Sage: Take the Risk (F&L Story #3)

Sage: Parts 11 & 12

Part Eleven

Thursday, July 29, 2010.

A little while later, a loud knock on his door, and his sister shouting, “Open up, bubba!” had him groaning on the couch. “What do you want?” he asked, yanking the door open, only then realizing that he and Sage were supposed to be lovers, and she was back there in the spare bedroom, sorting through her clothes and belongings. Crap.

“I'm picking up Sage,” she said, stepping around him. Carey quickly shut the door and blocked her from going any further.

“Picking up Sage?”

“Emma's bachelorette party?” Eve said, crossing her arms. “It's tonight. Don't worry, loverboy, I'll keep an eye on her. It's not like I'll be rushing home to a man of my own.”

Carey stared at his sister. This was the closest she'd ever come to talking about what happened between her and Dr. LeBoeuf. Not that he wanted to know every little detail of that relationship. She was his sister, after all. “She didn't mention it,” Carey said, backing up and effectively blocking Eve's step forward.

“What's going on? Why won't you let me back there?”

“Sage is unpacking. She told me she didn't want to be disturbed.”

Eve checked her watch. “Well, we're going to be late. I'm a bridesmaid. I'm a host. Now, move.” She shoved him aside and stomped down the hall. First she peeked into Carey's room...and frowned. “Where is she?”

Sage emerged from the other bedroom, smiling at Eve. “Hey. I'm sorry. I forgot about tonight. Give me a few minutes to get dressed.” She disappeared into the bathroom and his sister rounded on him.

“Do I want to know why she's putting all her clothes in the other room?”

Carey stifled the grimace. “Because she's got so many?”

Eve, the big sister that took care of everything – including him – advanced on him with a promise of pain in her eyes. “Listen, buster, if I hear you're being a dumbass to Sage...”

“Eve, drop it. There's nothing wrong here.”

Sage came out of the bathroom, wearing a flaming red tube dress and black heels, and cherry red lipstick perfectly painted on her lush lips...and there was definitely something wrong here. Her going out in public in that dress was wrong.

Her hair had begun to grow out and curl recently, and now it reminded Carey of tiny red swirls of color on her head. His fingers itched to touch it, but he knew how women were about their hair. “He's right, Eve,” she said to his sister, and he forgot what they were talking about because Sage looked like a cherry popscicle, and he sweet tooth was aching for a bite. “Carey's been very sweet about things. I just have to sort through all my clothes, and store the seasonal items in the other room. It'll be a mess for days, and we didn't want to have to step around it all the time.”

Then he thought of where his sister was taking Sage – to the Electric Cowboy, a dance club where Emma rented a party room – and about all those men that she'd be around, and how he could barely stand not touching her, and he was sober, and he said, “You're not wearing that.”

A pair of blue eyes and a pair of green eyes turned to him. “Not wearing what, Carey?” Sage asked sweetly. And Eve showed him her teeth. He thought she might be smiling, but it was kind of hard to tell.

However, he refused to be cornered by two females. “That handkerchief you have wrapped around your body,” he said. “Go change.”

Eve growled, and Sage held her back and said, “I'll meet you at the car, Eve. Just give me a minute.”