Tilting his head, Truitt studied me. “Saryn, I was only at your place for a limited time.”
“What if I don’t want you to leave? What if I want you and Rus to stay with us?’
The corners of his mouth twitched with the grin he attempted to hold back. “Are you asking me to move in with you after one date?”
I laughed. “I think we can safely say we’ve had a few more dates. And I’m not asking you to move in, at least not yet. But it would be nice to have you there tonight and tomorrow morning.”
Truitt swallowed hard. “I’d like that, but what about Liliana?”
“Let me ask you something, Truitt. Where do you see us in six months? Our relationship, I mean.”
He blew out a breath and looked up before he focused back on me. “Well, I don’t want to push my luck, but since we just built this massive playhouse here on your folks’ ranch, I see me spending a lot of time here. With you and Liliana. I’d like to see y’all at my place, too. I’ve already thought about building something for Liliana there. On a much-smaller scale.”
I smiled. “Yes, nothing so extravagant like this. Maybe just a normal tree house and some swings.”
He nodded.
“But back to the other stuff,” I said. “I see that, too. I’m not worried about Liliana, Truitt. She adores you. She loves you, she told me so.”
Truitt’s eyes widened a bit before filling with wetness. He blinked rapidly to keep from crying.
When he tried to speak, his voice cracked, and I fell more in love with him. Finally, he got his speaking voice back. “I love her, too.”
Placing my hand on his chest, I drew in a slow, deep breath then exhaled. “She’s not the only one who has fallen in love with you.”
Truitt sucked in a breath.
“To hell with all the people who say it’s way too fast for me to feel it, let alone say it. I fell in love with the boy who was my brother’s best friend, and I don’t think I ever stopped loving him.”
Truitt cupped my face within his hands and kissed me. Neither one of us cared who was watching, what anyone said, or what rumors might spread. He kissed me like he had been wanting to do it for days. Months. Years.
“I’ve already fallen, sweetheart.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again. This time the kiss caused a few people to whistle and yell for us to get a room.
“Are you done snogging my sister, dude?”
“Snogging?” Truitt repeated as we stepped away from one another. He took my hand in his and I loved how it made my stomach flutter.
“Kissing? Sucking face. Making out with her in front of everyone, including my father who currently looks like he might want to rip your balls off?”
Truitt and I turned to see my dad in a deep conversation with Jack and not paying the least bit of attention to us.
“Asshole, you interrupted a perfectly good kiss,” Truitt stated.
“Whatever, just do it when I’m not around to see it. Please.”
As Ryan walked away, I glanced up at Truitt. “My mom said you didn’t want to go to your folks’ house tonight. Is there a reason why?”
His smile instantly dropped, and Ryan stopped walking. He turned and looked at Truitt. Something seemed to pass between them. It was then I remembered a couple of weeks back, when Truitt and Ryan had acted strangely after they went out for a few hours. I had forgotten all about it. Life got so busy with Christmas, it had slipped my mind.
Truitt rubbed the back of his neck as he blew out a long deep breath. “Let me make sure everything is good to go here, and then we need to talk in private. The three of us.”
Ryan made his way back over to us as Truitt walked toward Jack. I couldn’t help but notice how much he was limping, and I wanted to say something about him not using his cane, but I let it go. For some reason, things just turned very serious. A part of me was scared to hear what Truitt had to say. Did this have anything to do with his strange behavior a few weeks ago?
“Come on, let’s walk back to your place,” Ryan said as he took me by the elbow.
“What’s going on, Ryan?” I asked.
He focused straight ahead. “It’s for Truitt to tell you, not me.”
Truitt
RYAN HEADED BACK to Saryn’s house with her, giving me a few moments to get my thoughts together.
I knew I had to tell her, I was just figuring out how to do it. After I first found out, I didn’t even want to think about everything that Tim had said to me. I was angry about so many things. Angry at Tim for lying to Saryn. Angry at my father for having an affair and leaving Tim to fend for himself. I was even somewhat angry that Saryn believed Tim’s accusation when he said I only wanted to sleep with her.