Page 22 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

A mistake.

“Anyway, enough of that,” Kent says, shaking off the somber energy of the conversation and then smiling at me. “Tell me. What’s been going on with you?”

I take a deep breath, pushing down every thought I’ve had over the past two weeks since all of them are colored with Harley.

Time to turn on the bullshit.

7

HARLEY

“Harley, where is your helmet?”

I put down the kickstand on my motorcycle and smile over my shoulder. “Calm down, Dana.”

She crosses her arms, leaning against the doorframe of her little Burbank bungalow. She used to live with Dad until a few years ago when she moved into this place. Of course, she didn’t go very far. Of the five of us, she’s the most attentive to his needs. That’s the way she’s always been since Mom left, maybe because she is the oldest. “I’m not going to calm down. If you got in an accident–”

“Dana, seriously, it’s ninety degrees out,” I interrupt. “You should be happy I’m at least wearing a leather jacket,” I say, sliding it off my arms and I come up the walkway to meet her.

She twists her lips in annoyance. “Well, you’re also late.”

“I know. I rode the middle of the lane all the way here. Traffic was just crazy.”

“I hate when you do that too.”

I slide past her into the entryway. I can hear my other sisters already talking in the other room. “Chill out, Dana. I’m here. I’m in one piece.”

“Shoes,” Dana says before I can take another step into the house.

I let out a big sigh as I look at the line of shoes up against the wall. “Right.” I bend over and start to unlace my boots. I started riding choppers back in Australia. My family wasnothappy when I came back with Harleys on the brain. “Harley riding a Harley? This is a family embarrassment,” my dad had joked.

The wind in my hair and the freedom I get from being on a bike make up for all the gear and the leather that I have to put up with.

It just gets so fucking hot sometimes.

I unlace one boot, then the other, and just before I can walk into the other room, Dana stops me again. “Harley–”

“Jesus, Dana, what?!”

Dana raises an eyebrow. None of us can talk back to her. Not anymore.

“Sorry. Just…I’m hot. Is the AC on?’

She chuckles. “Blasting.”

I rub the back of my neck, slick with sweat. “What is it?”

“At the Fourth of July party…”

My stomach drops.Oh no.

“When I found you in the treehouse.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.I’ve been caught. I don’t know how or what she knows, but I know that this secret I’ve been keeping for the past two weeks is about to slap me right in the face. As if thinking about Grant nonstop isn’t enough, now my sister is about to reveal that the whole family knows and I’m a disgrace.

“Were you with someone?” Dana finally asks.

Okay, that could have been worse.

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