The Survivor - Cristin Harber Page 0,69

carrots into the crock-pot. “Every game’s a big game.”

Football banter and family. This was what he needed. But his anger was only diluted. “That’s what you always say.”

Roxana placed the cutting board to the side and wiped her hands. “And they always are.”

“If you say so.” He found her rock-solid faith in the Wildcats endearing, especially when she was convinced everything would always go wrong for them—and maybe she was right. He hated Amanda Hearst.

Roxana took the handles of Mom’s wheelchair and led them from the kitchen. “Will you be around for the rest of the weekend?”

Hagan trailed. “I don’t know.”

“What’s your plan?” She parked Mom next to the coffee table and sat next to Jason on the couch.

Hagan sat on the stuffed chair next to their mother. He repositioned, unable to find a comfortable spot in a chair that had never been comfortable to begin with. “I don’t know. Just sort of found myself here.”

Roxana picked up a Big-Gulp-sized Wildcats tumbler, positioned the straw to Mom’s lips, and let her take a few sips. After a moment, she set the tumbler down and wiped a linen napkin over her chin. “You might as well start talking, Hagan, or I’m going to start asking.”

Where to begin? He could share that he’d slept with the woman who’d ruined their lives. That he’d jumped through hoops that only Mandy Hearst could’ve thought up and let his guard down. Hagan rubbed a hand into his hair.

“Does this have anything to do with the gorgeous woman you mentioned last time we talked?” Roxana casually asked. “What? Did mediocre sex send you running for home?”

Hagan choked and stole a glance at his mother like he was a teenager busted with condoms in his wallet.

Roxana rolled her eyes. “If that’s it, I’m going to—”

“Give me a break,” he snapped.

“Did she hurt your feelings?”

Hurt his feelings? He had to laugh because, with one revelation, Amanda had obliterated everything he thought he’d had. “It’s not that simple.”

Roxana clenched her fist. “I’m not above—”

“I know. I get it. You’re the product of two older brothers.” Hell, it was probably against the law for Roxana to joke like that. “Let’s move on from bodily harm.” He steered the conversation with a safer answer that wouldn’t send his sister to jail. “Things became complicated.”

“Complicated?” She turned to Jason. “Is that manly, macho-guy talk for feeling butt hurt?”

“All right.” Hagan rubbed his temples. “This might’ve been a bad idea.”

“Coming home?” Roxana pouted. “I’m—”

“Listening,” Jason suggested.

Hagan appreciated the help, but he didn’t know where to begin. The stairwell pat-down? The President of the United States knocking on the door?

“Earth to Hagan,” Roxana snapped. “Are you sick?”

No, but he might get sick. Nothing good would come from the truth. But it would be worse the longer he waited. “I slept with Mandy Hearst.”

“I don’t understand.” Roxana jumped to her feet and waved her hands in front of her face. “Wait. What did you just say?”

Hagan had never been the type of guy to kiss and tell. But in this parallel universe, he had to call a spade a spade. He’d thought he’d fallen for that woman, but she’d been a wolf cloaked in lambswool.

Roxana fell back to the couch. Her arms hung as limp as their mother’s. Jason put his hand on Roxana’s back. Hagan didn’t know how much the guy knew, but he could tell it wasn’t good.

There wasn’t enough oxygen in the living room. Hagan bound toward the window like he might throw it open.

“I don’t understand.” Roxana’s eyes welled, and she pressed a hand over her mouth.

He didn’t either. He rubbed the back of his neck.

Roxana stormed to her feet. “How could you?”

“I didn’t know.”

“That’s insane,” she cried.

Jason reached for her arm. “Babe.”

“Don’t babe me!” She swatted him away, turning her wrath back to Hagan. “Lie to me again.”

Looking back, he saw what he had missed—the differences in her hair, no makeup. Mandy Hearst hadn’t spent as much time in the news during college as she had during high school. They’d always worried about Dylan. He’d always said they didn’t understand. Mandy wasn’t the teenager gossip hounds made her out to be. But that was no excuse for missing Amanda as Mandy.

Roxana’s eyes brimmed with explosive tears. “You fucked her, or you fell for her?”

“Roxana,” Jason snapped.

That time, she let him pull her to his side.

The truth hit Hagan like sniper fire. “Both.”

“You’re disgusting.” She pulled from Jason and rushed for their mother and wheeled her to the kitchen.

Hagan paced the

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