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I froze. The less she knew, the better. “Yeah. I’m good. I don’t watch the news. What are they saying about it?”
“That a previous employee did it. Someone who was fired and got angry. That club, that wasn’t one of Carter’s was it?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“Good.”
She sounded relieved. She didn’t know it was owned by the Mauricio family. I wondered how she would’ve reacted if she’d known that tidbit. This was dumb. I was pretending my life was normal and that I could get to know my sister the way normal people would—that we could spend time together, laugh together, maybe even tease each other or fight. We’d have months and months of being around each other. But we wouldn’t. Here we were trying to force it in a couple days. Carter had never said a word, but I knew that’s all I was getting. A few days to cover a few decades of history. It wasn’t enough time, and I couldn’t pretend otherwise.
“What’s wrong?”
I refocused on her. “Hmmm?”
“You made a sound. Is something wrong?”
“Oh.” What did I say? Be honest. That was the only way. I clutched my napkin as I prepared to speak. “Andrea—”
“Call me Andy,” she interrupted, her eyes sparkling.
“What?”
“He called you Alley Cat.”
“Andy. It’s what my friends and family call me. Andrea’s the uptight socialite persona.” She grinned to herself, rolling her eyes. “I have to play that part, but this is nice. I can just be Andy with you. No charades or anything.”
Except for mine. I twisted the napkin around my hand. If it had been made of cheap material, I would’ve ripped it in half by now. “Ah, yes. That is nice.”
“So…” She leaned forward to grab her glass of wine. “You were going to tell me what’s wrong.”
“I was. Yes.” I couldn’t play pretend anymore. “You obviously know about Carter.”
She went still in her seat.
“I don’t know what you know or what you think,” I continued. “But I can’t talk about that stuff. If you want to get to know me, it’s just me. There will be times when you’re not going to see me or you can’t get through to me. That’s just how it is.”
Her eyes darted to Thomas, who stood closest to us. She jerked them back to me.
“After meeting you last night, I wanted to cram the whole day with getting to know each other. I think I wanted to pretend this was normal, that we were just two friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. But that’s not the truth. The truth is that I shouldn’t even be here.”
“You shouldn’t?” Her voice dipped low.
“No, but not because of you. Because of other things. And as I’m saying this to you, I’m realizing how wrong I am to have pushed for this. I should go.” I started to stand. Calling Carter, making things right was foremost in my mind now.
“Wait.” She touched my arm. “Wait, please. Sit. Please.”
I did, but slowly.
She swallowed and reached for her glass of wine again. Her hand trembled. “Yes, I’ve heard the rumors. I’d be living under a rock not to know who Carter Reed is, and like I said before, everyone back home is buzzing about you. They all know who he is, too. I’d be a liar if I sat here and told you I didn’t want to know about him. That’s not the truth. I’m curious, yes, but I think anyone would be.”
She paused for a moment and took a breath. “However, I’m more curious because he’s a part of your life. It’s you I really want to know. We don’t have to talk about him or anything that makes you uncomfortable. I promise. I won’t even bring up AJ. Kevin made me realize last night that maybe I’m wrong—jumping to conclusions. I don’t remember our mom that well either, so it’s possible something bad happened with her. Maybe AJ was saving you. I don’t know. I’ve just been looking for you all my life, and he’s the one I blamed for taking you away.”
“AJ was good to me.” No one would take that from me.
“I can see that.” She seemed cautious. “I can, and you’re right about forcing the day together. I want to get to know you too, but I got a sense last night that now isn’t the time for that to happen. Maybe we could finish our lunch and then promise to get in touch when the time is right? How about that?”
I nodded, feeling all the tension leaving me. “That sounds wonderful, actually.”
“Good.” She lifted her wine glass. “To getting to know one another. And if it takes a long time, that’s completely fine, too.”
