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Why was I suddenly all over Bailey?
“For now, sis, can you forgive me on the premise that I promise to explain later? When all of this makes more sense? Give me a few days. That’s it.”
She nodded against my shirt and then pinched my side hard. “Don’t do it again.”
“Never. I promise.” A chuckle escaped, and she looked at me as if I were insane. “Just thinking.”
“About Bailey.” Not a question.
“You’re getting a sister.”
“I’m not mad at that in the least, Hunter.” Stepping out of my hug, she let out a heavy sigh. “Will you behave today? Control your reactions where they are concerned?”
“Keep Brad away from Bailey and I’ll—”
“I can’t control his actions any more than you can,” she interjected before I could finish, a grimace on her face.
“Don’t give a flying one, Emi. If the idiot comes on to her again, I won’t play nice. This, between her and I, will happen.” My sister opened her mouth once more to argue her case, but I was past negotiations. Nothing she’d say would change my mind on that subject. “No one gets a free pass to touch what’s mine, and that’s what Bailey is. Mine. Even if that beautiful girl doesn’t know it yet.”
“Understood.” She nodded, a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “Feel the same way about Thomas. What’s mine is mine, and I don’t share.”
“Good.” I’d have to revisit the Thomas conversation with her at another time. Pick my battles, and now was not the time to rattle that cage.
I might need her help in the future.
“So, you care about her?”
“Yes. Always have, in a sense.” Not a second of hesitation in that answer. I’d come to terms that on some level my love for her had always existed.
Explained my conflicted feeling all these years. Why, no matter how hard I tried, forgetting Bailey was impossible. Why I left her a piece of me inside her bedroom that one Christmas I went home.
“Then I’ll make sure that Thomas has a word with his brother regarding my new sister.” Standing on the tip of her toes, Emi kissed my cheek and then proceeded to pat my head as one would a puppy. “Make her happy. That’s all I care about.”
That One Christmas Years Ago
I was an asshole.
No other way to explain my actions as of late.
It’d been months since I last saw her. My little Bailey.
The one girl that shouldn’t cross my mind, but for some fucked- up reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about.
Even more so since I’d been home.
This had been a colossal mistake on my behalf. Motherfucking huge.
“Why am I here?” I asked myself aloud, the slight chill in the late December air causing me to take more than one hearty sip from my pilfered vodka bottle. I wasn’t drunk by any means, but to do what I had in mind, I needed the liquid courage. “How can I stay away, and not feel like the dirt beneath my shoes after?”
Christmas break had come and gone. I blinked, and it was over.
Tomorrow I’d be back on campus and surrounded by my new life, consumed by the responsibilities I’d placed on my own shoulders and away from my greatest distraction.
That little girl who’d grown up with me and whose confession rocked the foundation I stood on.
Same one I’d done everything in my power to avoid these last few days.
Instead of catching up, making sure that we were okay, I’d been playing a crazy game of hide and seek. Hung out with old friends—spent countless hours doing everything and anything to avoid her hurt eyes.
