Games of Love: Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

Connor cleared his throat. “I told her that I’m excited for her to meet my family—our family. Not necessarily Laurel, but the others too,” he said carefully, walking with his father to the door.

I nodded, trying to look as if I knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Of course,” Elias chuckled, looking between the both of us. He reached out a hand at the door, letting his fingers wrap around mine and squeezing my fingers in his cold grip. “I look forward to speaking with you again at the wedding, my dear Sadie, and perhaps discussing your brother’s little shop once more. I have big plans for it in the future.”

Anger made my cheeks heat, blushing crimson from my ears to my neck and burning over my face. Connor was close beside me and his hand touched the small of my back gently, softly. His touch pressed warmth through my shirt to soothe the skin beneath. His closeness was strangely calming, and I let out a low breath at the peace that seemed to fall over me, willing away the frustration that threatened to ruin us both at that moment. I just nodded curtly, squeezing Elias’s cold hand once more before dropping his fingers altogether and stepping back from him.

Connor let his hand fall away from my back and Elias politely wished his son well, watching us both as he left the apartment.

Connor let out a long breath, his whole body relaxing as his father left his apartment. “Well, that didn’t go half as badly as I thought it would. No explosions or anything.”

“It definitely wasn’t great, no,” I replied, walking over to flop down on the couch. “The cardigan was a nice touch, I think,” I pulled it from the back over the couch to cover me like a blanket.

“I thought so too, I ran down to the corner store to grab it,” Connor shrugged. “Hey,” he said softly, sitting beside me and letting his side touch mine. “I’m really sorry about him. He’s difficult, I know he is—”

“It’s not your fault, Connor, really,” I stopped him quietly, patting his leg softly with my hand without really even thinking about it. I wanted to comfort him and for him to realize that he didn’t always have to be what people thought he was. “You’re not him, not to me. You are not your father. I don’t think you’re anything like him.”

Even as I said the words out loud, I knew that they were true. There was no reason that he should be compared to his father, but it was inevitable that he always would be. Connor, to be fair, was just a watered-down version of what his father had wanted and hoped for him to be. He was softer and kinder than Elias would ever be, and there was none of his father’s frank coldness in him that hadn’t been put there by Elias himself. He wasn’t a cruel person by nature, and I could tell that he didn’t relish causing other people pain, even if it seemed his father did. I wondered if his mother had been the cause of his softness. There was an openness in him, and there was a real willingness to try no matter what his father said or did to attempt to stop him.

I had always been very adept at finding real potential in people, whether it was good or bad. I was a good judge of character and I always had been, even as a kid. My dad had always called it an “acute judge of character” and I thought of it that way in my mind. I was never good at making friends and it was because I could see the heart of people, the truth about them. Oliver thought it was naive of me to try and find the good in everyone, though Rose lightly smacked him each and every time he mentioned my romantic notions in such a thoughtless way that discouraged me. I had always liked Rose for that.

Connor stood up slowly from his seat and began putting the food away into his shiny refrigerator, tucking the takeaway plates under a bag of shiny, green apples. I sighed halfheartedly from where I sat on the couch, shoving my hand into my pocket to pull out my phone and use it. I needed to call my brother and talk to him. I didn’t know how my family would take it, but I was done waiting for the perfect time. I needed to be sure that Games of Love wouldn’t be compromised by my family’s opinion. How would I even tell them? How would I tell my dad? I wanted it to seem as if there was nothing odd going on and I had just started dating Connor because I liked him.