Page 85 of Tell Me Something True

“He’s not wrong,” Willow said. “That type of attention, if coming from the right person for the right reason, can be flattering.”

“Yes,” Kat said in a sly, dry tone. “How lucky for womankind to have him give his time and attention so unselfishly. All to make us feel good about ourselves.”

Urban gave her a slight, affirming nod, as if he couldn’t agree more with her sarcasm or her sentiment. “Unless he’s really doing it for himself,” he said, continuing this new game where they talked about him as if he wasn’t sitting right the fuck there. “To make himself feel better about something in his life. Something he’s missing.”

Miles’s chest constricted. He stared down at his plate, took quiet, careful breaths, trying to make each one long enough, deep enough to ward off the buzzing building in his head.

Was that what they all thought? That he flirted with women in some pathetic attempt to get attention? To make himself feel special? That he slept with them because there was something lacking in his life?

“It’s worse than I thought,” Verity said with a shake of her head. “Though not surprising given what I witnessed today, not to mention what I recently learned. I can’t believe you,” she said to him, “of all people, the upholder of truth, justice, and the American way, are going to sit at this sacred dinner table and lie to your own flesh and blood. What type of example does that set for Ian and me with our young, impressionable minds?”

His hands were trembling, and he slid them onto his lap. Curled his tingling fingers into his palms. “Spit out whatever it is you think you know. If only so the rest of us can move on with our lives.”

So he could make that excuse after all and get the hell out of there.

She leaned forward. “Hmm… well, what I think I know is that many decades ago when you went to college—”

“I’m. Thirty.”

“—you had a secret, year-long relationship with a certain blonde bombshell—”

“Bombshell, huh?” Willow asked.

Verity nodded then used her hand to mime her brain exploding. “Totally.”

“I’m not surprised,” Willow said, gesturing at him with her wine glass. “Look at him.”

Slumping back, he crossed his arms. Dug his fingers into his biceps. “I’m more than just a pretty face.”

No one rushed to agree with him.

“And it wasn’t a secret,” he added.

“Uh, I didn’t know about it until today,” Verity said.

“Me, either,” Urban said, his gaze on Miles thoughtful, like he was trying to figure out what was going on with him.

Like he was trying to figure out what he had to do to make sure Miles got through whatever it was unscathed.

Then, one by one, they all turned their gazes from him to Toby.

Toby shrugged. It took a lot more than their sister’s antics to rile him up. “When I went to visit culinary school, he mentioned he was seeing someone, but I didn’t meet her. And I didn’t know she was currently in Mount Laurel.”

Willow cleared her throat. “I knew. Sort of,” she added quickly at Verity’s affronted expression. “Hayden may have mentioned a few weeks ago that a beautiful blonde… uh… Tamara…?”

“Tabitha,” he ground out.

“Tabitha,” Willow repeated. “That Tabitha stopped in at the bar a few weeks ago and suggested she and Miles used to be in a relationship.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” Verity asked.

“I didn’t believe it.”

“Okay. That makes sense. I had a hard time believing it, too. Until Tabitha told me, straight out that she and Miles had, at one point in time, been a thing. Which, can I just add, how hurtful it was to hear you had a year-long relationship with a woman none of us” —she gestured around the table— “knew about. A woman who coincidentally just moved to Mount Laurel and with whom you had a completely intense and, let’s be honest, PG-13 rated moment with on the sidewalk in front of me, God, and anyone else who just so happened to be passing by.”

“How PG-13?” Kat asked. Verity leaned over and whispered something in Kat’s ear that had her eyebrows raising slowly. “Really?” Kat murmured. “Right there on the sidewalk?” She smirked at Miles. “Guess you’re not a boy scout after all.”

“Okay, now I have to know,” Willow said.

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