Page 49 of Stealing Sunshine

I’m not imagining the smirk that appears just as she drops my hand and turns to the whiteboard, giving us her back.

Darren’s chuckle is loud, but I continue to stare at the black shirt clinging to Bryce’s back. It shakes slightly, and I swear I can hear the ghost of her laughter.

“So, when did that happen?” Darren asks.

At a snail’s pace, I turn around and come face to face with his lazy grin. I shrug loosely and wink.

“Wouldn’t you love to know?”

“Actually, yeah, I would.”

“Say please, Darren,” Bryce throws over her shoulder, scrubbing at some blue swirls with the cloth.

He rolls his eyes. “Please.”

I take the paint scraper and rubber gloves from the pile of supplies and prepare to start scraping gum from underneath the desks while he heads toward my broken desk, a couple of types of tools in his hands.

Darren Huntsly is a handsome man. Tall with wide shoulders and a bulk to him that isn’t the typical buff type, but the kind that tips the scale toward dad bod status. He shares some physical characteristics with Poppy, but not many. It’s easy to tell they’re siblings but also that they’re still very much their own people.

When I look at Johnny and me, I feel the same way. He got his looks from Mom, and I just . . . didn’t. Whoever it was that our moms used during their IVF journey, I imagine I look more like him.

“It happened recently. Still really new, D. Don’t push,” Bryce says, an obvious threat in her tone.

He jerks his chin at her, and something passes between them that I don’t know the meaning behind.

“So, it’s new and what? You’re just going to try it out?”

His instant belief in what he’s just learned isn’t what I was expecting.

“I think so. We still have so much to learn about one another,but we have a connection that I didn’t want to waste by beating around the bush,” I answer.

Dropping to my haunches in front of the first of many desks, I snap the rubber gloves on before gripping the paint scraper. I hold my breath and run the blade beneath a gob of gum.

“Does anyone else know?” Darren asks.

Bryce moves down the whiteboard. “Only Poppy and Daisy’s sister.”

“Poppy knows and didn’t tell me?” He gapes.

It’s news to me too. I mean, I kind of assumed Bryce would tell Poppy, but she hasn’t brought it up to me.

Bryce flashes me a quick, almost apologetic look before saying, “I told her not to.”

“When are you guys telling everyone else? You won’t be able to keep it a secret if that’s what you’re hoping to do.”

“We haven’t talked about that yet,” Bryce mutters.

“I suggest you do it at Peakside. Hit everyone at once.”

I pinch the gum that’s fallen and set it on top of the desk. “That’s a good idea. Saturday nights, right?”

“Always,” he confirms.

The underside of the second desk is worse than the first, but I make quick work of scraping it clean. I watch Bryce’s legs move, carrying her away from the whiteboard and toward the desk Darren’s crouched in front of.

“We’ll think about it,” she says.

Darren clucks his tongue. “Fair enough.”

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