I laughed. “No, but I don’t think he was like this even a year ago.”
“Bad breakup?” She guessed.
“Maybe, but I don’t think so.” It wasn’t like he actually talked to me about his past. He seemed to want to stay in the present. The only things in the past we spoke of were the children’s history on the lake.
“Did you think about, oh…just asking him?”
“Of course I have.”
“And did you?” She chomped down on her pickle.
I sighed. “No.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I can just feel that he can’t handle the question.”
She crossed her eyes. “Not the vibes thing again.”
“Hey, you have it when it comes to animals. I just happen to have it with humans.”
“It’s a far cry from knowing how to wrangle a bat and make it eat and knowing what people are feeling.”
“Don’t underplay your gifts, Lib.”
She gave me a soft smile. “You’re good for the ego.” She reached across the counter. “But it’s not your job to heal everyone. Or to put what you need on hold for a guy.”
“That’s the thing. I don’t. I mean, yes it started out as just...” I cleared my throat. I wasn’t shy about talking about sex with my sister. We were only a few years apart, but it wasn’t just sex when it came to Dutch.
Was I just seeing it through my romantic lenses?
Liberty squeezed my hand. “What happened before I showed up?”
I sighed. “He’s got trust issues. Like, borderline paranoia.”
“Maybe he got cheated on.” She peeled off the crust of the grilled cheese and wrapped it around what was left of the pickle and bit down on it. She crossed her eyes and moaned. “I don’t know what you put in bread.”
“Love. And Rosie likes to show off.”
Liberty snickered. “Only you would name your sourdough.”
“My starter.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Look it up on social media. I’m not the only one. Even Taylor Swift named hers.”
She snorted. “Of course she did. But don’t derail me. You are a master at it.”
Leave it to my sister to act like a dog with a bone. “Okay, I don’t know if you’ve heard that much about our new resident.”
“Nope. I told you. I’ve been hand feeding baby bats for weeks. I was lucky I took a shower, let alone talked to anyone outside of the rescue.”
“Okay, well...he’s an author.”
“No way.”
“Yeah. Pretty famous.” I lowered my voice. It wasn’t like he could hear me, but I felt weird about saying it out loud. “I read one of his books.”
