Page 74 of Game on, Love
“Does Dad know about them?” I asked.
“Not that I know of…”
I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve as anger fuelled me. He hasn’t told them. It’s beenyears, and he hasn’t told them the truth. I can’t be sure if he has taken stuff out of Ma’s journal to make it easier for him, but he hasn’t told them.
“Raina,” Vedant’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “What the hell do you mean you were there?”
“Nothing… I thought you meant something else. Forget it.”
“No, let’s talk about it now.” He was getting frustrated, which was rare even for him. “We’ve had enough of this‘Let’s forget it’between us to last a lifetime.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know about this from me. And I need to see the rest of them to be sure.”
“Sure of what?”
I pursed my lips. “Can you bring them here? Or ask Dev to?”
“Not before you tell me what all of this is about.”
Oh my god.
Like a dog with a bone, I opened my mouth to tell him exactly that when Oliver walked in, and instantly, the air prickled with tension.
Without looking at him, I replied to Vedant. “I will, once you let me read them.”
Vedant was quiet for a moment before he spoke. “Promise?”
“Yeah, promise.”
“Fine,” He sighed, shaking his head. “You make a hard bargain, little storm.”
“You’re just out of practice,” I pointed out, and to my surprise, he nodded.
“Too long,” He said, his tone laced with regret. In a normal situation, I would’ve gone ahead and hugged him. But… he was in his outside clothes, so now I just stood there with a very understanding look that I hoped was enough to convey I agreed with him, but clearly thatwasn’tenough. “A normal person would give their big brother a hug after that.”
“I would too, but…”
“But what?”
Oliver chuckled, his voice low and warm, yet the words he said sent a shiver down my spine. “You’re in your outside clothes.”
“In mywhat?”
“Outside clothes. The germs and bacteria will make her feel weird if she gives you a hug now.”
My lips parted as surprise and amusement ran through Vedant’s eyes. “Is that so?”
I closed my eyes briefly before clearing my throat. “Yes.”
In that moment, I think both of us forgot how to act, but everything in the way he tried to hide his smile told me I was going to get brutally teased by this for a long time.
He shook his head slightly before turning to Oliver. “You still planning to skip horror night?”
It was the first time after he’d entered the room that I looked at him, only to find that his eyes were already on me as he replied. “Fortunately, yes.”
“Maybe you two should do something together then. Raina also hates horror nights. Always has.”
“I can’t believe you still do those,” I murmured, too focused on the fact that they still did their yearly tradition of spending an entire day watching scary movies as they did with our parents to process the fact that my brother was casually suggesting Oliver and me to go out, alone and together.