Page 11 of A Twist of Fate

“Do I need to have a talk with him?” Toby asked, suddenly stiff with tension.

“No,” I told him as I reached out to draw my fingers down his arm, easing the tension out of his muscles. “The thing is, he told me I couldn’t judge him when I was hiding this big secret that could potentially hurt our coworker.” I chanced glancing up at him and saw as it dawned on him who I was speaking about. “Ever has been nothing but a sweet girl since I’ve known her. She goes out of her way to make people smile, and that’s after she was so hurt by your family and club.” Once again, his muscles tensed, only this time, my touch didn’t ease him. “Keeping us a secret and sneaking around behind her back is going to hurt her eventually. Don’t you think?”

He tipped his head down once and then blew out a breath. “I just don’t know what to do where my sister is concerned. There was a time when I could have just told her all about you and she would have been so happy for the both of us. Hell, she probably would have wanted to throw us a party because her brother and friend found each other, you know? Now, I have no clue how she’ll react.”

“Have you spoken to her at all lately?”

He shook his head. “I’ve only seen her a few times in passing. I want to, I just don’t know how to start a conversation with her anymore.”

“That’s simple,” I told him. “You just go up to her and say, hi.”

“Just say hi?”

“Yep. The rest will fall into place after that. I bet you anything that she’s just waiting for you to be the one to take that step forward.”

“What if she’s not?”

I shrugged my shoulders and turned to watch the sun go down and the reflected colors playing across the river’s surface fade. “If she’s not, then at least you’ll know. I think that’s at least a step in the right direction. We can’t just tell her about us when you can’t even say hello to your sister.”

“I can do that. What I can’t do is lose you though. I’ve already lost the relationship I used to have with Ever, and I’m not sure that is something we can ever get back. I hope for it all the time, but I’m willing to keep working on that with her. While I was gone, all I did was think about you, wish you were with me, or that I was back here with you. I know it’s hard keeping this from my family right now, but I need you, and I need something that is just mine to focus on. I don’t want family drama or club drama driving us apart. I watched how that changed the dynamic of my parents’ lives. Hell, I lived it since I didn’t get to know my dad right away. Then, I had a surprise sister, and you know about the drama with Ever, J-Bird, and the club. There’s just always been so much revolving around my family that I wanted to keep you separate for a while. We need to work on what we want with each other, for our future, if we’ll have a future together, before I drag them into our lives. I know it won’t seem fair to her for her own reasons, but I think if anyone has a chance of understanding where I’m coming from it would be my sister.”

“If you’re sure, then that’s what we’ll do.”

“I’m sure, honey. There’s only one thing I want more than getting to tell the world that you’re mine and show them all what you mean to me.”

“Yeah?” I questioned breathlessly as he pulled me close to him, the fronts of our bodies lining up.

“That’s to have this time to for ourselves, to just be us before any drama makes it impossible. I don’t want to miss this chance with you, Gretchen.”

“I don’t want to miss out on the chance with you either,” I admit.

“Then, it’s settled. We’re doing this, and we’ll let everyone else in on it when we’ve had some time to just enjoy being together, getting past the getting to know you stage, and into a forever kind of place.”

“You really see us there?”

“I told you I saw a vision of our babies around that house I’m going to build for us, didn’t I?” I grinned as he pointed to the non-existent house, but also because it seemed as though he stole that image from my own daydreams since he hadn’t mentioned children there before. “That’s our heaven. That’s where we’ll be together. We just have to make it past all the stuff that’s supposed to come first and then we’ll build that dream together.” My heart was so full I didn’t think it could hold any more love for this man. I wasn’t ready to say the words to him yet, because I had my own fears to conquer first, but damn he was making it difficult to keep my emotions under wraps. I knew in my soul that this would be one of those moments that I would carry in my heart for the rest of my life.

“Did you take care of that thing we discussed?” Kane asked me the next day. I knew what he wanted me to say. He wanted to know that I had let Toby go. How was that fair to me though? He was so concerned that I not hurt Ever’s precious feelings that he forgot about the Gretchen portion of the equation. I may not have said the words to Toby yet, but I was already head over heels in love with the man.

I couldn’t help becoming snippy with Kane as a result of his question putting a dull to the shine of the night I’d just spent with Toby. “Have you taken care of your skank problem you seem to have?”

“No, but my problem isn’t going to hurt Ever.”

“Low blow, Kane. Especially since you don’t care that what you want me to do would hurt me. It’s just about her.” Kane seemed taken aback by what I had to say and started to argue, but I wasn’t going to let him this time. “I’ve never had someone stick it out with me beyond a couple dates before. For the longest time, I thought there wasn’t any hope, that I was unlovable, and would end up a sad, lonely cat lady. I hate cats because I’m allergic, so that’s even more miserable than it sounds. Toby is the first person to stick, to make me happy, to want to see me shine. Hell, he’s the first person to really see ME! And you don’t care about any of that. You just care that the girl you’re crushing on doesn’t get hurt by the fact that she wasn’t kept in the loop on someone else’s business. You know what? I don’t think she would really care when she realizes that we were trying to just get to know one another without being tainted by a ton of drama that seems to follow his family around. If anyone would get that it would be her, right?”

“Jesus, G. Tell me how you really feel,” Kane grunted.

“I just did. Maybe, one day, you’ll actually hear what I have to say, or finally see me as a person too. I exist too, damn it!”

Chapter 4

The Future is Golden

Gretchen

Stomping out of work on the heels of an argument with one of my bosses was probably not the wisest move, but I couldn’t stand there and listen to Kane wax poetic about Ever again. I also couldn’t stand to see his smug face if he decided he had a counter argument. Instead, I grabbed my bag and took off like a petulant child. One thing was for sure though. It might not have been the most adult thing to do, but taking off was the only way to keep that shit from exploding into a giant drama bomb that I couldn’t deal with. Instead, I texted Toby to find out if he had any free time since I suddenly found myself with the afternoon off of work.

As soon as I managed to get close to my car, my cell started ringing. Toby’s handsome face popped up immediately. “Hey, I didn’t expect for you to call back,” I told him as I answered the call.

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