. I closed the tiny distance between us and kissed her. Soft. Trying to convey the emotion behind the kiss as much as the desire. To explain with my lips because the words were eluding me. At first, she didn’t respond, but then her mouth pressed into mine. And it was just like when I’d kissed her in Rockport. Passion. Torrential seas. Waves of emotion that felt like they were pulling me under just as she saved me by bringing me back to the surface. My hand went to the back of her neck, and I was two seconds from pulling her onto my lap when a throat clearing stopped me.

I was still smiling as I pulled away from her and turned to see my grandmother standing in the kitchen archway. “Grandma!”

I was up out of the chair and hugging her in a flash.

“Mom said you’ve been sick?” I asked, eyeing her.

“Everyone worries too much. It was just a summer cold, but it’s enough to put me on the sidelines today,” she told me, hugging me tightly and then turning to the table and Georgie. “So, this is Georgia.”

Georgie got up from the table and came over to shake her hand, but Grandma pulled her into a hug, saying, “We are so glad to finally have someone to tell Robbie stories to.”

Georgie laughed as she hugged my grandmother back before stepping away. “I’ve already heard the diarrhea story this morning.”

“Ooh, that is a doozy. How about the car stealing?”

“Heard that last night.”

“Well, unless you are a world-class tennis pro, you can sit with me today, and I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some ones you haven’t heard.”

And I gave up. There wasn’t going to be any more time for me to kiss Georgie or tell her how beautiful she was. Not until this clan had gotten out all their stories and thoroughly embarrassed me. I was okay with it, though. If she knew all these things about me and could still kiss me like she just had, everything was going to be okay.

Georgie

BUTTERFLIES

“I didn't know him and I didn't know me,

Cloud nine was always out of reach.

Now I remember what it feels like to fly,

You give me butterflies.”

Performed by Kacey Musgraves

Written by Musgraves / Laird / Hemby

The competition on the courts was brutal, but Mac’s grandma, Gladys, kept me thoroughly entertained with stories about all of them, even Mac’s parents. There was no hiding anything in this family it seemed. You laid it out on the line, and they never let you forget it.

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