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“No offense.” Birdie eyeballed my belly. “But I hope I never get knocked up. I’d be such a whiny bitch.”
“You already are,” I said.
She stuck out her tongue and fluffed the pillows on the bed, flinging herself onto my old side. Once we’d established that Lucian’s side was off-limits, we stopped having problems with her invading my space, which was good because Birdie loved to invade everyone’s space.
“This bed is comfy.” She wiggled her way into the pillows. “Way comfier than the guest room.”
“You don’t have to sleep there,” I told her. “You can go back to…”
It finally occurred to me that I never knew where she was staying. We still hadn’t talked about what she was doing in Vegas, or why she had lied to me. I’d accepted the fact that there was something strange going on between her and Ace, given that he never left her on her own for very long, but I didn’t know the details. Suddenly, I felt very selfish for not asking her.
“These past few months have been pretty much all about me,” I said. “Haven’t they?”
“So what? It’s about time you learned how to be selfish.” She said it as a joke, but I didn’t laugh.
“It’s just such a surreal experience.” I sat down on the bed beside her. “I remember how sad we were when Mom left, but we were so young. It didn’t feel like this. It didn’t feel like I’d been sucked into this void that I’d never get out of.”
“You’re doing really well,” Birdie said gently. “You’ve come a long way.”
“I know.” I stared up at the ceiling. “But I feel like all this stuff has happened around me, and I haven’t had the ability to absorb it.”
“You’ve been pretty engrossed in your research lately,” Birdie admitted. “I figured it was good for you.”
“It is. But I want to know what’s going on with you.”
“Me?” She blinked. “I thought you were just talking about the world in general.”
I pulled the comforter up around me and snuggled into it. If I breathed slowly, I could still smell Lucian there, but that scent was disappearing every day. “The world, in general, is going to hell,” I said. “Not much new to report there. I want to know why you stayed in Vegas after you told me you were going to Washington.”
She stared down at her pink polished toes. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated, how?” I poked her in the shoulder. “I’m your sister. You should be able to tell me anything.”
“I can tell you anything.” She poked me back. “But that doesn’t mean I want to. Especially when you might be disappointed in me.”
“Do you think I have it in me to be disappointed in you right now, B?” I joked. “I’m barely holding it together every day.”
She looked at me for a minute before she finally nodded. “All right, well, look… the thing is… I went to Washington. I tried it, Gypsy, I swear I did. I wanted to make you proud of me and all that, but I didn’t know anyone there. And it was all nature type stuff, and you know that just isn’t me. I missed home, and I wanted to come back, so I did.”
I sighed. I got what she was saying, I really did, but she hadn’t thought about the possible consequences. “How long have you been back?”
“For a couple of months,” she confessed.
“Birdie, you know it’s dangerous for you here,” I said gently. “It would kill me if—”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” she interjected. “I swear. I wouldn’t do that to you. And besides, I have some people watching out for me now. You have nothing to worry about.”
“What people?”
“Ace and his club buddies,” she groaned. “They’ve taken it upon themselves to look out for me I guess because they didn’t want Lucian to deal with another pain in the ass.”
Irritation bubbled up inside me. “So Ace knew you were here this whole time?”
“Well, technically… no.” Birdie frowned. “He just happened to see me one night at a casino.”
I glared at her. “What were you doing in the casino?”
“You promised you wouldn’t get upset with me,” she reminded me. “I was just playing some table games. That’s it.”
I took a breath and shook my head. “I’m not upset. I just want to make sure you aren’t in trouble.”
“Even if I were…” Birdie held up her hands before I could interrupt. “Which I’m not, it’s not for you to worry about anymore, Gypsy. I’m a big girl now, and I’m responsible for my actions.”
“You still should have told me,” I said. “And Ace should have said something too.”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure why he didn’t.”
“Are you still going to your classes?”
“No,” she admitted sheepishly.
We’d need to address that later, but for now, I had learned what was important. Birdie was alive, she was healthy, and she was happy. Everything else could be figured out.
