Page 48 of Faking Ever After

I shook my head. I hadn’t known I was crying, but my constricted throat held down sobs I didn’t dare let out. “I want it,” I breathed. “I want that life with you.”

He clutched me against himself and kissed my brow, and then, as he let go, we swam back to the yacht. I was lighter even now with the decision to move on, lifting the weight of my burden off my shoulders.

I chose Percy.

And even as we sailed happily back to Naxos, neither of us could imagine the twist of fate that awaited us there.

CHAPTER 18

Finn

The really lovelything about Percy was that he could have had any car on the planet waiting for us for as long as necessary so he wouldn’t have to wear his feet out, but he never did. Percy walked everywhere. “If it’s not going to give me heat stroke, I’d rather walk,” he said when I pointed it out. “Besides, people know me in the States despite keeping a low profile. Walking around the city isn’t advised.”

So when we docked an hour before sunset, we strolled down the marble-paved promenade that led out of the town harbor and to the long city beach. He held my hand all the way there, never once letting go, and my resolve only grew stronger.

Fight for what makes you happy, not for what turns you into a bitter, vengeful person, I reminded myself. The lies I had woven into a spider web around myself were loosening. I could break out of them. The glimmer of the near future in which that was true was so beautiful and relaxing that it reminded me just how heavy all the lying had been.

“We’re going home soon,” Percy mused as we slowed down to a leisurely walk along the beach. If we remained on the sand, we would go directly to the sea-facing side of his house. Therising tide narrowed the beach significantly. People lounged on sandbeds with cocktails in their hands, enjoying the sunset.

“I thought you’d be happier,” I said. He had been complaining about the gathering since the moment we had met.

“It’s always sad when it’s almost over,” Percy replied, a small smile curling the corners of his lips.

“The grass is always greener on the other side,” I muttered.

He laughed and shook his head. “Trust me, my worst fears would have come true if it weren’t for you.”

“Darling, your worst fears are your family slightly invading your privacy,” I said.

Percy locked his gaze on mine and swiftly poked his fingers into the side of my ribcage, making me yelp and swat his hand away. “You weren’t there,” Percy growled.

We teased each other on the way to his beachfront villa. It was a walk filled with laughter and jokes. There wasn’t a single thing to worry about. Percy exaggerated just how nosy his family had been in the past. He shuddered when he spoke about the blind dates Judith had been setting up for him, wondered aloud what to do about Benny Tupper’s relentless business proposals, and mentioned how scared he had been to come out to his parents. “But they just looked at me like I was crazy. ‘Darling, of course you are gay. What on Earth did you imagine we thought?’”

I threw my head back and laughed out loud. “Are you kidding me?”

“No. And I still don’t know how they knew,” Percy said.

“I imagine there’s a rainbow aura around me whenever I open my mouth, but you’re almost straight-passing,” I said.

“Almost?” Percy gasped, one hand clutching his chest.

“Not so straight-passing anymore,” I said.

He chuckled and bumped his shoulder against mine, making me stumble.

“And what did you say to them?” I asked.

Percy hesitated a moment, then shrugged. “I cried. I’m still not sure if it was happiness or relief, or fear catching up, but I remember that my mouth dropped open, and I shuddered all over. So Dad tilted his head and put a hand on my shoulder. ‘Son, we were hoping for this. Of course, we would never pressure you either way if you were, say, straight…’”

I laughed so hard that I drowned the rest of his words. “They’d love you all the same if you were straight, huh?”

“Mom said she would never have to compete with another woman for my love,” Percy said. Alicia’s sense of humor flew over Percy’s head more often than not. “And she said they had their money on Emily coming out as bi within a year. And other than one drunken kiss in college, Emily is straight, so their gaydar is pretty broken.”

We arrived at the house and climbed the wooden steps from the beach to the pool deck some ten minutes later, laughing and speaking hurriedly the way new couples always did. I hoped this would last a long time. I hoped we wouldn’t just drift apart and I simply couldn’t see that happening. I was falling for him hard, but there was something stronger and steadier underneath my infatuation. It was a bond that was built on growing trust.You are my person, this part of me silently told Percy.We are one.

Emily was on the sun deck, cringing at the faint sounds of moaning and shouting from inside the house. They weren’t exactly crying sounds, but they came near it.

“What’s going on?” I asked before Percy could.

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