Page 87 of Someday You Learn

I narrow my eyes at my sister. “Yes, I laughed. Is that such a shock to you?”

Hazel looks at Cashlynn. “Did you two finally figure your shit out?”

“We did,” I say before Cashlynn can respond, wrapping my arms around her shoulders to keep her close to me. “And no thanks to you. Thanks for conspiring to drive me insane, by the way. I’ll be sure to repay the favor tenfold.”

My sister rolls her eyes, waving me off. “Look, it was for your own good.”

Cashlynn places a hand on my chest. “Don’t be mad. I’m the one that chose to go along with it, remember?”

I look down at Cashlynn with an arch in my brow. “Oh, I remember. And I’m still not done punishing you for that.”

Hazel gags dramatically. “Yuck. Okay, you two. I get it. You’ve bumped uglies, but spare me the details.”

I lean closer to my sister, lowering my voice. “Look, Mom still doesn’t know that this was all fake to begin with, all right? So keep your voice down.”

She mimics zipping her lips. “Got it. Your secrets are safe with me.”

Penn steps into the room. “What secrets?”

“Who has secrets?” Astrid echoes, trailing behind my brother. “Hi, Cashlynn.” She leans in to hug my fake fiancée.

Is she still a fake fiancée? Now that we’re sleeping together and seeing where things are going, are we technically dating? Engaged? What the hell are we?

Fuck. I don’t even know how to answer that.

Penn stares at me. “You look like you’re trying to do calculus.”

“I’m fine,” I mutter, turning to Cashlynn and pressing a kiss her temple. “I’m gonna head outside and catch up with my brothers. Will you be okay?”

“Of course.” She presses her lips to mine. “Have fun.”

I grab beers from the kitchen and step out onto the deck, where Dallas leans on the railing. Handing beers to both him and Penn, I pop the cap off my own.

“So,” Penn says, taking a sip. “What secrets was Hazel talking about in there?”

I sigh, unsure where to start. As solid as I feel about my decisions over the past twenty-four hours, I do need to process everything out loud. “Cashlynn and I are…seeing where things could go between us, but Mom thinks we’ve been together this whole time, so I told our sister to keep her mouth shut until we figure it out.”

Dallas’s brows draw together. “When you say seeing where things could go, you mean…”

“You guys were right.” I take another sip of my beer. “Cashlynn was doing shit to try to get me to snap and sleep with her. And it worked.”

Dallas and Penn both shake their heads, then Dallas speaks first. “These women, I swear they will be the death of us.”

“You’re telling me,” I mutter, taking a long pull from my beer. “But honestly, it needed to happen. After we…you know….”

Dallas nods. “After you had sex. You can say the word, Parker. You are a doctor, after all.”

I flip him the bird as Penn stifles his laughter. “After the sex, we had a good talk and…” I blow out a breath and shove my hand through my hair. “I can’t deny what’s between us anymore. And even though I’m scared shitless, I want to see what can happen between us.”

Penn wraps his arm around Dallas’s shoulder, resting his head against our brother’s. “Oh my gosh, Dallas. Our baby brother is growing up.”

“All right. I’m going inside,” I say, taking a few steps toward the door, but Dallas pulls me back by the collar of my shirt.

“Relax, Parker.” He elbows Penn in the ribs and then turns back to me. “I think what Penn is trying to say is that we’re proud of you.”

“Yeah, well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay?” I take another swig of my beer. “There’s still a lot of shit I need to work through.”

“Have you considered therapy?” Dallas asks.

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