His surprised silence rings in my ears, but as realization ends in shame on his face, I know the answer.I turn and pace without thought for my surroundings as I confirm what I already knew.
“Adolescent males are so stupid.”With my brain running a million miles an hour, my mouth refuses to stop.“Samuel was afraid I’d ruin his reputation so he refused to tell anyone we were siblings, but then he turns around and makes a scene and everyone starts coming up with ridiculous reasons why.None of them right, of course.”
“What did they think, sweet pea?”
I stop in my tracks and close my eyes.The hopeless misery festering in my soul threatens to rip me to shreds.
I pivot toward him and dig the gemstone of my ring into my palm.
“The popular girls thought you twolikedme.They couldn’t fathom any other reason for you to notice me, so they were absolutely horrendous to me.”
He pushes away from his desk and braces his elbows on his thighs.After ducking his head and running his hand through his hair, he looks up and meets my eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”he asks.
A scoff escapes my chest and I shrug.
“I was embarrassed!I was a twelve-year-old girl who was hoisted into high school and treated like a pariah.I had no one my age on the entire campus, no friends, no social skills, and a so-called brother who refused to acknowledge me.Telling you was the equivalent of suicide in my eyes.”
“So you thought pretending you’d locked yourself in the closet on accident was better?”
The anger in his tone won’t change the past.
“Yes!Looking foolish was better than looking weak and unliked,” I admit.
He takes a deep breath and stands.
“Did they do it again?”
His soft rumble coaxes the truth from me.
“Not that year.”
My damning words ring in my ears.I cover my face with my hands and turn away from him.
He steps around me and envelops me in his arms.Encased in his strength and pressed against his hard body, my control slips.An ugly sob wrenches from my chest.
His computer chimes.I twist my wrists, abandoning covering my face, and push against his chest.
My palms hit the lower part of his sternum.Like, below his pectorals.My heart skips a beat as the reality of his size hits me anew.
The top of my head barely reaches his chest.
“We’re in your office.Everyone can see,” I croak.
His hum vibrates throughout my body.
“Everyone went home already,” he says.
I twist my neck to look, but his gigantic bicep blocks my view.He bends and shifts his hug lower on my body.I squeak and instinctually grab his shirt front as he lifts me into the air.
He settles on the couch and sits me across his lap.I wriggle in a poor attempt at freedom, but he pulls my feet onto the cushion beside his hip and tucks my face against his chest.
“Is everyone really gone?”I whisper.
“Yes.Mr.Thomas was the last one, and he left ten minutes before you came into my office, but you were so in your own head you didn’t notice,” he murmurs.
My photographic memory insists he’s right, supplying me with information I couldn’t process through my emotional turmoil.As I sat scrolling at my computer, my coworkers filtered out with varying goodbyes until only myself and Mr.Sterling remained on the floor.
