Faked (Ward Family #2)(23)

For the seventeenth time that morning, I rolled my eyes as I tucked my fourth unnecessary outfit into my backpack.

"You don't happen to know his social, do you?"

I answered with the same level of patience that I had her previous sixteen questions about Bauer. "No, Paige, I don't."

Whatever she saw on her phone screen made her bring it up closer to her face. My sister Isabel, older than Lia and me by two years, peeked over her shoulder and hummed appreciatively.

Paige, our sister-in-law—but for all intents and purposes, our surrogate mom—glared at her. "We don't make noises about men who are absconding with Claire overnight to mansions."

"Yeah, but look at him," Isabel murmured. "I'd let him abscond with me anytime."

I swallowed carefully as she said it because it was easy to imagine Isabel with someone like Bauer. Of the four of us, Isabel was the most athletic. For the past four years, she'd managed a kickboxing studio and gym, doing personal training sessions for extra money, and she looked like the kind of woman who would date a professional snowboarder.

With her dry sense of humor, Isabel would easily be able to keep up with Bauer.

Carefully, without allowing myself a shred of curiosity at what they were staring at, I pushed my pajama shorts into the top corner of the bag. "It's not like this was his idea," I told the peanut gallery. "Why is it necessary for you to be here again?"

"Moral support," Paige said.

"Are you kidding? I want to meet Bauer," Isabel interjected. "You get to pretend to be his girlfriend, you little punk."

"Please stop saying that." When I tugged the zipper closed with a bit too much force, I hissed in a breath. "It's one night, and as long as I'm not walking around punching him in the throat, the extent of my pretending anything is that I answer to a different name than my own."

"And if that is all you do with Bauer ‘the Hawk’ Davis"—the emphasis she put on his professional name made me want to gouge my elder sister's eyes out—"with this one night, I'll have you checked out for mental deficiency."

Paige cleared her throat. "I'm right here."

Iz rolled her eyes. "Like we haven't talked about worse."

"I know," Paige said, "but it's Claire. She and Lia are my babies. I refuse to believe you two have actually aged beyond the adorable little angels you were when I first married your brother."

I froze.

Isabel froze.

Paige actually sniffled.

I approached her slowly, this woman we all loved so much. The woman who would fight the world for us if we needed her to, who was crying over a memory of my sister and I that was absolutely, horribly skewed.

We called it cognitive distortion for a reason.

My hand landed on her back softly, and I moved it around in soothing circles. Paige exhaled shakily, swiping her hand over her face. I mouthed, “Why is she crying?” to Isabel, and she shrugged.

"Paige?" I said.

She sniffled again.

"Do you ... do you remember me and Lia from when you first got married?"

From the kitchen, Lia burst into hysterical laughter.

Paige smiled, her shoulders sinking as her rare outburst of watery emotion dried up. "You were terrors, created for the sole purpose of destroying my sanity."

I nodded. "Testing the boundaries of someone new to a parental role is completely developmentally normal and expected for situations like that."

Leaning her shoulder against the doorjamb, Lia joined us, watching the scene with a grin. "I did some of my best work those first few months you were around."

"Remember the lizard in the shower?" I asked.

My sister's face took on a dreamy quality. "Her screams were a thing of beauty."

Paige rolled her eyes, which made Lia laugh heartily.

At the sight of her smile, I felt something uncoil inside me. A cool sweep of relief because all morning, we'd danced around each other.

When she was on edge, I couldn't help but absorb some of that energy. It was the same way with her.

Our unease might have been born from different places, but I could tell that we were doing this particular sidestep all last night and early that morning because we didn't need to add to our current supply by unconsciously adding the other person’s.

Lia was uneasy because a relatively innocent plan had turned into something far larger. She couldn't help these people she loved, and she was still annoyed at her friend for not giving her (and by extension me) a heads-up. All of that left her feeling uncomfortable and out of control.

I knew because I could feel the edges of it. Like she stepped into water, and that water was lapping up against me.

I was uneasy, because I was about to spend twenty-four hours with Finn's parents, who knew I lied to them. Because a rich dude was impressed with my random yet-so-far useless knowledge of childhood development. And because last night, standing in the parking lot, Bauer Davis basically told me he wanted to kiss me, and that it was entirely in my control to make that happen.

Yeah. That was nothing I needed Lia to absorb.

It was hard enough and took enough time to hone my ability not to be swayed emotionally when Finn was around because I didn't want her to feel it.

This was something else. Not bigger—because my crush on Finn, which was hardly the problem right now—but big in a different way.