Page 70 of Tell Me Something True

Leaving Tabitha to bobble her hold and Walsh to mutter, “Fuck,” while struggling to maintain his end.

“You said the baddest of bad words again,” Ian said, sauntering in as Verity hurriedly picked up the couch again.

“That’s because your aunt keeps giving me reason to say it.”

“Oh, no. Don’t blame me for your limited vocabulary,” Verity said. “There are, like, half a million words in the English language. Use a new one once in a while.”

Walsh sent her a narrow look. “I thought we weren’t supposed to talk to each other.”

“You aren’t supposed to talk to me,” she told Walsh before turning to Ian. “And you need to learn how to read a room.”

Titus bounded over to Ian’s side, and he looped his arm around the dog’s neck. “What does that mean?”

“In this case it means there are times when grownups might have reasons to say a bad word only grownups can say. And that you don’t always need to point out someone’s behavior just because you don’t agree with it.”

“Might want to take your own advice,” Walsh muttered.

And Verity glared at him with enough heat to light Walsh’s hair on fire.

No. Really. What in the fuckity fuck was going on here? Had Walsh been around Ian before? And was his sister bantering with Walsh? Miles thought she was done with him after he’d left her standing alone on the dance floor at the wedding.

“You do realize,” Miles said, still mild, still calm—he deserved a goddamn academy award for this act, “that what’s happening here” —he gestured between Verity and Walsh— “is my worst nightmare?”

Verity rolled her eyes. “And to think, I’m considered the dramatic one in the family. What are you even doing here?”

He gaped at her. What was he doing there?

What was he doing there?

Jesus. Christ.

“You texted me,” he reminded her.

She frowned. Blinked.

Then she sent Tabitha a quick, and if Miles wasn’t mistaken, apologetic glance and mouthed the word sorry.

“Right, right,” Verity said, cheeks pink, either from embarrassment or exertion from carrying the couch. “About that… I may have slightly… overreacted.”

Readjusting his hold on the couch, Walsh snorted. “No maybe about it, princess.”

Miles stiffened and narrowed his eyes at Walsh. “Don’t call my sister princess.”

Walsh smirked. “If you didn’t want her to be called a princess, you shouldn’t have taught her to act like one.”

Verity’s sigh filled the entire stairway. “Just so you know, one of my nightmares is watching one of my brothers—any of them—participate in a Who Has a Bigger Dick? contest.”

Ian looked up at her. “What’s a—”

“Ask your mother,” she and Miles said at the same time.

Ian looked at the dog. “They always say that.”

“Look,” Verity continued to Miles, “everything’s fine, so you can go on your way. If only so we can finish getting this up the stairs. It’s heavy.”

She wanted him to leave? She was the reason he was there in the first place.

That was his fucking story and he was sticking to it.

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