Page 4 of Promised Secret
“Have you ever imagined us being brothers?” I found myself asking.
His frown deepened, the area between his eyebrows scrunching up so much that his two brows became one. “You want us to be brothers?”
I shrugged, lowered my gaze, and kicked the air withmy feet. Seeing how disgusted he was with the idea made me feel stupid for asking the question.
“Right. Why would you want a brother likeme?” I mumbled.
“Don’t talk about yourself like you’re not enough. You know that’s not what I meant. You’re one of the best people I know. Clay, I?—”
I looked up when he didn’t continue. Dan nibbled on his bottom lip. He never did that, which meant I found myself staring at them. Had they always looked that plump? I’d never noticed how red they were, either.
Dan caught me staring, which had both of us avoiding eye contact from the embarrassment. He cleared his throat, his eyes darting around the room before landing back on mine.
“You’re one of the best people I know, Clay. You’re patient, so protective of the people you care about, and just so freaking amazing.”
He was so serious in his compliments that heat rose to my cheeks.
“I’m not that great,” I replied shyly. I wasn’t used to anyone saying such nice things about me. It wasn’t like Mom never complimented me, but she was my mom. Hearing all these nice things said about me from someone other than her made something inside my chest tickle.
Dan took my hand in his and forced me to look at him.
“You are. I wish you could see yourself the way I do.I…I really like you,” he said. This time, he was the one acting shy.
“I like you, too.”
I was beaming. Of course I liked him. He was my best friend. The best person I knew, and someone I hoped to keep in my life forever.
Dan watched me as I continued smiling. It felt like he was studying me or trying to read me. He didn’t smile back, and my expression deflated just a bit.
He sucked on his bottom lip for a brief second before releasing it.
“I don’t think you understand what I mean,” he said slowly.
I frowned, confused by what else his words could have meant. He liked me, and I liked him. It was normal for best friends to feel that way, so what else could he mean?
He let out a sigh that sounded even more frustrated than when he was worrying about a problem.
“Clay, I like?—”
“What are you boys doing? Where’s your dad, Dan?”
The rest of Dan’s sentence was cut off by my mom walking through the front door. She glanced between the two of us with a weird look on her face, but before she could say anything, Dan’slao-baentered the reception area from the back.
Dan tensed but returned to his laid-back manner soquickly that I wouldn’t have noticed the strange action if I hadn’t spent years watching the man.
“There you are, Sandra,” Victor said, face lighting up at seeing my mom. He beelined toward her, and I didn’t miss Mom’s shy smile or the way her eyes lingered on Victor as he strode to her side.
It was surreal seeing them like this. They never acted this way before, and I was starting to wonder if my wish for them getting together was merging with my reality. But then Victor wrapped an arm around Mom’s waist and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Mom turned her head to accept it in a familiar way.
My eyes bugged out of my head. In my peripheral vision I could see Dan had a similar reaction. While I was more shocked than anything else, he looked a bit…horrified? I must have interpreted his expression wrong. Sure, who wanted to imagine their parents getting together? But if they made each other happy, that was all that mattered.
What I was most curious about was how long they’d been hiding this from us, but I didn’t have to wait for an answer.
“There’s something we want to tell you boys,” Victor started, then turned to my mom. Only when she nodded did he continue. “Sandra and I have been dating for a couple of years.”
“Years?” Dan asked in obvious shock. “You’ve been going behind our backs for that long?”
“We weren’t going behind anyone’s back. We were being discreet,” Victor replied.
