Page 91 of Outdrawn

"I saw you talking to Tyson earlier. You can't fool me. Spill."

I dropped my pen and wiped my hands over my face. "God, I'm about to lose it."

"That bad?"

"No, it's not bad. I might be pitching for my own story soon," I gave in with a groan.

Seline disappeared for a second, something crashing on her side of the wall. Harry voiced a complaint that she brushed off before hurrying over to our cubicle. She lifted herself on top of my desk, legs swinging back and forth.

"This is incredible! You've been here, what? Five months?"

"Almost six." My laugh was shaky because I wanted to be excited. This was a huge deal.

"You are incredible." Seline squeezed my shoulder. "Why aren't you smiling? Jumping for joy? Telling us all to fuck off and not give you grunt work? You could own this section of the office."

"Woah, slow down. It's a chance to pitch, not a six-figure deal."

"Yet," Seline corrected. "But that's next."

"Maybe…"

"Jeez." She sighed. "This is about Sage and whatever's going on between you two, isn't it? I told her not to shit where she eats, and I think the same for you."

"It's not that easy."

"Why? Because she's pretty with an attitude?" Seline waved her hand. "I can find six of her down at some bar by the beach. You should join me. We'll get her out of your system."

"No." I shook my head. "I can't. There's no other person I want. It's her…Always has been."

"Always has been." Seline rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Yeah, yeah. You young folks are so romantic. What happened to playing the field? Taste testing?"

"I'm almost thirty."

"Yeah, young," Seline insisted. "Come back to me when you're in your mid-forties and can't feel your back after sitting for more than an hour."

"And wondering life's true meaning," Harry called from the other side of the wall.

"It's food," Seline told him. "Always."

"I've been leaning toward family, would you believe it?" I joked.

"Yeah, leaning is a keyword. You're on the fence. Might as well lean on over to food." Seline hopped off my desk, ready to get back to her own space. "Be happy about this, Noah. No matter what's going on between you and Sage, if she has half the brain we think she does, she won't hold this against you. You two should be mature enough to cheer for each other, and if not…well, I'm going bar-hopping this weekend and I can always use a wing-person who actually knows how to drink."

"I have a sister who depends on me," Harry defended.

"Oh, excuses, excuses. Next, you're going to be saying you need to be a good influence on her."

"Uh, yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on its head."

Seline snorted and gave me a wink before leaving.

She was right—I should be happy. I shouldn't be ruminating over what could go wrong and how this could make Sage feel. I planned to support her through thick and thin and hopefully, she planned to do the same. My stomach twisted at the possibility that she wouldn't be able to, or worse: she'd pretend, and the resentment would fester until it poisoned all the good that had begun to grow between us.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sage

I wasn’t as focused as I needed to be on what Tyson was saying. I got a text that my brother was finally up. Ash wanted to have a family meeting, something only I'd scheduled in the past. Everyone except Dad agreed to meet after I got off work. I was nervous and I didn’t know why. There was always something on the horizon with my folks. I could never tell what, and that had started to eat me up more and more.

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