10. Adolescent Dream Come True

The following Sunday, Knox was pulling in front of Trace and Violet's home for dinner. If he found it odd he was meeting her family this soon, he pushed it off.

It's not like they'd even done much more than kiss in the almost three weeks they'd been dating.

If she wanted to take it slow, he was fine with it. He had nothing else going on in his life that was pressing. No other hot chick banging on his door and wanting his attention.

The fact he was dating Sage Mancini was enough in his eyes. Like his adolescent dream come true.

How many guys who looked like him back then could say they were seeing their first crush? Even if it was twenty years later.

"Trace will be good," Sage said. "At least I hope."

There was a laugh after that statement and he wasn't sure the reason for it.

"So he's not going to open the door wearing a gun or anything?"

He knew Trace had been in the Army. He was positive there were guns in the house.

"I doubt that," she said. "Now if it was my father…" She burst out laughing at him.

"You're not making me feel any better."

"I'm only kidding. My father is pretty protective. Let's say I've had some crappy men in my life that my father and brother didn't care for."

This was the first he had heard this piece of news.

"Recently?"

They were walking to the front door. "It's not the time."

The door opened before they made it up the last step. "Hi, I'm Violet. Come on in."

When they were through the door, Sage said, "Violet, this is Knox Bradford. And the guy standing behind Violet is my brother, Trace."

He shook hands with both of them. Violet was shorter than Sage, Trace a few inches shorter than him and not as muscular.

Though he was sure the guy was years ago in his prime before his back injury.

Now he sat most of the time for his career.

"It's nice to meet you both," Knox said.

"Sage tells us you two knew each other back in middle school?" Violet asked. "Let's go in the back and get comfortable. Trace can bring out drinks if you want a beer. You might need it."

There was laughter at that statement and he wondered what the heck he was missing.

"I could use a beer," he said. "By the sounds of it."

Trace smirked. "I'm not that bad. Now if my grandmother were here..."

What the hell? Did this whole family protect Sage? And for what reason?

Trace left them in the family room and went to the kitchen on the other side of the house. Sage grabbed his hand and pulled him on the couch, then sat next to him.

"Everyone is kidding."

"Something tells me not that much," he said.

Trace came in and handed the beer off to him.

"You've lived around here for years," Trace said.

"I have," he said. "I'm sure Sage gave you some of my history. I don't have much to hide."

"She did," Trace said. "Said you have a business here and have for years."

"I didn't have a good relationship with my father for a long time. Most of it was things I was told and believed. So my bad."

"You were a kid," Sage said. "Thrown into a situation that was beyond your control. Don't blame yourself. Sounds as if you were making it right."

"I was trying," he said. "My father too. So yeah, I came back to the area when I left my first job. I took a risk and started my own business and had a place to stay. My father told me to live in his summer home. It gave me no rent expenses at the time."

It was half-truths. He was living there and only covering the utility costs. He wasn't going to say his father gave him a chunk of money to start the business and get it going and keep money in his pocket as a salary too.

He hated to take that from the man that he felt he'd treated so poorly. Forgiveness again.

"Family is good that way," Sage said. "Mine has been there for me a lot."

He saw the look between the siblings. "Just like they were for me," Trace said. "Sage was right there with my mother and grandmother caring for me when I came back from the service. I might not have been the best patient."

"You had your moments," Sage said. "But it was understandable. Between your ex being a bitch and your life up in the air. You were entitled."

"My ex-girlfriend didn't like me in the service," Trace said. "But what she really didn't like was that I had a dream of being a writer. She didn't believe in me. When you don't believe in someone, it's hard to make things work."

"That's right," Violet said. "When you love someone, you support them."

"You do," Knox said softly. Maybe it was those words he needed to hear to remind him that his father was the only one who'd supported him in his life.

"Do you like football?" Sage asked. "Trace is a big Giants fan and there is a game on."

He laughed. "I do like football. Not that I've ever played it."

"Who do you like?" Trace asked.

"Not the Giants."

There were grins in the room. "As long as you don't say the Cowboys, the Eagles or the Commanders, I'm good."

"Another New York team," he said. "The Jets."

"We know you're a loyal man if you're a Jets fan," Sage said, laughing.

"Considering my mother's reputation and what she'd done to my father, you can guarantee I'm loyal and faithful," he said.

Trace nodded his head and that seemed to be the end of the conversation there.

Knox wasn't sure why he'd said what he had, but it felt like he needed to do it.

An hour later the snacks were cleared up and Violet was in the kitchen with Sage working on dinner. He smelled the sauce when he'd walked in and was told they'd eat at halftime.

"What are your intentions with Sage?" Trace asked quietly

He was taken back by the question. "We've been dating a few weeks," he said. "I don't know. I enjoy spending time with your sister. I'm sure she told you that I had a thing for her years ago but moved."

"She did," Trace said. "And sometimes people hold onto that and force it to work when maybe it won't."

He frowned. "I'm not into forcing anything. I know what that is like in life. I'm taking things as they come. I liked your sister back then because she was a cute girl who was friendly to me when many weren't. When one of her friends wasn't nice, she'd apologized back then. She didn't need to do it, but it went a long way with me. Twenty years later she still apologized for it."

"Sage carries things with her for a long time," Trace said. "She always has. She'd be pissed if she knew I was saying this, but she never feels as if she is worthy of people. When stuff falls apart she blames herself and beats herself up."

He would have never expected to hear that about Sage.

"I don't plan on messing up or having anything fall apart, but that would be between us, don't you think?"

"I'm glad to know you've got a backbone. She wouldn't want to be with anyone she could walk all over either."

"Jesus," he said. "I can't figure you guys out. You're busting on me about how tough your father and you and your grandmother are. Then you're telling me to stand up for myself. What gives?"

"Sage is complicated," Trace said. "She wouldn't admit it, but she is. I don't want to see her hurt is all."

"I don't plan on hurting your sister any more than I hope she doesn't plan on hurting me. It's the best I can give you right now."

"It's good enough," Trace said.

The girls came in after that and they watched the rest of the game. They ate an awesome lasagna that he'd be dreaming of for years to come.

When he was leaving Trace's house with a plate of biscotti that Violet had made, he figured he survived that dinner better than Sage had.

"Sorry my brother was a jerk."

"He wasn't," he argued. Unless she heard the comment when she was in the kitchen. They were talking low enough.

"Trace is pretty laid back, but he worries."

"Why don't you tell me why he worries," he said. "It's like the timing of it wasn't that great when you dropped your statement earlier."

"It's nothing," she said.

"Or something that brings your family rallying around you."

She let out a sigh when he started his truck and pulled out. He assumed he was just returning her to her place. She hadn't seen his yet and hadn't even asked to.

"I was dating someone I worked with before I moved here. It didn't end well. He didn't stand behind me when he should have. Worse yet, he left the company suddenly and broke up with me and left me there to deal with the drama."

"Sounds like a dick. What kind of drama are we talking about? Like screw-ups or theft?"

"No," she rushed out. "That would have been easier. Henry was a manager in another department. My career seemed to be stalled, and then when we were dating, I got a promotion."

"And many felt it was because of him?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I didn't believe it. I was working my butt off and doing a great job. I was told it was long overdue. But people talk and he never denied that he put a good word in for me. When he left, the crap just piled on more. There was no one there to stand up for me. It's a rough industry to begin with."

It all made sense now.

The guy didn't stand behind her.

Wasn't loyal in the least.

"I'm sorry you went through that," he said.

"Not as sorry as me. But, hey. It brought me here and I reunited with you."

"You did," he said, reaching his hand over and laying it on hers in the cab of his truck.

"How long are you going to make me wait?" she asked, laughing.

"Wait for what?"

"Come on, Knox. Are you that slow?"

"It seems I am."

"How about how long are you going to make me wait until you take me to bed? I doubt you're a virgin. You're just too hot in that rough rugged kind of way."

"Says no woman ever."

"Then you've got clogged ears," she said. "I'm being honest with you."

He felt his face flush. "No man wants to admit other women find them hot. I remember myself as that eighth grader."

"Stop doing that," she said. "I see a man next to me. Not a boy. But a man I want."

"I guess you can't get any clearer than that," he said, his foot hitting the gas.