Awry

65

That night, Scarlet sat in Heather’s living room, laughing with the Baxter family. Heather’s parents were one of those rare couples that had been married for decades, but were still madly in love.

Henry and Nora Baxter were adorable. They sat cross-legged just like their children, around the large coffee table in the living room, dealing out cards for family game night.

So cute.

The doorbell rang and Heather’s family got excited. “Is that Gabriel?” Nora asked, wagging her eyebrows like Heather always did.

Heather rolled her eyes. “Mom, please don’t be weird. He’s just a boy.”

The plan was for Gabriel to come over and scope out Heather’s room. He needed to check all the access areas of the house so he could better watch over them as they slept.

Scarlet had suggested they come up with a good reason for Gabriel to stop by. After all, random-guy-from-school-dropping-by-for-a-visit was suspicious. But cute-boy-from-school-who-happened-to-be-Heather’s-history-partner-and-needed-class-notes?

Now that sounded believable.

Heather and Scarlet hurried to the door together and let Gabriel in. “Why, hello Gabriel,” Heather said in a much too loud voice.

Gabriel smiled. “So what do I do here?”

Heather waved him in. “Follow me.” She led Gabriel into the living room. “Family, this is Gabriel. Gabriel, this is my giant family.” She gave a fake smile. “We’ll be right back.” She turned to Gabriel. “Come on.”

Heather led Gabriel upstairs to check out her room—and the rest of the house—while Scarlet kept everyone distracted in the living room.

“Heather’s history partner is cute,” said Emily.

Scarlet nodded. “He is.”

“Didn’t you used to have a boyfriend named Gabriel?” Emily asked.

Scarlet raised her eyebrows. “I did.”

Emily looked confused. “Is that the same Gabriel?”

Scarlet opened her mouth to explain how, yes, Gabriel used to be her boyfriend, but they broke up because they were under a curse that pretty much forced Gabriel to love Scarlet and made their relationship incredibly strained, but then she shut it.

“Yes,” Scarlet said to Emily with a smile. “It is the same Gabriel.”

The family carried on their card game while Heather and Gabriel were gone. When they finally came back downstairs, Heather gave Scarlet a sly thumbs up and Scarlet was able to relax a little.

“Thanks for the notes,” Gabriel said. Loudly.

They were both awful actors.

“It was nice to meet you.” Gabriel smiled at Heather’s family members in the living room before moving to leave.

“Wait,” said Nora, deliberately not looking at Heather’s warning eyes. “Won’t you join us for a game?”

Gabriel blinked and looked at Heather, who was giving him big eyes that said Don’t you dare.

“Uh…” Gabriel paused.

“Please?” said Emily, batting her lashes. She was definitely Heather’s little sister.

Gabriel smiled at Emily. “Sure,” he said defiantly, and Heather looked like she was going to die.

“Yay!” Emily said, as Gabriel joined the family circle and took a seat next to the small Baxter girl.

“I have to warn you though,” Gabriel said to Emily. “I always win.”

Emily gave him a look full of attitude. “That’s because you’ve never played me before.”

Gabriel gave her a crooked smile. “Challenge accepted.”