“Whatever,” Tyler says. He grabs his keys for the apartment from the kitchen counter and brushes past both Emily and me, careful not to touch us, and then disappears through the door. He doesn’t slam it like Tiffani did. Just quietly pulls it shut behind him.
I want nothing more right now than to go after him, to explain everything more fully, but I know he needs his space. He needs to get his head around the basic facts first, and then I can talk to him about it. Later, when he gets back, whenever that ends up being. Right now, though, I’m still dumbfounded over Emily. Telling the truth wasn’t supposed to be so easy. It was supposed to be terrifying.
“Emily . . .” I say slowly, feeling uneasy. She might not be asking any questions, but she must surely be thinking them. I can’t let it go without clearing things up, without her knowing what’s really going on, so I build up the courage to face my biggest fear: having to explain myself. “About Tyler and me . . .”
“You don’t need to explain it,” Emily says with a shrug, making her way past me as she heads for the kitchen. I blink at her from the living room as she grabs herself a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Casually, she unscrews the cap and leans against the worktop. To my utmost surprise, she looks back at me with a warm gaze and does nothing but smile in the gentlest and most comforting of ways. “I’d already figured it out.”
26
At first, Emily’s words don’t make sense. Figured it out? Impossible. Tyler and I have been so careful, so cautious . . . It scares me that even though we’ve tried our hardest to keep our relationship a secret, Emily has still noticed. It momentarily terrifies me that she might not be the only one. How many other people over the years have had suspicions? How many other people have wondered if there’s always been something more between us? All I can hope is that the answer is none. Emily, on the other hand, doesn’t seem fazed by the fact that Tyler is my stepbrother. Not uncomfortable or judgmental, not disgusted or confused. All I can ask her is, “How did you know?”
She takes a sip of her water, still smiling. I’m glad that she’s smiling. I was worried Tiffani’s remark about therapy would upset her, but she seems to have let it go over the top of her head, the same way the remark about the gym has gone over mine. It was a cheap shot at trying to hurt us. Now, however, there are other matters at hand. Slowly, Emily twists the cap back on the bottle in her hand and shrugs. “It just became obvious.”
“How? It wasn’t supposed to be,” I admit quietly, struggling to grasp the fact that I’m actually discussing the subject with someone other than Tyler. It feels foreign. I’m not used to it.
“Yeah, I figured that too,” Emily says with a small laugh. A warm, friendly one. “Honestly, it was a number of things.”
I make my way across the living room toward the kitchen counter. When I get there, I lean down and rest my arms on the worktop as I look across at Emily, both curious and confused. “Like what? What gave us away?”
“Well,” she says, “Tyler went from sleeping on the couch to sleeping next to you. I mean, sure, siblings share beds all the time, but it just seemed like something more than that. When you guys went to sleep early the other night I was looking for you both when I got back here, and when I checked Tyler’s room you were both asleep, but totally wrapped up in each other. All I could think was that I would never be caught dead like that with my brother.”
I raise my eyebrows. “You figured us out just from that?”
“No,” she says. “There was Tyler’s tattoo, too. I noticed it one morning when you were in the shower, and when I asked him why he chose to get your name, he just shrugged and said it was because you’re his sister. I thought that was weird, because what about his brothers? Why wouldn’t he get their names too? Especially considering they’re actually his real brothers. No offense.”
“None taken. I knew that tattoo was a bad idea,” I say, almost laughing. It’s also rather ironic given what I’ve just done, and I quickly glance down at my wrist to ensure it’s still hidden under my sleeve. I’ll show Tyler later. Right now, however, I’m focused on Emily. And of all the times I had imagined this conversation with someone, about Tyler and me, I never once imaged it to be like this. So casual. So easy. “What else gave us away?”
Emily thinks for a moment as she brushes her fingertips over her lips, her eyes squinting at nothing in particular for a short while before she meets my waiting gaze. “Did Tyler ever let you read his speech from the tour?” she asks. It takes me aback for a second as I try to think about the answer, blinking at her.