Yours to Keep by Claudia Burgoa

Author:Claudia Burgoa [Burgoa, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Seventeen

Vance

After running errands for my family, I fly back to Baker’s Creek. I’m not expecting a welcome party. As I walk inside the mansion, Henry and Hayes are by the gate, waiting for me.

“The prodigal child is back,” Henry jokes as I punch in the gate’s code.

I glare at him.

“He’s in a mood,” Hayes comments.

“He’s always in the same mood,” Henry says.

Hayes nods. “You’d think that after being with his boyfriend, he’d be happy.”

I stare at my brothers, horrified. “What the fuck, Hayes?”

Hayes is the cool one. He never teases us. However, he laughs while we taunt each other. He also enjoys giving us ammunition to pester the others. He’s a lot like Beacon. You think they’re not doing anything, but they love to instigate and get the rest of us arguing for hours.

He waves his phone up in the air saying, “Mrs. Russell texted me.”

“Why does she have your number?”

“She dragged me to a couple of her charities back when I lived in San Francisco. Let me quote one of her texts. ‘Are you related to Vance Aldridge?’ She even sent me a picture of you.” He smirks. “I responded yes. She said, and I quote, ‘Your brother is magnificent. He and Darren make such a cute couple, don’t they?’ That’s followed by a picture of you two kissing in front of Portland Medical.”

He clears his throat and repeats, “Kissing.”

Henry echoes it, “Kissing.”

“It was…fuck.”

“Mind sharing?” Hayes asks.

I shake my head. “It’s complicated, and when I say that believe me, it’s a fucking mess.”

They look at each other and nod. “We have time. Go on.”

“Mrs. Russell arrived on Dare’s doorstep with a guy. I felt bad for him and pretended to be his boyfriend.”

Hayes’s brow furrows. “That’s such un-Vance-like behavior. Why would you do that?”

That’s a great question, and one I still can’t answer. All I remember is seeing his desperate face. I hated how his mother just pushed me to the side and tried to force him to meet someone. What kind of mother is she? She might be well-intentioned, but I think Dare has to put a stop to this nonsense. What gives her the license to try to control his life?

“No, really, why did you do it?” Hayes insists.

“I wasn’t thinking? Fuck if I know.” I’m too fucking confused.

“I don’t know,” I say.

“So, you kissed, and now what?” Henry asks.

We kissed three times. It was so fucking good I didn’t want to let him go.

But I keep all those thoughts inside. It doesn’t seem wise to tell them anything more than that, “It happened. Does anyone else know?”

They shake their heads.

“Can we keep it between us, for now? At least until we know what’s going to happen, please,” I beg them.

“We can do that,” Henry answers. “But you need to solve this fast.”

“Mrs. Russell thinks it’s serious,” Hayes warns me. “You don’t want to mess with her. She tried to set me up with two of her daughters.”

“Let me guess, Denise and Danika.”

He nods. “How do you know?”

“Darcy is too young.

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