Page 97 of The Fake Out Flex

"So what's the plan?"

"What plan?"

"Fraser. Come on. You're fake dating the girl of your dreams. You have to have a plan. Please tell me you have a plan."

I hug a cushion into my chest. "Nope. No plan."

"Why not?"

"Because what's the point? Nothing can ever come of it."

"Again, why not?"

"You know why." My gaze shifts beyond her, trailing down the length of the hallway.

"No. No, no. Don't do that," she says.

"Do what?"

She gets up and sits on the same sofa as me, lowering her voice. "I appreciate everything that you, Mom, Dad, Trace, and Clay have done for me. I really do. More than I'll ever be able to adequately express in words. But I need you to please, please, please stop putting your life on hold for me."

"It's not just you. It's Oakey, too."

She leans back. "We can't protect him forever, Fraser."

"We can try."

"No," she says firmly. "You've done everything you can."

"But it's my fault. I let you down. I should have done a better job of keeping you safe."

"It was never your job to monitor me twenty-four-seven. You have to stop blaming yourself for my actions as a sixteen-year-old kid. And besides, I was safe. I wasn't sneaking out to go to parties or drink or take drugs. I was sneaking out to be with my boyfriend who I knew even back then I wanted to marry. And believe it or not, Tim and I did use protection. It just didn't work. And I'm sick of being this secret that everyone in the family has to keep."

"We don't have to keep this secret. It's our choice," I correct her.

"Well, it doesn't feel like a choice to me. It feels like a family decision we made seven years ago that made sense at the time. Mom and Dad didn't want it to get out that their teenage daughter was pregnant. So Dad pulled the plug on the show, and everyone's done their best to keep the attention off me. I appreciate it. I really do. But it's different now. I'm twenty-four. I'm married to the father of my child. My angsty, emo days are long behind me."

That manages to draw a small smile out of me.

"I'm okay. I really am." Her lips twitch. "Besides, if I recall correctly, I wasn't the only one sneaking out back then."

My cheeks get warmer. "You knew about that?"

She nods. "I knew you were as desperate to get out of filming that horrible show as I was, but I had no idea where you were going. I thought you'd be off doing something stupid like smoking pot in the pool house. So one night, I decided to follow you. I saw you climb into Evie's room."

"Nothing ever happened, I swear."

"I know."

I drag my fingers through my hair. "And what about Oakey?"

"He has Down Syndrome, Fraser. That's not something we need to hide from the world."

"I beg to differ."

Her eyes land on me. "I know you had a bad experience a few years ago."

"That's putting it mildly," I scoff, a knot of tension forming in my gut as that awful memory comes rushing back to me.

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