Love.

He knows what I mean. I relinquish him of his guilt. It’s over. From now on, we move forward.

I lean forward, and Chris pushes himself up to grab my face and kiss me.

And god, does it feel good to feel his lips on mine again.

I don’t give a crap if anyone’s watching. I should’ve done this sooner.

Tricia clears her throat. My lips unlock from his, and I look up at her with embarrassment. She probably didn’t expect to see this between us, and I guess we do have some explaining to do.

“Um …” I mutter.

Then the door opens, and Alyssa is bumped forward as the rest of our family steps into our room. The look on their faces as they see Chris and me in an intimate embrace with swollen, red lips is killing me.

I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or beg for mercy.

But I don’t care what happens next, either. As long as Chris is here, I can get through anything. I came so close to losing him. I didn’t know what I had until it almost slipped through my fingers. I have him in my clutches now, and I’m not going to let go.

“Leo … Adrian,” I mumble as everyone walks inside and seems to be a little surprised to see us like this.

“Chris,” Leo says. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just a broken bone. Nothing to worry about,” Chris says.

“Seems like our stepsister distracted you from your race a bit, huh,” Adrian jokes.

“She sure did,” Chris muses.

I roll my eyes at him.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay, bro,” Adrian says, hugging his brother, and then he perches himself against the wall.

Leo comes to give him a bro hug too, as well as Samantha. Leo exchanges a look with Chris before staring at me and raising his eyebrow. Sam sits down on a seat next to the table in the corner.

“What?” I say.

“Oh … nothing.”

I frown. “Oh, save it.”

He holds up his hands. “I’m not saying anything.” He sits down beside Samantha.

Suddenly, the door opens again and Chris’s father bursts in.

“Chris!” he says, and he rushes into the room to give his son a bear hug. His weight almost squishes Chris.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he says. And then he turns to me. “You did well to look out for your stepbrother.”

“Um, he isn’t just her stepbrother,” Adrian says.

“Adrian!” I hiss.

“What do you mean?” Frank asks.

“Ahh …” I don’t exactly know how to tell him this, and if I’m even the right person to say this.

“So … I guess it’s out now,” Chris says, clearing his throat.

“What? You mean that you two like each other?” Tricia says.

My jaw drops. I think I didn’t hear that right. “What?”

She smiles mischievously and then drops a bomb that I couldn’t see coming, not even from an inch away. “You think I didn’t know?”

Chapter 36

Emily

“Oh, my god,” I say.

Adrian laughs a little. “Yep, I knew she was going to say that.”

“So, you two are having a … relationship?” Chris’s father asks.

Chris licks his lips and looks at me for confirmation before saying anything. “I didn’t want it to be uncomfortable, but … yes.”

“Well, this is rather confusing,” his father says.

“Not to us,” Leo says. “They’re just stepbrother and sister, but not by choice.”

“Exactly,” Chris hums.

“Everyone knows?” I ask.

They all pretty much shrug.

“Did you think we wouldn’t notice? All those times you looked at each other, we could see it. And the way you talked and then avoided each other like the plague. I’ve seen it happen in my house, and when you two both left to find your own place, I could still see the same spark between you,” Tricia says. “I knew something was going on, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. But now I can.” She smiles awkwardly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I say.

“Well, you seemed to have a bit of a problem with it yourself. That’s why I took you with me to meet Victor. I thought you had troubles with getting over Chris, so I wanted to help you out a little. But I guess that didn’t go as planned.”

I bury my face in my hands. “Oh, god …”

Alyssa bursts into laughter, and everyone turns to look at her. “Oh, don’t mind me. Just ignore me. Pretend I’m not here,” she says. “On second thought, I’ll just go now that I know he’s okay.” She winks at me. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Thanks. For being here and everything,” I say to her, and I wave as she leaves.

“Okay, so you two are a thing?” Frank asks as if he still can’t believe it. “And this happened because of the accident? Or did the accident happen because of it? I don’t understand.”

“No.” Chris laughs. “I’ve pretty much wanted her all my life.”

My cheeks heat up. “We have a history, yeah …”

“I’ll tell you some other time,” Tricia tells him, grabbing his arm. “Let’s just give them some time, okay?”

“But—”

“Don’t worry, you can ask everything you want later. I’m not going anywhere,” Chris says.

His father nods, but he doesn’t seem angry, so I guess it went better than I thought.

“Wow …” Adrian mouths. “I did not expect it to go like this. Phew.”

“I didn’t know you all knew. How did you?”

“It was kind of obvious,” Leo muses. “Like … really obvious.”

Now I’m really a tomato.

“Hey, don’t feel bad. We can tell you both care a lot about each other. Even though you screamed at each other like fucking monkeys in a zoo,” Leo says with a laugh.

“Yeah, but I felt it was kind of … weird. You know, I can’t explain it, but we’re also family. And this isn’t exactly kosher.”

“But you’re not blood-related,” Adrian pitches in.

“And I loved you even before my mother got together with your dad,” Chris says, pulling me in for another kiss on the cheek. “I was first.”

I chuckle a little. “True.”

“So everyone’s okay with it?” I ask.

“Okay as we can be. I’m actually happy this fight between the two of you is finally over,” Leo says.

“Yeah, it lasted long enough. I was getting tired of it. So much so that I was about to tell our parents myself.”

“Adrian!” I make a face.

“Relax. It turned out okay, didn’t it? You’ve told them now. Or they saw it, actually.” He muffles a laugh. “You were so into each other; I wasn’t sure if we should’ve even entered the room.”

“Oh, stop,” I say.

“Yeah, let’s leave these lovebirds to themselves,” Sam muses.

“They need some time to figure it out,” Leo says.

“Fine, let’s go.” Adrian is first to walk out. Leo and Sam follow him hand-in-hand, while Sam gives me a happy smile. Then she mouths at me and Chris, “By the way, it’s a girl.” She points at her belly, and then winks before leaving the room.

I grin from the thought.

This whole conversation didn’t go as bad as I expected it to go. I’m glad it went the way it did, but I’m also glad they’re gone now.

“So, it’s just the two of us now, huh?” Chris mumbles.

“Yep,” I say.

There’s a suspicious smirk on his face, and it makes me wonder what he’s hiding. “What?”

“I’ve been in an accident. Do you know what that means?”

“That you’re in pain?”

“No. That you have to take extra good care of me.”

I roll my eyes at him. “I always take good care of you. That’s my job. Making sure you don’t fuck up.”

“Well, I sure fucked up pretty badly this time. Does that mean I get to blame you for it now?”

I sigh. “All right, fine. I apologize. I’m sorry I blamed you all this time.”

“For what? Your father’s death?” He laughs. “I didn’t say it to make you think that it was about your father. Oh no, I know what I’ve done.”

“But Tricia just told me that he’d threatened suicide long before then. It wasn’t because of what you did … he was planning it all along.”

“Hmm … I’m sorry your father died. I really am. But I am relieved that it might not be all my doing,” he says with a genuine smile on his face.