AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Because I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admit to both of us. “And it’s scary. I’ve always been so sure of my path. Of my goals. But I feel like everything changed when I wasn’t looking, and now I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
“Explain,” she stresses as the server places our food in front of us.
I wait for her to walk away, then fill Quinn in on everything that’s happened over the past forty-eight hours. Well,almosteverything. She doesn’t get to hearallthe dirty details. Some things are just for Sawyer and me.
Once I’m done, I lift a fork full of waffle to my mouth and wait for her to say something...anything.
Quinn takes a few beats, sizing me up with narrowed eyes. “Do you want your super supportive best friend right now, or do you wantrip the Band-Aid offhonesty?”
“The second,” I tell her through a mouth full of food and hope it’s not too bad.
“Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.” She waits for me to argue before she lays it out for me, then goes for it. “Okay, I need you to really hear what I’m about to say because I’m coming from a place of love. Your parents made a mistake by not telling you. But can you put yourself in their shoes for a minute? They were going through hell and trying to protect one of their daughters and get her help. I doubt hashing out all the details with anyone was their top priority back then.”
“I guess I can see that,” I admit and stuff a heaping fork of waffle into my mouth.
“You also can’t be mad at your mom for living her life. She asked you to come here and be her partner in one of the most prestigious obstetrics and gynecology practices in the state of Pennsylvania. I understand you thought she was going to be your mentor and hold your hand, but you don’t need that. That’s a crutch. You’ve been mentored for years. Maybe not by your mom but by amazing doctors. I should know. You’ve told me about them all. You’ve got this. And she’s going out of her way to make sure you can have it all—an amazing career and an amazing life.”
“That’s what Sawyer said,” I admit begrudgingly.
She picks up her coffee mug and taps it to mine. “And that brings me to my third point. He was never your enemy.”
I move to speak, but she shakes her head. “He wasn’t, Wren. Rival? Yes. Enemy? No. Even if it had been him driving the car that night, your sister has to own her actions. But it wasn’t him. Your decades-long reasoning is flawed. And before that, you guys drove each other crazy. Everybody saw it but you—because it’s always been clear as day. The friction between you two was more push-pull than it was ever hate. And I’d bet my firstborn, that man has been in love with you since we were sixteen.”
“No, he hasn’t,” I argue, but I’m not sure I actually believe that.
I think back over so many memories.
The many times we were forced together because of our fathers.
The sparkle in the stormy depths of those blue eyes while he was tormenting me throughout high school. The way he held me after his father died. The look in his eyes the other night. “What if I’ve wasted all these years hating him?” I whisper.
“What if you waste any more time trying to hold on to the lie that you still do?”
* * *
Ipull into my driveway and have to dig through my bag for my ringing phone.
Hayley’s face flashes across my screen, and I contemplate ignoring the incoming FaceTime.
I almost toss it back into my bag, but then it stops ringing, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Apparently, a little too soon—because it starts up again.
Fine. I slide my thumb across the screen and accept the call.
“Hey,” Haley smiles nervously from the other side of the equator. “Did you just get off shift?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You look like you haven’t slept in days, sissy.” She fidgets in her seat and adjusts the phone. “So I talked to Mom today.”
“I’m fine, Hales. Mom has her panties in a twist because she hit me with a surprise this week and I hit back.” I think about the looks on their faces and feel a little guilty. “It might not have been my finest hour.”
“Good.” She shrugs.
“Good? What’s good about it? Because I actually feel pretty shitty, to be honest.”
“Wren... Don’t do this. Don’t be mad at Mom and Dad. Don’t be mad at Sawyer. Be mad at me. But while you’re doing that, you want to maybe tell me what the hell’s going on with you and the hottest Kingston?”
I dig my fingernails into my palm before I reach through the phone and rip my sister’s hair out from hundreds of miles away.
