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My eyes widen as Dave appears at our table as Maddie finishes. “Well, thanks for letting me know how you really feel, little sister.” He slides into the other side of the booth.
“What are you doing here?” she asks. “How did you find us?”
“You weren't at your dorm and your roommate said you were out with your boyfriend. I went to the house and some guy told me where I might find y'all. You've been ignoring us all day since we called, and I was worried. I just wanted to see my sister.”
Maddie seems stumped by his presence and his words. Can't say I blame her. They've never been close, obviously, but despite anything he's said, Dave loves his little sister. He glances between us, waiting for Maddie to say something. She pushes her plate over to him, all that's left are her untouched fries. “You can have the rest of those. I already ate a burger.”
“Thanks. I didn't mean to crash your, uh,” he looks at me, “date.”
“It's fine. Maddie must have missed you since she was talking about you,” I joke.
She rolls her eyes and steals a fry from my plate. “Whatever. We were running out of things to occupy my mind.” We're quiet for a moment as we realize why she needed a distraction, so she could finish eating her burger. Maddie puts her half-eaten fry back on my plate and goes for my drink since we're waiting for the waitress to refill hers.
“I always knew Winston was boring,” Dave says with a forced laugh.
“Shut the hell up,” I chuckle.
Maddie leans her head on my shoulder, officially done with food. I rest my hand on her thigh, and she immediately holds my hand. “Are you staying the night?” she asks.
“Yeah. It's a long drive back, so I'll leave in the morning. I have a hotel not too far from here. I just...wanted to see you. If I had known that you took what I said to heart, or hell, paid me any attention, I would have never said it, Maddie. I feel terrible. I'm sorry. I never thought it would-”
“It's okay,” Maddie interrupts. “You feel bad because you were a dick and your little sister actually listened to her brother.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “You made me pay attention to what was already there.” She takes a deep breath and looks at me. “I'm tired of talking about this. Can we go?”
“Yeah, of course.” We've missed the movie, so we'll have to catch it another day. I wave the waitress over for the check as Maddie looks everywhere but at her brother, who seems at a loss for words. I fish my keys from my pockets and give them to her. “Go get the car warmed up.” Maddie happily takes my escape without so much of a goodbye to Dave. “I'm going to make her stay with me tonight, if it makes you feel any better,” I tell him once she's gone.
“Would have never thought my sister going home with my best friend would make me happy.” He does looked relieved.
“Don't worry about what she said. She barely talks to me about it, so don't be surprised that she doesn't want to talk to you.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” he mumbles as the waitress takes my card. “Has she said anything about Mom wanting her to see a professional?”
I nod. “I think she'll go, too.”
Dave shakes his head. “I always worried about some ass hurting her. Never thought it would be me.”
“Neither of us knew how much it bothered her, Dave. I mean, I knew she hated it, but I thought it was because you teased her in front of everyone, and I definitely didn't think she was that worried about her weight. We were both idiots,” I finish as I stick my card back in my wallet.
“Do you think she'll be okay?”
“Yeah, I do, but she needs time for that to happen. I should go.” I turn to leave, but he stops me.
“I'm not angry anymore, if it makes a difference. I was pissed about all I didn't know, what you didn't tell me, more than anything.”
“Yeah, I figured that was it. You've always been needy that way.”
r /> He laughs. “Shut the hell up and go take care of my sister.”
I ALMOST THOUGHT Lucy was going to bail on me after Patrick came for her at the library. She canceled our run, so I thought for sure she would. But she texted me saying that we were still on. The package with all I brought back for her is in my back seat. She's walking out of the building as I park.
“What are you doing?” I ask when she climbs into the back seat.
“Leave the truck running and get back here with me,” she answers, looking curiously at the box. I move into the back, placing the box in my lap. “We don't have to go anywhere.” Lucy slides over to me and sinks into me. “I missed you,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around me.
“Everything okay, Lucy?” Last time she hugged me like this, she had disappeared for a few days after staying with me and having Patrick come get her.
“Yeah, still thinking about why Patrick came for me.” She looks like she's unsure if she wants to share it with me or not. Lucy takes a breath and decides to fill me in. “You know that Corey can't play anymore, right? He's been having a hard time dealing with it, more than we thought, and we had to go see him. Well, more than I thought. Patrick and Jon knew. They are always so strong for me, it bothers me when I see any of them struggle. It made me not want to waste time going somewhere before I could do this.” She briefly squeezes her hold on me, lifting her head to look at me. I lean down to gently kiss her, wanting to make her feel better. When I pull away, she smiles, her cheeks starting to blush.
“Do you want to talk more about it?”
