Page 73 of Hold
Thea had been dying for and dreading the call from her sister, favorite or not.Well, at least she’s not Cat. “Hey.”
“Haven’t heard from you for eons. You okay?”
Thea hadn’t called Sam since before her week with Liam, and Gabriel’s arrival and all the chaos that had ensued.
“Well…”Just get it over with. Sam would get it out of her anyway; she’d never been able to lie to her. “Gabriel’s back.”
“What?That—” Sam went into a string of expletives that Benji would have loved to bring out at his next day camp assembly.
“Okay, okay,” Thea interrupted her. “I know, but it doesn’t help, Sam.”
“I hope that was what you said to him when he showed up. How did it happen? Did he call you? Did you see his cousins?”
“He showed up on my doorstep.”
“Goddammit! That… presumptuous, self-centered, uselessasshole! I hope you kicked him down the stairs.”
“He’s the boys’—”
“Oh shit, T, don’t give me that ‘he’s the boys’ father’ bullshit again! He hasn’t been a father to those boys in years, and you know it!”
That was true, on paper. And then there were all the extra years of therapy the boys might need if she didn’t let Gabe in.
“Why did he come back? Don’t tell me. He wants to swan back into your bed like nothing ever happened.”
Thea squirmed, but she couldn’t deny it. “He says he’s changed. He has a job now. I saw him driving a car from his cousin’s company; I think on that point, anyway, he’s telling the truth.”
“Uh-huh. And what other ‘truths’ has he been snowing you with?”
“I’m not snowed. I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
Sam’s snort made Thea check her phone ear for spittle. She pictured Sam, sprawled over a camp chair somewhere in New Mexico, a tiny tank top and cargo shorts showing off her skinny, child-free stomach, lifting her heavy russet hair off her neck, probably with a man naked and asleep in the next room. It was so easy for Sam. Her life was uncomplicated. She had no ties, no responsibilities. She could earn whatever she liked and sleep with whomever she liked.
“T?”
“And I slept with someone.”
Oops.
“Thea!”
“I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”
She imagined Sam’s long legs moving from dangling over the side of the chair to sitting up straight. “Oh my God! Tell meeverything! Was this before or after Gabe showed up? Tell me it was after—please tell me it was after.”
“It was before.”
“Damn, girl! About time! Who is he? Does this mean Gabe doesn’t have a prayer? ’Cause Gabe doesn’t have a prayer, right?”
She needed to answer that right away. Instead, she said, “He’s a guy I met at school. We… got to know each other over the summer.”
“What’s his name?”
“Liam.”
“Dammit, T, not another Irishman.”
“No. Well, yes, obviously. I mean, we do live in Boston. But he’s American. And anyway, quit tarring a whole nationality with Gabe’s brush.”