Page 8 of The Facade

“I’m going to be sleeping in my room, okay?” she said, closing the subject of switching rooms.

And I knew I should probably stop teasing her. That I should do what my mom had said and not give Cambrielle a hard time for once in my life, but the devil in me just couldn’t help himself. So I said, “Well, if you’re in love with your room so much, I guess we could share.” I pressed my lips together and studied the spot beside me. “I already know you don’t snore, and I think this bed is big enough for both of us. Especially if we cuddle.”

“Shhhh.” Cambrielle flung herself across the bed and covered my mouth with her hand to silence me. “What don’t you understand about the words ‘stop saying things like that?’”

I wrapped my long fingers around her delicate wrist and removed her hand from my mouth so I could speak, and whispered, “If you wanted to cuddle with me before we go to bed, all you had to do was ask.” I looked pointedly at the way her body was pressed against my side after her attempt to shut me up.

She looked down at our bodies, let out a surprised squeal, and was just trying to scoot away when Nash’s voice sounded from the doorway. “Um, so is this the real reason why you haven’t been talking to Ben?” His blue eyes were wide with shock as he stared at the compromising position his sister and I were currently in on her bed. “Was he just a decoy?”

“No, of course not,” Cambrielle said as she clambered to the side of the bed and away from me. “Mack was just being stupid, and I had to resort to physical force to shut him up.”

When she got to her feet on the floor, she smoothed her fingers through her long, light-brown hair and straightened her pink blouse as if she was afraid to look like we’d just been in some sort of romantic tussle.

Nash narrowed his eyes at his sister and then at me, as if trying to decide whether she was telling the truth. Then with a shrug, he said, “Just don’t let Carter or Dad see you flirting like that.”

“We weren’t flirting,” Cambrielle insisted. Then she glanced at me, her expression telling me I better back her up. “Tell Nash that you were just being a butthead and that it’s not what it looked like.”

I lifted my hand to my mouth, cleared my throat dramatically, and said, “I was being a butthead. And even though I’m sure Cambrielle would be fun to make-out with, we were not and nor have we ever done anything remotely close to that.”

“Thank y—” she started.

But before she could finish thanking me, I added, “Though since I am under oath, I cannot, of course, testify as to whether Cambrielle has ever thought about kissing an amazing specimen of a human such as myself. But I will say that if she has, I wouldn’t hold it against her since many girls have been susceptible to my tall, dark, and utterly handsome looks and—”

A fuzzy white pillow hit me in the face before I could finish my sentence.

“Hey,” I said, pulling the pillow away. And when I looked to the side, Cambrielle was already grabbing another pillow to launch at me.

But before she could, I got to my knees and snatched it from her hands, tossing it at her instead.

It hit her on the side of the head, messing up her hair again. Fire instantly showed in her aqua-blue eyes as she reached for another pillow and yelled, “Take this,” as she hit me with it repeatedly.

It didn’t hurt, of course, but it did have me rolling to the other end of the bed so I could take cover on the floor.

I’d always thought Cambrielle had twenty different throw pillows on her bed because she had a weird addiction to them, but maybe she actually had so many because they doubled as ammunition against all the teasing she received from her brothers, and now me.

“Well, I was just grabbing something from my room to show Mom and Dad,” Nash said, losing interest now that Cambrielle and I were about to have a full-blown pillow fight. “But you should probably head downstairs before they send Carter up to get you.”

3

Cambrielle

“You’re the worst,you know that?” I said to Mack as we walked down the stairs together toward my family’s dining room. We didn’t have family dinner every night since we were all so busy with school and work and our extracurricular activities, but we did try to have a few nights during the week where we were all together.

Carter’s girlfriend Ava joined us sometimes, and Mack was obviously here tonight, but usually it was just my parents, my brothers, and me. My older brother Ian even joined us occasionally now that he was living in the pool house.

“I am not the worst,” Mack disagreed with my statement. “In fact, I think you like it when I tease you.”

“And what would give you such a deranged opinion?” I asked, not sure how he could ever think I enjoyed constantly being on edge about whether he’d tell everyone about him staying in my room.

Mack shrugged as we made it to the foyer. “Just something about the way you keep coming back for more.” He leaned close to my ear, his warm breath sending chills racing across my neck as he whispered, “And the way your eyes light up every time you see me makes me think all this banter is actually your way of telling me you like me.”

I stumbled. But before he could get an even bigger opinion of himself, I promptly elbowed him in the side and said, “In your dreams.”

“Hey,” he said with a wince as he rubbed the spot where I’d hit him. “Have you been working out or something? Because that actually hurt.”

“Just my usual yoga and horseback riding,” I said.Along with the few dancing sessions I’d snuck in while everyone was away from the house.

But I wouldn’t mention those until I was ready to tell everyone that I was considering taking up ballet again, since things hadn’t exactly gone well the last time I’d been immersed in the dancing world.

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