Page 43 of Silver
“Sam,” Charlie said in a hurt tone.
“Sam,” Justin said, a warning in his tone. “Your innocent look isn’t going to work on me at the moment. You promised you were going to behave. And what you just asked was incredibly rude.”
“What?”
Justin looked back at us. “We’ve been working on certain things in therapy,” he told us.
“Justin, they don’t need to know that.”
“Yes, they do,” Justin argued. He looked back at Charlie and offered a smile. “And I’m sorry I didn’t put a stop to her before. I didn’t realize how much she’s pushed for you to date. Nor the pressure she put on you to do that dating app thing.”
“Yes, but that worked out.”
Justin sighed. The server returned just then, dropping off a bottle of ketchup. I looked up at him after I realized we already had one on our table. We didn’t need the ketchup, unless he knew the other one was empty. I reached for it, and even though I found it was mostly full, I handed it up to him. “Since you brought us another, did you want this one back?” I asked. I had a feeling that the ketchup was only an excuse to come closer to listen in on what we were talking about.
“Umm, no. Sorry. I think I got confused about which table needed the ketchup.”
I nodded before I watched the server walk away. When I met Justin’s gaze, he shook his head.
“I’m going to love your brother every day until I take my last breath,” I told Sam. “I’m going to spoil him and cherish every moment we have together. Does that work for you?” I asked. I didn’t really owe Sam an answer as to what my intentions were toward Charlie. It was pretty standard that mates cherished one another. They were cherished because not everyone found theirs.
“Yeah, I guess that works.” Sam looked at her brother.
“Sam,” Justin said with a sigh. The server returned, this time with a tray that had our plates on it. After he left again, Justin leaned close to his mate. I didn’t know if he realized that we could all hear or not, but I had to assume he did since he’d been mated to Sam for a while now. “We will be discussing this again in therapy.” Sam glared at her mate while Justin looked back at the two of us. “I apologize for her, Charlie. I know it’s not the same though. But again, I didn’t realize she had been so overbearing until the day after Valentine’s Day. When I found all of the texts and call logs…” Justin sighed.
“It’s all right, Justin.”
“No, it’s not,” Justin and I said at the same time. That earned me a glare from Sam. I shrugged my shoulder at her. “You don’t have to like me, Sam. My only concern is Charlie and how he feels about me.”
Sam looked from Justin to Charlie, then back to Justin. When she did, she made a face that I didn’t understand at first. Then she started crying. Justin sighed.
“Some of it honestly is hormones. But she’s exaggerating them to get her way.”
“When did you become so manipulative, Sam?” Charlie asked. Immediately, the tears stopped, and Charlie’s sister sent him a glare.
“Really, Charlie? I just want what’s best for you. I want you happy like I am.”
“I am,” Charlie said.
Justin raised his hand and waved to someone. “We’re leaving,” Justin told us. “I really am sorry, Charlie. Apologies to you as well, Silver. I’m sure you’re wonderful to your mate, and I hope that if and when you two decide to have children, it doesn’t affect Charlie like it seems to be impacting Sam.”
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.
“She’s having some issues, but she promised she’d work on them with the therapist before we went back to the doctor.” Justin looked up over my shoulder. “Can we get these to go, please? My wife isn’t feeling the best,” Justin said. The server left, leaving us alone again. Sam was crying in earnest now, but thankfully, it wasn’t drawing too much attention from others. “She’s having severe mood swings and anxiety that wasn’t there before. She’s always been a bit overbearing, but it’s gotten much worse,” Justin tried to explain.
I reached across the seats and placed my arm around Charlie’s shoulders. I gently pulled him closer, hoping to offer support.
“It was discovered last week when she was in the hospital. She’ll be all right; we just need to address some things. It was supposed to be worked on one way, but it seems that’s not the correct treatment plan, so now we need to talk to her doctor again.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just be patient. She’ll be back to being her old nosey self after the baby’s born.”
Justin quickly placed their food in the to-go containers before he dropped more than enough money on the table to cover their check.
“Sorry again,” Justin said as he stood. He helped Sam up, and then I watched the two of them leave the restaurant.
I looked over at Charlie before I leaned in and kissed his forehead. “How are you holding up?”
