Page 35 of Cash

Before I could get the first ‘I’m sorry’ out of my mouth Penny stood and jumped off the porch. She wiped her hands on her jeans and smartly stuck one out in front me.

I glanced at her hand, unsure what to do with it. I took a guess and reached out to shake her hand. As soon as our palms touched, she started pumping our hands.

“Hi, Cash, I’m Penny Loraine Cox, your sister. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m five years older than you and I’m allergic to peanuts. My favorite movies are sappy love stories. My favorite genre of music is eighties rock. I love tacos but hate seafood. I’ve had two long-term boyfriends but I’m single now and I think I’ve recently been fired from the NSA.” She stopped to shrug. “The rest you’ll learn as we go.”

She misread my silence and started to pull her hand away. I tightened my grip and held on while I stood.

“Hi, Penny, I’m your…” I had to stop to clear my throat. “Brother.”

There was probably more that I should’ve told her but something strange was happening in my chest. The woman standing in front of me had once been the girl who’d taken care of me. A little girl who was the only person who had ever loved me. Who’d fought to remember me.

“Thank you, Penny.” Fuck, what was wrong with my throat and why did my eyes itch? If there was ever a time for an inappropriate joke it was now. However, I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. So instead, with a tug of her hand, I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around my sister for the first time.

Or at least it was the first time I’d hugged her as an adult.

Forty years ago, she’d held my helpless body in her arms and protected me the best she could.

I heard her breath hitch and felt her body shake. “We’re fine, sister. We made it.”

“Sorry. No past⁠—”

“Just this once,” I told her and held her tighter. “Let me give you a little of what you gave me.” I felt her nod and snuggle closer. “Except the peeing part. Please don’t pee on me, big sister.”

It took a second, but when it happened I not only felt Penny laugh, I heard it fill the air, and for the first time that day I could breathe.

Then I remembered Lore walking out the door and suddenly my lungs felt like they were full of mud.

Lore’s dead.

I totally fucked that.

And I needed to make it right.

CHAPTER NINE

Six Months later.

“Lolo, can I have cake and cupcakes for my birthday?” Cara asked as we walked home from her school.

Panic gripped my insides. Cake and cupcakes. It had taken me a month of practicing every day for a month while Cara had been in school to finally get a batch to turn out. That was two-hundred and forty cupcakes tossed into the trash.

I had not been practicing baking a cake.

Shit.

“It’s your birthday. You get whatever you want.”

“I knew it,” Cara exclaimed. “Natalie says she has to pick. She can’t have both. But I knew you’d say yes. Can we FaceTime Miss Flora tonight?”

Damn, I missed Flora.

She’d left a week after I got back and I wasn’t sure who missed her more, me or Cara. I had to hand it to the older woman; she’d tried to cram everything she knew about parenting into a week. Unfortunately at the time I’d been heartbroken and hadn’t retained even half of what she’d tried to teach me.

No. Not heartbroken. Pissed. Furious. Murderous. Not that I committed any kind of crimes these days, especially felonious ones. Hell, it had been over a month since I’d plotted a beautiful torture scene starring a dumbass who’d almost rearended me while Cara was in the car.

I was taking that as me adjusting nicely into my retirement.

“Remember I told you that Miss Flora is traveling but she’ll FaceTime you on your birthday next week.”