Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,108

of what she could do, who was scared to have friends in case they guessed the secret. I think you raised me to be able to go out on my own and live a full life. And I’m telling you, this is the beginning of it. It doesn’t mean I’m rebelling against you. It means I’m fulfilling every dream you had for me.”

The tension in the room had largely dissipated. My mother sat back in her chair and gazed at me thoughtfully. She glanced at my father, and when she spoke, her voice was low but steady.

“You’re right, Tas. We didn’t bring you up to be a hermit, or to stay with us forever. Maybe we just thought that we’d have a little more time. It was hard enough to accept that you’re ready to have a boyfriend, and we were probably pretty short-sighted not to realize that you’d want to share more of yourself with him.”

Now my face was really flaming. “Mom—you’re talking about Michael knowing I can hear minds, right? Because I haven’t, um, shared any more of myself with him.”

My mother laughed. “That is a relief, and it’s also a whole different conversation. No, I meant you telling him. Or him guessing, however it happened. I have to admit, though, that I’m very disappointed that you didn’t tell us sooner about him knowing. I won’t speak for your father, but it makes me feel left out. I’m also a little upset that you’ve been lying to us all this time.”

It was my turn to feel squirmy. “I didn’t really lie to you. You never asked me, and when you asked if I was being careful with Michael, I told you yes. That’s the truth. I was being careful. I am.”

“Tas.” My father’s rolled his eyes at me. “It’s the spirit of the rule, not the letter. You know that. You were fully aware of what we expected.”

“And what would you have done if I had told you?”

My mother spread her hands in front of her. “What can we do? He knows. It can’t be undone. We have to live with it, and hope for the best, I suppose.” Her tone indicated that she felt more doubt than hope about the situation.

“Your mom is right. But from now on, we expect you to be honest with us. No more secrets. Got it?”

I swallowed hard, thinking of what I hadn’t shared with them about Nell and Amber and our encounter in the clearing. I knew this wasn’t the time to do that, but I hated keeping anything from them. I nodded and forced a smile.

“Got it.”

Sunday was a blissfully uneventful day. Michael took me to Lancer Lake, to our special beach, and we spent the afternoon reading and talking about anything that wasn’t related to Nell or Amber.

That night, Anne called. I had been curious about how Friday evening had turned out for her and for Jim, and I was excited to talk to her.

“So?” I asked, anticipation in my voice.

“So what?” she replied, all innocence.

“So tell! Tell all!” I insisted. “What happened Friday night?”

“I could ask you the same thing. You and Michael disappeared pretty abruptly. No one knew what happened! We were worried!”

“Oh, yes, so worried you called me right away?” I teased.

“Well…” she giggled. “I have to admit, I slept most of yesterday. And then I had plans last night.” The emphasis she put on the word plans made me laugh.

“Oh, do tell!!” I insisted. “All the gory details, please!”

“The first thing I have to say is thank you. You were right. And I never would have known or done anything about it if you hadn’t said something. I don’t know if Jim would’ve gotten brave eventually, but he had no idea how I felt, so maybe not. Can you imagine? All this time, we’ve both been feeling the same way and not knowing it or telling each other?”

“No, I can’t imagine,” I replied, amused. “But what did he do? The last I saw, the two of you were heading to the dance floor, and Jim looked like someone had hit him over the head. He was positively dazed.”

“He was, wasn’t he?” Anne was clearly enjoying this. “We went out there, and at first, I wasn’t sure he was really going to dance with me. He just kept looking at me like he had never seen me before. But then we did dance, and suddenly, when his arms were around me, and we were moving to