Smart guy.
Olive sighs happily, then meets my gaze and roams her eyes up and down my frame. “It must be a special day. You’re hardly ever here. Are you going to whisk me off to test that new chocolate shop that just opened today? Because I had plans already to eat my lunch there.”
“No,” I say, steeling myself to tell her the truth, the full truth, and nothing but. “Listen,” I begin.
In a nanosecond, she sits up straighter, her expression shifting to intensely serious. “Oh.”
Images of my mother flicker before my eyes. Her pop-in this morning. Her assumptions. The way she’s lived her life. My deep, potent desire to be the opposite to her. I haven’t entirely been that way these last few days, but I have to be now. If I want to have the life I desire, I can’t operate like her at all. Not one bit. “Mom came by this morning.”
Olive cringes. “What did she want?”
“To ask me to be her maid of honor. She’s marrying Silvio.”
Olive’s jaw clangs to the center of Earth, then back up. “Oh, Katie. I’m so sorry.”
I shake my head, quickly dismissing any sympathy. “It’s fine. I’m not upset. I don’t care about her or him. But the thing is, I don’t want to be like her. Not at all. And I have been. I haven’t been truthful with you.”
Confusion crosses her face, lining her brow. “Okay. What do you mean?”
With my head held high, I begin. “I fell in love with Harlan while working with the Renegades. He’s wonderful and amazing, and I’m going to start seeing him. We were going to wait till the end of the season, and I’ve been looking for a replacement to recommend for the classes I teach them, and I had this whole plan to find someone who they’d want and be impressed with. I was going to finish out the contract and then tell you,” I say, and sadness flickers in my sister’s eyes.
“You were?” She sounds devastated.
I’m such an ass for hurting Sassy Yoga. But I have to do this. No matter what.
“I’m so sorry, Olive. I know it probably seems selfish, and I’m about to tank a deal. But I can’t be this person who’s ridiculously in love with this guy and making plans to be with him and not tell you. And not tell them—Lacey at Wilder Enterprises. I feel like I’m deceiving everyone, and that’s wrong. I hope you can forgive me, but I can’t work with them anymore. And that has to start now.”
She shakes her head and doesn’t stop shaking it.
My heart plummets, knowing I’ve disappointed her so terribly. Tears well in my eyes, and a lump forms in my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I say past the hitch. “I’m sorry I messed up this deal you and Zachary worked so hard for. But I just can’t lead a double life. I need to be honest about this—fully honest. So I’m truly sorry.”
She gets up, scoots closer, wraps an arm around me.
Huh.
That’s not what I expected.
“Um, I thought you were upset. You were just shaking your head like crazy,” I say, flummoxed.
She laughs into my hair. “Because I’m so happy for you, you dork.” Then she yanks me in tighter for a hug.
Second out-of-body experience so far today, and it’s not even noon. But I go with it, hugging her back. “You’re happy for me? You don’t hate me? You don’t think I’m terribly selfish?” I ask against her shoulder as tears slip down my cheeks.
She shakes her head once again, then breaks the hug but clasps my shoulders. “No. I think this is incredible. I’m happy for you. And telling me takes guts. Being willing to walk away from a deal takes big ovaries. Going after love takes so much courage.”
Oh, hell. The tears fall even faster. “Really?”
“Yes, really. You’re not at all like Mom. You’re brave and gutsy, and I think this is fantastic. You could have sneaked around for two more months, but you didn’t.”
It’s my turn to wince. “Well, we did sneak around yesterday. We had sex at the yoga studio, and then when Mom showed up this morning, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.”
She smacks my thigh. “Sex at the studio! Oh my God, you dirty, racy girl. I want to hear how it was.”
I grin, all hopped up on endorphins again. A tingle races down my chest from the memory. “Amazing,” I say.
But I’m not only remembering the physical side of our relationship.
I’m recalling all the emotions.
And the words.
And the connection.
And I can’t wait to share those details with my pack. “He’s a good guy with a big heart, and he’s in love with me too,” I say, feeling all dreamy and warm. “Like, one hundred percent. You and Emerson and Jillian and Skyler have nothing to worry about. He’s worthy.”