He sat up straight and looked at her. Why didn’t she sound more excited?

“But that’s great news, isn’t it?”

She shrugged.

“I don’t know. She told me that the studio is still on the fence, and that she doesn’t have free rein here, so I don’t really know what it means. But we’re having lunch on Thursday. Which of course means I’m going to be a stress case all week.”

She leaned her head against his chest. He put his arm around her then—how could he not?

“Anyway. I’m sorry I took that out on you. And I really am sorry. About everything else.”

“I know you are,” he said. “Thank you for saying so. I’m sorry, too.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “I’m glad we talked about all of this.” And he was.

She pulled him down to her and kissed him. God, it felt so good to feel her lips on his, her body against him, her hands on his shoulders, his hands on her waist, her hips.

They pulled apart, and she reached for his shirt.

“I thought—” he started, and stopped.

She sat back but kept her hands on him.

“You thought what?” she asked.

Damn it. Now, after what she’d said in the car, he had to say it.

“I thought, after what you said, that you didn’t . . . I didn’t want to . . .”

She smiled slowly and cupped his cheek with her hand.

“Is that why you were being so standoffish when we got home? Ben, I wasn’t saying that I want any of this part to change. I just want us—both of us—to be able to be honest with each other. Okay?”

“Okay,” he said. “I promise.”

He leaned down to kiss her, and she kissed him back, hard. He pressed her down onto the couch, and she slid her hands up his chest. He pulled her very snug T-shirt up and let his hands roam all over her body. He traced the lacy borders of her bra with his thumbs.

“My God, when you touch me like that . . .” she said.

“I know,” he said. “Me, too.”

Later, in bed, in the dark, she kissed him on the cheek before she snuggled into his chest.

“The game was fun,” he said. “Courtside! I’m never going to get over that.”

She tilted her head back and smiled up at him.

“I’m glad. You’ve done so much for me, I wanted you to be able to have a little fun with this.”

He brushed her hair back from her face so he could see her eyes.

“Wait. Did you plan that for me?”

She tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her.

“I just thought . . . this whole thing has been about me. I thought . . . you’d like this better than you liked the farmers market.”

Why was he so touched by that?

“Anyway.” She slid her hand over his. “Thanks for making all of this—the celebrity stuff, I mean—fun for me again.”

He pulled her close.

“It’s fun for me, too.”

“Good,” she said. “I’m glad that you’re okay about what I said earlier. I’m glad that . . . that we’re okay.”

He swallowed. He didn’t know if it was because of the darkness, or the conversation from the car, or the sex, but he suddenly wanted to tell her the thing he’d told no one else.

So he did.

“I, um. I have a sister.” It was the first time he’d said it out loud.

She pulled back, and he could feel her looking up at him, but he didn’t look down. It was easier if he couldn’t see her.

“I thought it was just you and Theo.”

He nodded.

“That’s what I thought, too. Until a couple months ago. She emailed me, out of the blue. She’s my dad’s . . . daughter. So she must be my sister. Half sister, I guess. Dawn. She lives in Sacramento. We’ve emailed. For a little while now.”

He rolled onto his back, and Anna laid her head on his chest. Good. He needed that right now.

“Have you met her?”

He closed his eyes.

“No. She wants to meet me. A few weeks ago, she said she was coming to the Bay Area for the weekend. But it was the first weekend I was here. So I didn’t see her then.”

She put her hand on top of his, where it lay on her hip, and moved her fingers in slow circles on his skin.

“What does Theo think? Has he met her?”

He swallowed.

“Theo doesn’t know. She didn’t email him—I was the one who took one of those stupid DNA tests; that’s how she found me. I haven’t told him.”

The slow movement of her fingers stopped when he said that. A few seconds later, she started again.

“Why haven’t you told him?”

“Because I don’t want to meet her!” He hadn’t realized this until that moment. “I don’t want her! I don’t want a sister! I have Theo, I have my mom, I have my cousins, I don’t want anything having to do with my dad. I don’t want his second family to try to intrude on mine. He left, he’s done, I’m done with him! I went to fucking therapy, I talked about my fucking feelings, I moved past everything, I figured it all out, I was done! And now she’s trying to waltz into my life, to be part of my family, to take my brother away from me, I don’t want it! I don’t want any of it!”

Anna put her arms around him and pulled him against her. He tucked his head into that space between her shoulder and her neck. She rubbed his back and didn’t say anything. They breathed together for a while, until his burst of anger subsided.

He pulled away and put his head back on his pillow.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to . . .”

She put a finger on his lips.

“I’m glad you did. You don’t need to be sorry.”

He sighed.

“I haven’t even told my therapist about this.”

He could feel her looking up at him.

“Why not?” she asked.

He took a long breath.

“It feels like . . . after all the work we did, that she did with me, that she’ll be disappointed in me. For not, like, thinking this was no big deal, for not being ready to embrace this woman with open arms, the way she seems ready to embrace me. For not being fixed.”

Anna took his hand.