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I step back. I recognize the look on her face. It’s one I’ve seen at home.
She hates me.
There’s a girl, a woman, behind her. I don’t know how old she is, but she looks like she might be my neighbor’s age, and she finished high school a few years ago. The girl—did the man say her name was Aspen?—has her thick brown hair pulled back into a bun.
She doesn’t look at me. Maybe she doesn’t know I’m here.
But I think…
I think she’s my sister.
I have a sister.
Just as she’s about to pass, she flicks a glance at me. Or was that above me? At my mom? Whichever one of us she’s looking at, she has the same expression on her face that her mom did.
The other one is next. But I don’t dare think of him as my brother. And I drop my eyes before he can look at me. Because I don’t think I can take it. I don’t think I can take one more person looking at me in disgust.
My dad is a liar.
My mom is a liar.
I think I have siblings. But I think they hate me.
And I don’t want to be hated.
I just want to be loved.
CHAPTER1
Val
My fingers fumblewith the paper wrapping just as a firm body slams into my side.
“Watch it!” a deep voice booms in my ear.
My feet try to shuffle with the impact, but my balance tips just as I lose my grip on my cookie, dropping it to the ground. At the same time, the weight that was hanging off my left shoulder drops away, ending any hope I have of not falling.
An embarrassing squeak bursts from my lips, and I splay my arms, desperately trying to catch myself.
I wish my eyes would shut, but they’re stuck wide open, watching all the people who are watching me and hoping to witness the klutzy girl wipe out in the airport terminal.
Except I don’t fall.
What has to be a freakishly strong arm encircles my waist and pulls me back against a hard body.
“I got you.” The same masculine voice from before speaks into my ear, only this time it’s quiet. A whisper. A growl. Asomething.
Swallowing, I let my arms drop and force my body to relax. The need for bracing no longer there.
“Thanks,” I breathe out before I notice that his big hand is splayed across my stomach.
A stranger is touching my stomach. My soft, squishy stomach.
I can only pray that he’s not as attractive as he sounds.
“Don’t be thanking me, Angel.” His hand slides across my tummy to my waist as he moves from behind me to next to me. “If that asshole hadn’t bumped into me, I wouldn’t have knocked into you.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I…” I start to say more, but then my eyes flick up to the tall man beside me, and my ability to form words vanishes.
