AllFreeNovel
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It’s a Friday afternoon, and I’m pulling a loaf of sandwich bread out of the oven. As usual, The Corner Store is dead. The only sign of life is Fallon. She’s leaning over the counter applying lipstick using a butcher knife as a mirror.
It’s hypnotic. The juxtaposition of her sharp angles. Her beauty and her anger.
“How’s the arm doing?” Fallon asks, without looking at me.
I flex my pale arm, testing it out as I thump the bottom of the golden-brown loaf with my knuckle. The hollow sound tells me it’s done. “Pale and scrawny, but ready for the world.”
“Silly putty,” Fallon notes, straightening up. “Use it to strengthen the muscles.”
I give a nod, upturn the bread onto a cooling rack. “Here.” I slide the moderately chunky loaf Fallon’s way. “Try this. It’s a new recipe.”
My sister tears off a hunk, her pearly candy-pink nails glittering in the harsh kitchen light. She chews, then closes her eyes and says over a mouthful, “Fuck. I think I’m closer to God, Dakota.”
I laugh. “I got good.” I’m still a long way off from baking with two hands, but with the cast off, I’m getting close.
“I’m serious,” she tells me. “You gotgreat.” Her face darkens as she stares at me. “And I hate that man who took that away from you.”
I smooth a hand over my stomach and smile. “He didn’t take everything.”
Fallon’s phone lights up.Dannyit says on the screen. She scrambles to mute it, and I pounce on it.
“Who’s that?”
“No one.”
I follow my sister into the store, watching as she busies herself at the till.
I arch a brow. “Are you seeing someone?”
Fallon lets out a strangled laugh. “I’ll tell you tonight.”
“What’s tonight?”
“Girls’ night,” she says without enthusiasm. “Me. You. Ruby. Nowhere.”
A Friday night at Nowhere, Resurrection’s rowdy local dive bar, is asking for trouble, but if it means spending time with my sister, I’ll take it. The invitation has my heart soaring. Another glimmer of us. The little sister who hung out and opened up to me.
I pull out my phone. “Yeah, I just have to—”
“Text your bodyguard with benefits, I get it,” she says dryly.
My cheeks heat. “Fallon.”
I text Davis a quickGoing to Nowhere with Fallon and Rubyand pocket my phone before I can see his reply.
She lifts a cool brow. “Well? That’s what you two are doing, isn’t it? Knocking boots. Especially now that you’re having his baby?”
I laugh and cover my face. “Oh god.”
“I knew it,” she says with a smirk. “That big, handsome cowboy wanted more than just your cupcakes back in the day.”
I snort. “You’re the worst.” But she’s not wrong. Sometimes cupcakes and cowboys are all a girl needs.
Fallon crosses her arms and tilts her head. “It’s sweet what Davis did for you.”
“Yeah.” Flushing, I finger the dog tag around my neck. “It is.”
“If only all Montgomery men had common sense.” She dips down, hefting the gym bag she keeps under the front counter. Peeking out of the poorly zipped side, riding boots and heels. A helmet and a pair of leather gloves. I frown. Fallon never rides with a helmet. Another one of her ways she defies death.
