Page 5 of Puck & Make Up

Annie jerks.

“What the fuck?” Joel whispers.

Exactly.

“I only just found out, and I know that I needed to tell you guys,” he says, “but there’s been a lot going on and with the contracts and?—”

It’s dark, but there’s enough moonlight that I swear his cheeks have gone pink.

“—well, I also didn’t knowhowto tell you that—” He lifts one big, broad shoulder, drops it.

Rosie exhales. “So…you’re my brother?”

“Half.”

We all still, glance over at Annie.

That slender thread of steel makes an appearance.

“Half,” she repeats. “Your father…” Her eyes drift to Rosie’s and the steel immediately begins to melt, the wilting violet that I’ve associated with Annie Donovan coming back full force. Tears sink heavily into her words, making her voice falter and turn whiny. “I wanted to keep you, but after he died, my parents made me choose. Give you up or they’d disown me.”

“Afterwhodied, Mom?” Rosie presses when Annie doesn’t go on.

“Nathan,” she says quietly. “I was…we were supposed to get married. Then he was in a car accident, and I was—” She shakes her head. “I had to make a choice.”

There’s a long pause, and I don’t miss the sliver of pain that slices across Fox’s face.

Clearly, she’d chosen to give him up.

Chosen her future over her son’s.

Hurt more people she’s supposed to love.

I want to throttle her.

“But,” Fox says quietly into that taut silence, “I’ve met you once before.”

Her eyes close and she’s silent for a long, long moment before she says, “John gave me that gift.” Her throat works. “He knew your family was camping in the area and…engineered a meeting.”

Joel curses quietly.

But I’m watching Fox, watching his eyes close again.

Fuck, he really hadn’t known any of this before, had he?

“I remembered,” he whispers. “When I first saw you in town, when Rosie introduced us, I had this flash of a memory, of familiarity. I just…it didn’t make sense until the test results came in.”

My insides twist.

“Exactly how long have you known Fox was your son, Mom?” Rosie asks quietly.

Joel stills. Fox jerks. I have to bite back a gasp.

But Annie…well, I practically see the fog she uses as a defense mechanism sweep up around her. She uses it to hide, to avoid…

Situations exactly like this.

“Mom,” Rosie snaps, clearly noticing the same thing. “Keep it together for-fucking-once and just answer the question.”

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