Page 19 of Sweet Oblivion

Not yet.

Ashton takes my hand in hers and drags me over to my small couch, tugging me down next to her. She smooths her hand over my hair and pushes it away from my face. “What happened, Lane?”

Running my tongue over my split lip, I sit back, bringing my knees up to my chest and making myself as small as possible before telling her everything.

Everything that happened inside West End after she and Jamie left.

Everything that happened outside . . .

The hospital . . .

The detectives. Olivia. Every awful detail.

Dying a little more with each word. Each memory.

The only thing I skim over is what happened once we were here. I’m not even sure why, but I’m just not ready to share that. Not yet. This whole sharing with your sister thing is still new to both of us. We’ve actually bonded over it already. Neither of us are women who grew up with tons of women friends. So we both get it. But we’ve already bonded to each other. Life and death situations will do that for you, and we seem to continually find ourselves in them.

If this is what’s on my bingo card for the year, I need to burn that bitch.

“So wait.” Ashton sits up and presses the heel of her hand into her bump, moving the baby. “Are you really going to marry Ryker?”

“If that’s what will save him, yes.” I don’t hesitate. Not on this.

Thank God, he didn’t hesitate last night.

“But it’s not like you love him, right?” she asks like the idea of marrying a man for any other reason is insane. She’s not wrong, but nothing about any of this makes much sense.

“No. But I owe him.”

Ryker

Jamie and I sit hidden away in a back booth of The Busy Bee Café, waiting for the pancakes and waffles we’ve ordered for the girls. Ashton’s a pancakes girl. I don’t have a clue what kind of breakfast food Delaney likes or if she even eats it or will want it today, but waffles and fruit seemed like a good choice. I may have also ordered a few pastries and an order of eggs just in case. The crowded diner buzzes with people as we wait.

“I wish we hadn’t left when we did,”Jamie says quietly as he signs. He’s too low to hear in the crowded diner, but hopefully, no one else can either.“Maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”

“You can’t take that on yourself,”I answer just as quietly.

He breaks off another piece of donut for Kyrie, who’s in heaven, licking the glaze off the first bite he gave her.“How much trouble does Liv think you’re in?”

I shrug.“Enough.”

“You really going to marry her? It feels like there has to be a better way.”

Kyrie smacks my hand with a smooshed, wet donut, trying to shove it my way. It looks disgusting, but I act like I’m going to eat it anyway. There’s basically nothing I wouldn’t do to make this baby girl smile.

My phone lights up and vibrates with another text.

My thirty-second of the morning.

I haven’t opened any of them yet.

My family is overly involved on a good day, and today isn’t a good day.

“You gonna answer that?”Jamie nods toward the phone that’s facing up. This time, my brother Maverick’s name flashes on the screen.“Mav’s gonna be pissed you’re ignoring him.”

“He’ll be more pissed when he finds out you’re with me,”I joke because what the fuck else can I even do about it?

Begrudgingly, I slide my finger over the screen, immediately wishing I hadn’t.