From Best Friend To Fiancé (Savannah and Roman) novel Chapter 364

Chapter 208: You’re Special, Sav

Savannah

Flashback(20 years ago)

I still remember the summer I turned ten–the one that always sits like a brutse under my skin when I think about my childhood. Everyone else swears it was one of our “happiest” family summers, a golden memory, a picture–perfect era of cookouts and sunshine and music. But when I look back, all I can see is the way the sunlight burned too hot, the way the laughter felt like it was happening through a wall, and the way my father’s hand had left a sting on my cheek that my mother would pretend not to notice all day.

That afternoon, the backyard was full. Not just full–stuffed. Bodies everywhere. Aunts, uncles, cousins, neighborhood friends. The kind of crowd where everyone is too distracted to notice anything smaller than an explosion. Which was me.

Alyssa had set up her ridiculous “teen tent” under the oak tree. I had my own makeshift “fort” beside her, but I wasn’t really playing. I sat on the grass, hugging my legs, staring at the scene like I was looking at it from behind a glass.

Mom was flipping ribs and wiping Chloe’s sweaty forehead in between while Chloe giggled about something dumb, like how the lemonade tasted “too yellow.”

Dad was standing with a group of his friends, beer in hand, pretending to be a friendly family man. He always acted extra charming when he had an audience. And among those friends was Asher Kingston–Dad’s closest friend, and one of the few adults who ever looked at me like he

saw a person. He was the only adult whose stare lasted more than two seconds.

I should have known better.

He kept glancing over at me, brows drawn tight, like he sensed something I wasn’t sensing. Maybe he did. Asher always had a way of reading

people without them having to say anything.

The smell of grilled meat hung thick in the air. Jackson 5 blasted from the outdoor speakers–Dad insisted on “old classics” every cookout. Then came Madonna. Then Elvis. The music made the whole atmosphere feel like an old movie. People danced barefoot in the grass, kids shrieked, someone spilled a drink, and the adults laughed.

If you took a picture from far away, it would look like a perfect American family scene. Everybody was having a blast.

Except me.

I sat there, by myself, with my back digging into the rough fabric of Alyssa’s tent, and stared at a world I wasn’t allowed to join.

No one came to check on me. No one wondered why I wasn’t with the other kids. Mom was too busy making Chloe smile, Dad was too busy pretending he hadn’t slapped me across the face that morning, and everyone else assumed I was just being shy. Or rude.

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Chapter 364

But then I saw him–walking toward me, slow and casual like he wasn’t really approaching, just drifting in my direction.

Uncle Jace.

His long shadow fell over the grass before he even reached me. He had a beer in one hand and a lazy half–smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Aunt Carol stood farther away with my two–year old cousin, Lizzie, who was screaming because she wanted to eat a caterpillar.

Aunt Carol was embarrassed, apologizing to everyone, but Jace didn’t even look her way. He just gravitated toward me like he always did.

When he finally lowered himself onto the grass beside me, the quiet between us felt strangely heavy.

“Not having a good time, kiddo?” he said, eyes fixed ahead on the crowd, voice as casual as if we were talking about the weather.

1 dug my fingers into the grass. “I’m having a good time, Uncle Jace,” I lied.

He chuckled softly. “You know you don’t have to lie to me, Sav,” he murmured. “Lying is a sin. And liars…” He tilted his head toward me, eyes

narrowing with mock seriousness. “Liars go to hell.”

My stomach tightened. He had been telling me that since I was five. It always worked on me. “I’m not lying,” I whispered, but even I didn’t

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