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It wasn’t that simple, though.
Not when I’d learned a long time ago that the word family didn’t mean anything, not really. Mom was my family. Dad too. And neither of them had provided us with a warm, loving, stable environment. Family wasn’t loving and supporting someone because you had to; it was loving and supporting someone because you chose to.
“It doesn’t matter now,” I said. “I left.” I got out. “She can’t hurt me anymore.”
The lie hung in the air between us.
“I’m going to call her. This shit ends now.”
“No.”
“No?” He recoiled. “What do you mean, no?”
“This isn’t your battle to fight, Austin.”
“Fuck, it’s not. You’re my—”
“Sister, yes. Just like I was your sister the first time she dragged me to a shoot. And when she put me on a juice diet for a week because the photographer said I needed to lose a few pounds. Or when the kids at school started calling me thunder thighs. Or wide load. Or melons.”
His expression dropped, morphing from shame to disbelief to downright anger. But his sudden protective big brother act was too little, too late.
I needed him back then—I didn’t need him now.
“I didn’t tell you, and yes, that’s on me. But you never asked, either. You never looked hard enough to realize what was really going on. And that’s on you, Austin. Don’t bother calling Mom. I’ll deal with her. Just like I always have.”
Just like I probably always would.
CHAPTER 32
NOAH
By the time I got back to the house, my hair was damp, and my skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. But after last night, I’d needed to burn off some steam. To try and get my thoughts straight.
Spending the night with Aurora had been the best fucking night of my life. But she was still holding back.
Part of me got it. She wanted to go slow, to give us a chance to see where things would go without having our relationship picked apart by our friends, her brother, the team, and all that came with it.
But I didn’t want to keep things a secret. Not when I was ready to jump headfirst into this thing between us.
Yanking the back door open, I slipped into the house, not expecting to find Austin hunched over the table, brochures and bottles scattered all over the place.
“What’s going on?” I walked over to him and eyed some of the literature, snatching one of the brochures up. “What the fuck is this?”
“This is my mother’s attempt at fixing Rory.”
“The fuck?” My eyes ran over the advertisement for Cellulaze, whatever the fuck that was. “She… she sent Aurora this?” I eyed the pill bottles, dread sinking in my chest.
White, hot anger shot through me. Aurora had told me things were bad with her mom, but hearing it and seeing it were two very different things.
“Actually, she sent it to me.” Austin let out a weary sigh, dragging a hand down his face. The guy looked fucking gutted. “But I’m guessing that’s because she doesn’t have Rory’s address.”
“That’s fucked up, Austin.”
“You’re telling me.” He met my gaze, shame bleeding into his expression. “She never told me. All these years, and she never told me how bad it was.”
Fuck.
I didn’t want to do this, not after last night. Not after the intense feelings I had for his sister. But he was one of my best friends, and for as much as I was pissed with him on behalf of Aurora, I could also see the pain in his eyes.
