Free Ungifted by Kelly Oram

but all she said was, “It’s your call.”
    I wanted to tell him to go home but for some reason I couldn’t. “I guess it doesn’t matter if he stays tonight. We already have unwanted company.”
    Caleb grinned at his sister. “There, you see? She wants me to stay.”
    “She called you ‘unwanted company,’” Cynthia argued, and then stopped. “Wait! Who else is here?”
    I cringed. I was not looking forward to telling Cynthia about Ethan. She would be five hundred times more relentless with the matchmaking attempts now.
    “New bodyguard?” she asked so excitedly she was practically bursting at the seams.
    “I wish I shared your enthusiasm.”
    “You have a security detail now?” Caleb asked at the same time Cynthia said, “Is he hot?”
    I was spared having to answer because Ethan came back.
    “Dunn is your new shadow?” Caleb asked with a huge frown.
    I didn’t answer him because I was too startled by the smile Cynthia gave Ethan. It was the smile of a co-conspirator. Suddenly the day made perfect sense. “You didn’t, Cynthia! Tell me you didn’t!”
    “Okay, I didn’t,” she deadpanned.
    “That’s what you were doing at lunch! You brought him to see my father! This is your fault! You helped him get the job!”
    “I just got him the in. He earned the job on his own.”
    The sense of betrayal was so strong I felt like crying, even though the logical part of my brain told me I shouldn’t be too surprised. “How could you do it?” I asked, the quiver in my voice giving away exactly how hurt I was.
    “Please don’t be mad,” Cynthia begged. She’d paled after realizing how much she’d hurt me. “I know you and Ethan aren’t on the best terms, but he’s really good at what he does. Someone tried to kill you. I just want you to be safe.”
    “You don’t know that for sure.”
    “Yes we do, Grace,” Caleb argued. “My dad looked into what happened. Nobody could find anything wrong with the light that almost crushed you. Nothing else was faulty in the entire place. The only explanation was that it was tampered with.”
    A shiver ripped through me. Caleb pulled me into his lap in response. I gasped, turned red as a cherry, and tried to escape until Caleb laced his fingers in mine and told me to relax. Just like before, my body settled down as if of its own accord. “If that were the case,” I said quietly, giving up my struggle for freedom, “my dad would have people all over it. The FBI inspected every inch of that stage yesterday and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.”
    “They weren’t looking in the right places,” Ethan muttered.
    His voice was full of so much fury that I glanced up at him, startled. “What is it?”
    Ethan’s eyes narrowed in a way that made me blush. “I didn’t realize you two were so well acquainted.”
    I didn’t understand that Ethan meant Caleb and me until Caleb squeezed me tighter and said, “Is that a problem?”
    “Just surprising,” Ethan answered coolly.
    “Very surprising,” I muttered forgetting that Ethan had the ears of a hawk.
    Caleb chuckled, but Ethan looked more closely at my face and then his whole body went stiff. “Is he making you uncomfortable?”
    “Um…” I didn’t know what to say. Caleb knew I was uncomfortable and didn’t appear to mind that in the least. He seemed determined to claim me as his, anyway. That basically terrified me. But then, I didn’t necessarily want Ethan going all commando on him if I said as much.
    “Actually,” I said once I could work up the courage to say anything without my voice shaking, “I’m not feeling very well. I don’t think I’m really up for watching anything tonight.”
    Yes, this was a total cop-out, I am aware. I didn’t really care, though.
    “Grace, come on,” Cynthia said. “Don’t do that. I told you all you have to do is say the word and he has to go home.”
    “Sorry, Cyn. I’m going to bed. You can stay and watch the show anyway. I don’t want