I walk over to her and give her a kiss on her cheek. “Same as always.”
A second later, the front door flies open and footsteps stomp down the hall. “If I have to listen to that guy in class one more time, I’m going to scream!”
My little sister—Bailey—announces her arrival by dropping her backpack with a loud thud somewhere near the entry. I lean against the counter, already smiling. “Tough day?”
“Boys are exhausting,” she shouts, and I hear her shrug off her jacket in the hall. “No offense.”
“None taken.”
Bailey’s only sixteen but already sharper than most adults. She’s bold, brave, and feisty as hell. When she was nine, she tried to fight a boy twice her size for cutting in line. She won, by the way. That tells you about everything you need to know.
From the hallway, she launches into a rant about that same guy who keeps saying that “women are put on this world to make babies.” A second later she appears in the kitchen doorway. “I wanted to slap that shitty smile off his face—”
“Language,” Mom interrupts, turning to give her a quick glance, before turning back to stirring. And I just laugh, my gaze following Bailey again. “You sound like Kiara.”
“That’s like the biggest compliment ever.”
She grabs something from the fridge, and when she closes it, she takes one good look at me, her nose scrunches like I’m an outfit that isso not in right now.
“Don’t even think about hugging me,” she warns, taking a bite of whatever she just took from the fridge. “You smell like gym socks and men.”
I grin and step toward her anyway, arms out. “Come on, give your favourite brother some love.”
“You’re myonlybrother,” she huffs, “wouldn’t touch you with a stick right now!”
She ducks under my arm and hides behind Mom, who doesn’t even pause what she’s doing. I laugh and head toward the stairs. “Love you too, kiddo.”
Later that night, the three of us are curled up on the couch, devouring the dessert I smelled earlier. Cinnamon and brown sugar cookies. They taste even better than they smelled. There is soft music humming from the boxes, a couple of candles litaround the house, and three cups of tea sitting on the small table in front of us.
It actually feels like a home. Which wasn’t the case when Norman still lived here. I stopped calling him my dad years ago—right around the time he got arrested for domestic abuse. Turns out living with two strong women teaches you everything a father was supposed to anyway. And Bailey’s basically a football sideline dad, so I never really missed that ‘father figure’.
Bailey sits across from me, earbuds hanging around her neck and wearing one of my hoodies she’s basically drowning in. She glances up from her phone, then looks at me sideways. “So… are you getting a girlfriend any time soon?”
I groan quietly. “Absolutely not.”
“Ugh,” she says, dropping her head back against the couch. “I just want a sister. Is that too much to ask?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Don’t hold your breath.”
She squints at me. “What about Maddy?”
I blink once. “What about her?”
“Well,” Bailey says casually, “Mel has Liam. Kiara’s gay. So statistically speaking—”
I toss a pillow at her face before she can finish, but she just grins. “You’re just scared of girls.”
I ignore her, reaching into my pocket when my phone buzzes. Three unread messages stare back at me.
Hey, are you seeing anyone these days?
My niece just moved back to town and—
I was wondering if you’d maybe want to grab coffee sometime?
I rub a hand over my face and sigh. At this point I’m half convinced there’s a small-town FBI sharing my contact info. But—because I’m not a dick—I respond back;really appreciate it, but I’m not looking for anything right now.
Not that it actually stops them, but they’re just gonna have to accept the fact I’m not getting a girlfriend anytime soon.
