Page 82 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Great, that’s all settled then. You can go shopping for a dress with me on Wednesday if you’d like. I did leave my dress till the last minute in hopes that I’d somehow grow more boobs between the beginning of the month and now. But that dream will never come true unless I get a boob job, and the thought of them cutting these open just gives me the willies,” Dani said, grasping her boobs.

“God, Dani. Keep it to yourself. I’m your brother, not your girlfriend.”

“Lighten up, Macauley,” she said before disappearing toward her bedroom.

We were both staring after her. Like a tsunami called Dani, the air she’d left behind was full of unspoken words and friction.

“You don’t have to go,” he finally breathed out.

“Okay,” I said, but it hurt just a little. I’d sort of fallen for him and his entire family over the weekend, and I wasn’t sure now if he still felt the same way. I hated feeling like an insecure teenager, but he was good at bringing it out in me. I rose from the couch and headed toward the stairs.

I hadn’t heard him get up, but suddenly, he was at my side, pulling me back from the steps and turning me toward him. His eyes took in every inch of my face, and I tried hard to not have any tells. To not let him see that I actually wanted this more than I’d wanted anything but law school in a really long time. That he and his family had wrapped themselves up into my soul, and I hadn’t been prepared to let go so soon after discovering them.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that kind of an event,” he said. “I thought it was going to be all work. And I don’t want you to feel like you have to go, because I’m sure it will be boring as hell. You don’t have to go just because she’s basically asked you to.”

My hand went to my ponytail, smoothing it, a tell that I knew Mac’s family had read while we played poker and that Mac could read now. He reached out and tugged at it too, pulling the white strands through his fingers.

“Have you always had the streak?” he asked.

“No,” I replied, trying to step back but being stopped by the steps.

“When did you get it?”

“The night my dad was arrested.”

“And it never went away?”

I shook my head, not wanting to talk about my dad because he was part of the balloon holding Mac and me apart.

“Mac…” I gulped, wanting to let him off the hook, wanting him to know he didn’t need to feel like he had to do any of this. To date me at all. “You don’t?”

“Don’t you dare say it.” When he spoke again, his voice had gone down a deeper notch so that it resonated across my chest and into my stomach and farther down to places that had been yearning for him for weeks.

“You have no idea what I was going to say,” I said.

“I do. And I don’t want off the hook, Georgie—from taking you to the reception, or from dating you, period. I can’t imagine letting you go without having tried everything I could to make you mine.”

My heart leaped into my throat, thudding, trying to escape this poor human frame that contained it. His words were powerful and yet frightening. I wasn’t sure I’d ever belonged to anyone. Not truly. Not completely.

When I finally found my voice, I said quietly, “We’re complicated.”

He nodded. “I know. But I still can’t walk away. I don’t want to walk away.”

We both looked down to where his hand was gently caressing the inside of my elbow.

“I feel like I’m asking my high school crush to the prom,” he said, lips twitching. “Georgie, will you please go with me to the reception this weekend?”

And what could I have said to that? To the humor and laughter and his gorgeous blue eyes shining at me. I didn’t have any resistance left. “Yes, Mac. I’ll go with you.”

? ? ?

I didn’t see Mac on Tuesday because I stayed late working with Theresa, and by the time I came home, the apartment was dark. Mac and I had texted enough for him to know where I was at and for me to know he was heading to bed because they had a five o’clock call the next morning with Japan. I tried not to let his “I missed you today” text go to my head or my heart, but even Theresa commented on my goofy expression.

Wednesday, I got a text from Dani while I was at school.

DANI: You going to be free at around two?

ME: Why?

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