Page 44 of Sunflower Persona
“That’s why it became the ‘broken and banned’ shelf. Karis got too into it and broke the handle off her hippo. That plastic was wicked sharp and cut her hand pretty bad. I spent the rest of that night with her in the ER of St. Mary’s while she got it stitched up.”
“She’s lucky to have a friend like you,” I tell him, but that bit of information isn’t the least bit surprising. Not after the way he took care of me.
“I’m the lucky one. I don’t think I’d be here right now if I didn’t have her to talk me off the ledge when things get bad.” A dark cloud rolls in, overtaking his features and twisting them with stormy despair. The change is brief. As quickly as it came, the cloud is blown away by a sharp gust of wind, leaving a stoic, empty look in its place.
“She can be a real pain in my ass, though,” he says with an awkward chuckle that doesn’t lighten the load of his confession.
As much as I want to know more, this isn’t the time or place to push the issue.
There are too many options, so I grab our hostess’s pick and take Pictionary back to the group.
“Oh, you guys are so going down,” James says with glee when she sees the box in my hand.
“If you are so confident, we get Kori, then,” Karis says.
“Get Kori for what?” I ask.
“Our team. James, Morgan, and Evelyn vs. me, Gage, Nathan, and now you.”
“Oh.”
“Does this mean I can bring Sophie next time to even out the teams?” Nathan asks.
“Who?” Morgan asks.
“The girl I’ve been seeing.”
“Fuck no,” Karis interjects. “And don’t pretend it won’t be a different chick by the time we do this again.”
“Yes, you can bring a date,” James says, glaring at Karis. “It will even out the teams, and I don’t want y’all trying to dispute your losses due to ‘fairness.’”
Nathan and Karis continue to bicker as James removes herself from Morgan’s hold and retrieves a large pad of paper and an easel from somewhere down the hall.
“Dang, they take this seriously,” I murmur mostly to myself.
“Yes, they do,” Gage says, materializing behind me again—this time with two kitchen chairs in tow. “And James is an artist, so we are almost certainly going to get our asses kicked.”
He sets the seats down across from the others, with only a short few inches between them, and settles on a chair, arms crossed in front of his chest in a way that makes the thick bands of muscles in his forearms pop. My mouth goes dry at the sight. Goddamn, this man is on another level.
“Do you need something?” Gage asks, and I jerk my gaze away from him and drop it to the floor.
“Um…No…I’m sorry.” If the ground could open and swallow me now, that would be great.
“You sure? Not even a water? James normally offers. I think we threw her off her game.”
Oh.
The snare that wrapped itself around my lungs loosens. That was an actual question, not some dig at me checking him out.
“Water would be nice, actually,” I tell him with a tentative smile.
He makes a sound of acknowledgment and goes into the kitchen to get me a drink. When he returns, he puts the glass of ice water on a coaster on the coffee table and sprawls out in the chair beside me. His knee brushes against mine, and my body jolts as if I was a marionette whose strings were pulled tight by some unseen puppeteer. Gage’s touch is gone in an instant, and his attention tilts in my direction. The smallest hint of a frown playing at the corners of his lips.
I want to say something. Tell him he merely shocked me and thathistouch was more than welcomed, but I don’t get a chance before Karis’s voice cuts through the air.
“So who’s up first?”
***
