Page 35 of Give Me a Reason

“Of course,” he said gallantly. “I’d be happy to.”

Anne watched her cousin and her ex make their way out of the living room, anxiety tightening her chest.He’s mine.Her eyes watered from the effort of holding back her protest. Or they might be tears of despair because Frederick Nam was definitely not hers.

“Aww,” Coraline cooed. “How cute are they?”

She hated her cousin for a split second before sanity returned—sanity and agony.

“The captain didn’t look all that excited.” Tessa gave Coraline the side-eye.

Anne wanted to kiss her little sister.No wonder she’s a fancy PhD candidate.Tessa had always been the smart one in the family.

“What are you talking about?” Coraline pouted. “He’s just shy.”

Joe considered Tessa with his head tilted to the side. “Areyouinterested in him?”

Before Anne could laugh in his face, her younger sister shrugged. “Well, heissmoking hot.”

Anne quietly pinched the inside of her arm to wake herself from this nightmare. It hurt like hell and would probably leave a bruise. That wasn’t even the bad part. The bad, awful, terrible part was that she wasn’t dreaming. This was really happening.

Her sister and her cousin were both vying for the attention of her ex—the very ex that Anne never got over. And there was nothing she could do but watch and endure it. She had to live with the possibility that her secret longing for Frederick would become practically incestuous if he chose to marry either Bethany or Tessa.

She was getting ahead of herself. No one was marrying anyone, except for Joe and Coraline. Frederick might not even date Bethany or Tessa. But Bethany was gorgeous and sweet, and Tessa was smart and beautiful. What human being in their right mind wouldn’t want to date either of them? This was ridiculous. She had to stop her mind from spiraling out of control. She had to just… stop.

Bethany was positively glowing when she returned from the kitchen with Frederick. Anne felt nothing at the sight of them together and welcomed the numbness. Her survival instinct had finally kicked in.

Her cousin motioned for Frederick to set down the tray of beautifully caramelized crème brûlées, adorned with fresh raspberries, on the coffee table. The desserts looked picture-perfect. Wasn’t that nice?

“Thank you, Frederick,” Bethany said, blushing prettily. She did everything prettily. How nice for her. “Okay, everyone. Please help yourselves. Don’t be shy. I made plenty for seconds.”

Anne watched her family gather around the coffee table with a vacant smile on her face. This was nice. She loved Christmastime.So nice.But her bubble of blissful disassociation burst when she caught her aunt studying Bethany and Frederick with amused indulgence. A flare of indignation stiffened Anne’s spine, and she sat ramrod straight on the sofa.

Did Auntie Sharon think Frederick was good enough for Bethany? Her aunt had ripped Frederick away from Anne, but now she wasamusedat the prospect of her daughter dating him? The dissonance tasted like battery acid in her mouth. But her aunt didn’t know this was the same Frederick she’d disapproved of ten years ago.

Oh God.Didheknow that Auntie Sharon was the one who’d persuaded Anne to leave him? Her eyes shot toward Frederick, who stood chatting with Uncle Paul and Bethany, confidence and ease in every line of his body. She sagged on a shaky exhale. He didn’t know. And he couldn’t find out. She couldn’t bear it if his past hurts resurfaced because of her aunt. No one knew but Anne, and it had to stay that way.

She waited until everyone got their crème brûlée before she picked up two ramekins for herself. She needed all the help she could get to survive this night. She also needed some space, so she settled onto a lone armchair by the bookshelves in the far corner of the living room.

Her life was truly awful at the moment, but being surrounded by books with crème brûlée in her hands made it marginally better. Putting aside one ramekin on the lamp table, she tapped the delicate crust of her first crème brûlée with the back of her spoon. Her lips curved into a smile at the satisfying crack of the caramelized sugar. It was one of the best feelings in the world.

After demolishing the first one in two minutes flat—it was sweet and creamy with a hint of bitterness from the burnt sugar—Anne eagerly picked up the second ramekin and poised her spoon to crack the crust.

“H-hello,” Frederick said in an oddly husky voice.

Anne held herself perfectly still and fought for a calm she didn’t feel. When she finally glanced up from her dessert and took in his handsome face—his handsome everything—she nearly swayed from the longing that swept through her.

“Hello.” Only her years of acting kept her expression composed and her voice steady.

“Did you get your tire changed?” he asked rather abruptly. In fact, he sounded almost irritated, like she was being an irresponsible nuisance. Her own temper flared in response. She didn’t ask him to concern himself with her.

“The very next day,” she snapped, arching an eyebrow at him. She had always been shockingly short-tempered around him, as though he brought all her emotions close to the surface. It seemed some things hadn’t changed. “As I said I would.”

He was the one who’dvolunteeredto help change her flat tire that night. And he was the one who had just walked up to her to ask about it. How wasshethe nuisance? If the crème brûlée weren’t so heavenly, she might’ve been tempted to dump it on his perfect, tousled hair.

“Good.” He hooked an index finger in his collar and tugged it away from his bobbing throat. “That’s good.”

She studied him through narrowed eyes and realized he was more nervous than irritated. But why would he be nervous? She huffed a short sigh. It didn’t matter. She had no right to be mad at him. She was the one who’d left him all those years ago. He’d begged—she forced herself to finish the thought—he’d begged her not to end things between them, but she’d broken his heart anyway.

Anne was only angry with him because she was jealous and conflicted. Frederick hadn’t done anything to earn her wrath. So what if her sister and her cousin were interested in him? He hadn’t asked for their attention, and he was far too kind to rebuff them needlessly. And if… if he was interested in one of them, then that was none of her business, no matter how she wished it were.

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