Page 8 of The Inevitable Us

The sound of feet moving quickly on the pine needle-covered ground ahead of us in the clearing breaks our laughter.

“Over here,” Ezra calls out to the people moving quickly towards us, their headlamps illuminating the path between us.

“Did she hit her head? Or is it just her ankle?” Ethan asks as he approaches with Rory.

“Dad, I’m ok. It’s so stupid, I just sprained my ankle or something, and it was stuck,” Rosalie groans, embarrassed at the situation.

Ethan stretches his hands out to take Rosalie from me, still out of breath from running towards her, and for the second time in my life, I reluctantly hand Rosalie over to her father.

Rory leans into Rosalie, whispering something to her that makes her smile.

Feedback from the radios reaches my ears as more people approach. Likely with the stretcher we brought while prepping for the search. “We’re over here,” I yell out, motioning with my flashlight.

“This is so embarrassing,” Rosalie groans as all available hands load her onto the stretcher.

I want to be angry and lecture her on the hiking safety that Ethan, Brody, and I have drilled into Rosalie and the rest of the family. But I’m not angry. I’m just so fucking relieved to find her in relatively good health that I just shake my head.

We all take turns carrying Rosalie’s stretcher to the parking lot where everyone else is gathered.

I watch, an outsider, while Tessa fusses over Rosalie, tearfully chiding her for hiking alone. She’s wearing my hoodie, I realize. The one I’d given her last night to cover her dress.

My hand goes up to the spot on my pec where Rosalie had scratched me after she was born, while I was warming her on my chest. I’ve thought of that moment from time to time in the many years since.

The first time I held Rosalie, seconds after she came into this world, she’d left an indelible mark on my skin, on my heart. Tonight I opened those wounds and allowed myself to feel for the first time. I realize now that from the moment Rosalie was born, she’d marked me; tried to tell me that we would inevitably beus.

I’ve ignored my feelings towards Rosalie as nothing more than my generally protective nature, but I just can’t anymore. I need to figure out what I’m going to do about it and fast.

Chapter five

Rosalie

Four months later

“WelcometoSerendipity.CanI take your order?” Mallory’s voice sings out behind the register. I’ve been in the back all morning, making frozen cubes of cold brew for the iced coffees. Uncle Carson says it doesn’t water the coffees down as much when the freshly brewed coffee hits the ice.

I hate doing it since it’s so tedious, but Dad insists Rory and I work in the back, out of sight.

“I need a black coffee, plain, a Cuban sandwich to go, no chips, and a pickle cut in half.” I know that order. I know that voice.

Putting the silicone trays of cold brew into the freezer, I begin unbuttoning my shirt and tugging down the tank top I wore underneath it, revealing my cleavage. I hate that Mom and Dad picked out these ugly green button-down oxford shirts for us to wear with khakis. It’s boxy on my small frame and doesn’t quite fit me well. Flipping my hair, I give it a good finger comb before reaching into my pocket for the petal pink lip gloss I keep there just for this occasion.

Using my compact to apply it, I walk to the front of the café. Brown eyes the color of dark chocolate greet me as he scans my body up and down. I roll back my shoulders and pop my hip. “Good morning, Sawyer; I thought you were off this weekend?”

Sawyer’s forehead wrinkles, and a grimace of disapproval comes on his face. “I live around the corner, which you know, Rosalie.”

Raising an eyebrow, I shoot him a pout. “And here I thought you came to check on me.”

Reaching for his coffee that Mallory has prepared, he takes a sip, giving me his standard unreadable expression. “Nope, just getting my lunch while running errands.”Please smile at me.

He leans in, gently tapping the tip of my nose with his finger. “Should I be checking up on you? You aren’t skipping out of work early to meet with boys, are you? You know Ethan insists on meeting them.”

Yes, I’m very aware of my father’s strict rules about dating. It’s painful to watch Josie’s dates practically pee themselves after Dad brings them downstairs toshow them his man cave.

I’ve never had a boyfriend, and my brothers don’t dateper se, so it’s only been Josie’s dates that have been dragged down to the basement so far. Lowering my voice, I ask him, “You don’t think I would tell you if I was sneaking out now, do you, Sawyer? You’d go straight to Dad and tell him!”

I take satisfaction in the tightening of his jaw and the way he grips his coffee cup. Through gritted teeth, he tells me, “Rosalie, if I find out you’re breaking your parents’ rules, you know I have to tell them. And you know I always find out what you’re up to. So I sincerely hope, for the sake of the young men of Nashville, that you aren’t.”

I turn around saucily, heading to the kitchen again. Looking back at Sawyer, I shoot him a small smile. “I guess if I am, I had better hope you don’t find out?” I sass him with a wink.

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