AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We collided again, our gazes. Hugging her arms, she leaned over the bar. “Why didn’t you just tell me that was your sister that day? On your phone?”
My gaze passed over to my computer. “Didn’t seem relevant.”
“Didn’t it?”
Not at the time, and it’d been a very good reason to cut all ties. It’d been my reality check for dipping into shit I had no business tasting. Billie Coventry was forbidden fruit for me. “Look, I appreciate you helping—”
“Don’t do that.”
I looked her, all joy gone from this girl’s face.
She reached for me, but when she hesitated, I let her pull back. Her barstool scooted out, and I got to watch her walk away from me.
She tugged her sweater back up over her shoulder. “I’m just going to go say goodbye. To Dasha?” She stepped back. “Then I’ll be out of your hair.”
My eyes closed as I was left by myself in the kitchen, my thoughts completely plagued. I wanted nothing more than to go after her, tell her things were complicated with me. Nothing could come between my family and me. They were the most important thing, always, and if I thought for a minute any involvement with someone else could complicate that, there’d be no contest. My family and my priorities would win every time.
“LJ?”
But still, I came when she called me to the living room, ran right to her like a fucking weak-ass little shit. Billie stood in front of the couch, and I had no idea why until I arrived.
Billie stared at my sister, my sister sleeping on the couch. Dasha managed to actually look innocent, her textbook across her chest. Billie grinned. “I was going to wake her up and say goodbye, but…”
She looked sweet, goddamn her. I scrubbed into my hair. “I get it. She actually manages to look innocent.”
“She does.”
“But she can’t sleep on the couch.” I had my sister set up in one of the guest rooms upstairs. I started to go for her books, but Billie grabbed them first.
“I’ll help,” she said, doing that for some reason. I’d given her not one, but she was there right with me. She got Dasha’s books while I picked my sister up in my arms, carrying her upstairs and to the guest room. The place was a mess with her living in there, but I managed to get around all her things.
Billie pulled down the bedding, and I tucked her inside.
“‘Night, ingrate,” I whispered, kissing her brow, and in her sleeping daze, my sister gave me her middle finger again. She immediately curled on her side, and I chuckled, letting her have that one. I drew the bedding over her, and when I got up, I noticed Billie at the desk in the room.
“You did these?” she asked, showing me my own sketches. I had them papered all over the desk since I usually worked in here. This was normally a guest room so no one came in here.
“Uh, yeah,” I passed off, some of my older designs in here. Simple stuff for commercial buildings and some modern family homes. That’s why this rental actually appealed to me. Reminded me of my own stuff. “That’s what I’m going to school for. Architecture.”
“Really?”
I grinned. “Yeah, didn’t know I was really good at it until, well, I came here.”
I honestly hadn’t known what I wanted to do when I first came to Woodcreek. I just knew I wanted my degree, needed to do something profitable for my family. Architecture and design work just came easy for me.
Billie picked up one of my notebooks beside the loose designs. Opening it up, she thumbed the pages, a small smile on her face. Her hand stopped on another family home I designed, many elements of chrome and granite in the design. “These are really good, LJ.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I tend to sketch in here since this is usually a guest room.”
“Well, now I see why you don’t like film,” she stated, laughing a little. “Clearly, it’s not your thing.”
“What gave it away?”
Her laughter faded as I reached around her, turning to some of my best work. Her soft smell consumed me, and my fingers danced from the pages to her fingers.
They looped around them, her digits so small compared to mine.
I angled a look at her. “I have more back in my room if you want to see them.”
