“Come on,” Sophie said, standing up and extending her hand to Megan. “Let’s go get a couple of glasses of bubbly and you can fill me in on the past seven years.”
Megan could see that Sophie wasn’t at all over what had sent her off to hide in the potting shed, but she clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Not yet, anyway. Maybe when they’d gotten closer, she’d open up.
Then again, Megan knew exactly what it was to have a secret crush on someone who was totally off limits. It didn’t matter how close she and Sophie grew as friends, Megan was never, ever going to admit that she got tingly and breathless whenever Gabe was near.
If anything, the short conversation they’d just had was more than long enough to reinforce what she already knew: that giving in to the sparks she felt with Gabe would only end up breaking her heart.
Or worse, her daughter’s heart.
Chapter Seven
As the Sullivan holiday party wound down, most of Gabe’s siblings gravitated toward each other in a tight group around the fire. Normally, Gabe would have been in there with them all, but Sophie had pulled Megan into the group and he didn’t have a good enough grip on himself around her yet.
Sure, there was nothing going on between them. And there wouldn’t be in the future. But every once in a while a guy needed a break from a half-dozen pairs of probing eyes that just might see what he didn’t want them to.
Gabe kept himself busy playing pirate ship with the kids in the tree fort, and then flashlight tag in the backyard, until his mother called out that she’d put a movie on for them in the basement.
By that point, Gabe had to face up to what he was doing. He figured he’d been called a lot of things over the years, but he could guarantee he’d never been called a coward.
Chloe was yawning when he walked up to the fire pit. “Sorry to leave right when you get here,” she said to him with a sleepy look as she and Chase got up. “I’m exhausted for some reason.”
After his brother and fiancée said their goodbyes and he took one of the open seats, their friend Jake McCann strolled over to take the other.
“Hey, Jake.” Lori Sullivan, Sophie’s twin, peered over his shoulder. “What happened to your date?”
Gabe watched Jake grin at the woman he’d treated like a little sister for the past twenty years he’d been hanging out at the Sullivan house. Zach had brought him in one day when they were in fifth grade and the joke was that he’d become the ninth Sullivan. He’d been out of state working on a new chain of Irish pubs for the past six months, so this was the first time any of them had seen him in a while.
“Had to pour her into a cab a little while ago.”
Lori rolled her eyes. “You have terrible taste in women,” she teased him, then said, “We were just about to play Truth or Dare. Come on, join us.”
It didn’t matter that they were all adults now; the games hadn’t changed. They still played a nasty game of touch football every Thanksgiving in which the girls got in harder hits every year on their brothers...and at Christmas everyone still wanted to know each other’s secrets.
Lori threw a marshmallow across the fire to her twin. “Why don’t you go first, Sophie?”
Sophie caught the white puff of sugar right before it nailed her in the face, glaring at Lori as she tossed it straight into the center of the fire. As the flames caught and jumped, she said, “Truth.”
His sisters’ relationship hadn’t been all that great for a while now. No one could figure out why, and even though their mother was clearly worried about it, neither Lori nor Sophie would say what had happened. Even when they were arguing, they were fierce in their solidarity to keep things between the two of them. They were a tight little unit that none of them had ever been able to penetrate, not even Gabe, who was the closest in age and had spent more time with both of them than anyone but Marcus, who had pretty much helped raise them from toddlers.
“Why were you sneaking around tonight?” Lori asked her twin.
Sophie’s eyes were big, worried, as she fixated on the flames. She’d never been good at hiding her feelings, which was why she was nicknamed Nice, whereas Lori, who loved causing trouble, was Naughty.
Finally, Sophie said in a tight voice, “I wasn’t sneaking around.”
Lori narrowed her eyes. “I saw you coming out of Mom’s potting shed.”
“That’s my fault,” Megan offered in a cheerful voice. “I was looking for Summer and found my way there by accident.”
Her first victim saved by the bell, Lori turned on Jake. “Truth or dare?”
He shook his head slowly as he held out his hands toward the fire to warm them. “If you’re the one dishing out the dares, Naughty, I’ll pick truth, thanks.”
She shot him a wicked grin before putting her elbows on her knees, her chin on her hands, and leaning forward. “Have you ever been in love, Mr. McCann?”
Gabe noticed Sophie shiver beside him. “Cold, sis?”
“No.” She shook her head hard.
He frowned. Something was definitely up with her tonight, only he’d been too focused on Megan to try and figure out what Sophie was worried about.
Jake’s laughter rang out in the cold backyard. “In love?” he repeated. “Not even close. And I don’t see it happening any time soon.”
Clearly bummed that she hadn’t gotten more dirt out of Jake, Lori spun to face Gabe. “Your turn.”