Faked - Karla Sorensen Page 0,66

a situation where Richard thought we were dating. I conned her into spending days stuck in a cabin in the remote wilderness with me.

With a dawning sense of horror, while I watched Lia make her own animated gestures back at Claire, I realized that her family had absolutely every reason to be skeptical. The first guy she was bringing home had the reputation of a hothead and a drunk.

"What's that look on your face?" Finn asked.

I blinked over at him. Apparently, Claire wasn't the only one good at reading people. My first instinct was to give him a flippant answer so that he'd leave me alone, reestablish that my little brother didn't know shit about me, because he'd never really tried.

But I hadn't tried either.

It was a tough pill to swallow, but in light of what Claire said about Adele and my mom, who I didn't even really remember except for pictures, I was forced to acknowledge my own part in the rift between me and my family.

What if I had the same effect on Claire and hers? Caused some sort of tension because they couldn't reconcile who she brought home.

"They'll all hate me, won't they?"

He chuckled. "Not all of them."

"Thanks, that makes me feel better."

Finn was giving me a curious look. "I'm surprised you care if they do or don't. You've always made it perfectly clear to us that your own family's opinion doesn't matter. Why does hers?"

Apparently, Golden Boy knew me better than I thought. My family's opinion hadn't mattered, not in any of the choices I made, which is why I never cared too much that they hadn't celebrated in my victories either. In that way, Claire and I couldn't have been more different. Behind her was a veritable army, ready to defend her against the slightest hurt, perceived or otherwise.

Then there was me.

The one who normally held his inked hands, middle finger up, to the people who were supposed to care for him the most.

"I don't have to justify myself to you, Finn," I said. His frame tensed, bracing for whatever was going to come out of my mouth next. He'd heard it enough over the years. For her, I had to remind myself I could try. I took a deep breath and tried to answer more calmly. "It matters because she matters. To me," I clarified.

His jaw relaxed, shock clear in the widening of his eyes. "You've known her for like, five days."

Claire turned back in our direction, and I found myself breathing more easily when her eyes met mine, sparkling with warmth and sweetness. Whatever had been talked about with Lia, Claire felt good about it.

And by extension, I felt something ease inside me. Simply because she looked happier.

Fuck, falling in love was terrifying, wasn't it?

This woman could ask for a knife to flay me alive, and I just might have handed it to her with a dopey ass grin on my face. It was the scariest shit I'd ever experienced in my life, which didn't explain why all I wanted to do was hold her hand, see her smile back at me, and know that she was in it with me.

Finn laughed softly at whatever was on my face.

"Shut up," I mumbled.

When Claire walked straight into the arms I hadn't even realized I'd opened for her, Lia grimaced before she could stop herself. Finn elbowed her, and instead of trying to figure out what it meant, I buried my nose in the top of Claire's head and breathed in deeply.

She felt so good in my arms, and I hated how much the raised hackles inside me were soothed by her open affection in front of her sister and my brother.

Claire slid her arm around my waist and faced the other two but kept herself tucked into my side. "Where are you guys off to?"

Lia let out a slow breath, and I made sure to keep my expression pleasant.

She was stubborn, I already knew that. And she'd had years of building up an opinion of me that wouldn't be erased with one single conversation in a parking lot.

"I need to run to the store before dinner, and my car's acting up," Lia said.

"Again?" Claire shook her head. "That car is such a piece of shit."

Her sister smiled, as did Finn, so I gathered it must have been a running joke between the three of them.

"I could look at it," I told her.

Lia's eyebrows popped up. "You fix cars?"

My hand curled up around Claire's neck,