Page 53 of Blindsided

“Why don’t you want her family to know?” Adam’s question makes Sara frown.

“Because Desmond has always been overly protective of her. Every single guy she’s ever dated has never been good enough for her. He’s warned her against them all and has gone as far as to threaten the guy if he’s a major asshole.”

“And you’re worried he’ll break the two of you up,” Adam finishes for me.

“Yeah.” I sigh. “I’m his best friend. There’s no way he’d be okay with me dating his little sister. At first, we didn’t want to tell him because we weren’t sure if there was more than a physical connection between us. Now… I don’t know. It’s getting hard to hold this secret back when he calls. And I don’t want to hide my relationship with her. I genuinely like her.”

More than like her, if I’m honest, but I’m not going to say that out loud to my siblings when I haven’t yet told Tilly how I feel.

Adam and Sara look at each other, doing the silent communication thing they’ve done since we were kids. I hate it when they do that.

“This is going to blow up in your face if you’re not careful. You need to tell him. And soon,” Sara warns.

“I know. We will.”

They leave it at that. There’s not much else they can say anyway. We either need to tell Desmond or go our separate ways.

And I refuse to do the latter.

CHAPTER23

Tilly

Itype a few more notes into the document before I forget them. I woke up this morning with something brewing in my head. I have no idea what’s going to become of it, but for the first time in months, I’m excited.

“Whatcha working on?” Matty asks. He sits next to me on the couch and grabs my feet to pull them into his lap.

I bite the bottom of my lip, nervous. I’m afraid if I say anything, the idea is going to vanish.

Matthew frowns. “What is it?”

“I got an idea for a book,” I whisper.

A grin flashes across Matthew’s face. “You did? What’s it about? Are you going to write it? You’d be amazing at that!”

His palpable excitement eases some of the tension in my body. I thought I might be insane. I don’t know anything about writing a book. How could I believe I would be able to write a story like it was nothing?

“I don’t have all the details worked out just yet. I also want to read some books on how to actually do this.”

“Don’t get lost in the details. Get it written, and then you can fix it to make it perfect.”

I smile at him. “I like that idea.” I could start writing but still read about the craft to know how to finish.

“Are you still hanging with the girls tonight?”

“Yeah, Sara and Natalie invited me, Ellie, and Ellie’s friend, Katie, to get drinks.”

“Good. You’ll have fun with them.”

“What will you get up to tonight?”

“Adam, Nolan, and I are taking Carter out to O’Malley’s. Nolan plans on getting him drunk.”

I was heartbroken for Carter when Matthew told me what happened. I can’t imagine how isolating it would be to be gay in a town like Westlake. While it’s not as small as Sonoma, it’s still a rural area.

“Make sure he’s not wallowing too much. It’s easy to get caught up in being sad and not be able to find your way out.”

Matthew squeezes my leg. “We’ll take care of him.”

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