“Does he know you don’t know?” Melissa asked.
Sage shook her head, then she shrugged, then she shook it again. “I don’t know.”
“You should make sure.”
Sage knew Melissa was right. TJ was still in the wrong. He’d still done something terrible. But it wasn’t anywhere near as terrible as she’d thought.
Melissa gave a final squeeze and let go of her hand. “Now, the Seaside Festival. Are you interested?”
Sage gave herself a little shake. “Yes. Sure. Thank you for thinking of me.”
She was staying in Whiskey Bay. It was time to embrace that reality. She’d been inching toward forgiving TJ anyway, and this solidified it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Back from an evening visit with Eli at the hospital, TJ had convinced Sage to join him and have a glass of wine. He’d chosen a nice vintage from the cellar and was pulling the cork at the butler’s counter in the corner of the living room.
She was pacing the room, restless as she often seemed.
He knew she wasn’t feeling at home yet, and he wanted to do something to smooth the way. “Why don’t you hire a decorator to take a look at the rooms upstairs?”
Maybe once she had her own space, she’d settle in.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, pushing up the sleeves of her hunter-green cardigan sweater. She looked decidedly tense where she stood in the middle of the room.
“Tell you to hire a decorator?” He turned his attention to pouring two glasses of the richly colored Cabernet Sauvignon. “Okay, hire a decorator.”
She didn’t respond to his joke.
He looked back to see her frowning.
“Why didn’t you tell me what happened that night?” she asked.
He lifted the glasses and moved, nodding toward the fireplace. Rain had started outside, and it would be a comfortable place to sit.
“What night?” His brain skimmed from Matt’s wedding to the transplant to Eli’s move to Highside Hospital.
“Prom,” she said.
He stopped.
“The prank,” she said.
A wave of disappointment swelled inside him. Their history was the very last thing he felt like revisiting tonight.
It had been a good day. Eli was getting better and better. And all day at his downtown office, TJ had found himself looking forward to coming home to Sage.
He started walking again, setting their glasses down on opposite sides of a small, round table between two armchairs. “You already knew about the prank.”
He flipped the switch on the gas fireplace, bringing it to life.
“You know what I thought,” she said.
He had a pretty good idea what she’d assumed, judging by their fight the next day.
“You let me keep thinking that,” she said.
“You should sit down.”
She didn’t. “I’m not angry.”
He didn’t want to tower over her, so he sat anyway. “You sound angry.”
“I’m baffled.”
“It’s ancient history.”
“History that’s followed us our entire lives. Were you supposed to sleep with me?”
He met her gaze. “No.”
“Then what?”
“Meet you, dance with you, kiss you, get your number.”
“And never call.”
“And never call,” he admitted.
“That’s horrible.”
He closed his eyes, swallowing his regret for the thousandth time. For him, it had been about Sage. But a dozen other girls were involved, even more when you counted the years before and the years after. He wished he’d been strong enough to speak out back then. He wished he’d given more thought to the impact their little game would have on the innocent victims.
“But not as horrible as I thought it was,” Sage said, sounding more tired than angry.
He sat forward. “If I could go back…”
She moved closer. “I thought you sleeping with me was part of the prank, that you’d bragged about it to your friends. All these years, I thought the absolute worst of you.”
“I tried to tell you. The next day, when I tracked you down.”
“I wouldn’t listen.”
“And then I realized that explaining, excusing my actions, was more for me than it was for you. So I apologized and left it at that.”
“And I hated you.”
He reached for her left hand, touched the two rings. “You had every right to hate me.”
“I might have chosen differently. If I’d known.”
He wrapped her hand in his. “Now, this, this is why I kept quiet about it after meeting Eli. I don’t want you to second-guess yourself. This is on me, Sage.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t see past the anger.”