Page 39 of The Best Shot

Told myself a whole bunch of reasonable lies that might’ve worked if I wasn’t already running through every spot in town she might be and whether any of them gave me a legitimate reason to show up.

The problem with fucking a friend was that everything after got complicated in ways you couldn’t unfuck.

I pulled out of the lot and drove home, caught between knowing what I wanted and knowing it wasn’t mine to take.

11

“I’M STILL SORRY.”

YASMINE

The lock on my front door turned before I recognized the sound. I went still, hand on the trackpad, waiting for whoever had picked it in broad daylight to come murder me.

Then my mother let herself in carrying a foil pan.

“Hey, baby.” She bumped the door shut with her hip. “I brought you some chicken.”

I made myself unclench my hand from the trackpad. “Hey, Mama.” Mental note: get that key back.

She set the dish on the counter and looked at me. “Did you talk to Hale?”

Hale’s mouth, rough against mine. The bathroom door barely locked. My hand braced on cool tile.

That was not what she meant. It couldn’t be.

Right?

“About what?”

Her lips pressed thin. “The job for your brother. You said you’d ask.”

Oh.

That.

I reached for my teacup. “I’ve been tied up, Mama.”

“So tied up you can’t make time for your family?” She shifted her purse higher on her shoulder, gaze moving through the apartment like she was trying to spot whatever had made me unavailable.

I turned back to my screen.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll get to it when you can.”

That was too easy. I adjusted the saturation on the image and waited.

She didn’t disappoint. “I need you to talk to CeeCee.”

“About what?”

“She won’t answer my calls. Or Shaun’s. It’s been months and she won’t even—” Mama’s lips thinned. “Your brother isn’t doing well.”

I knew this was the part where I was supposed to act as if the world was falling and Texas would be swallowed into the earth, but I didn’t have it in me today. “Okay.”

“He’s not eating. He’s not sleeping. You know how sensitive he is.”

Sensitive.

Sure.