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I fought back my smile. “No, smartass. Because one time it made my blood pressure drop and when I stood up to get out of the bath, I passed out and hit my head on the sink.”
“You failed to mention that before.” He groaned softly. “Fucking hell.”
“It never happened again after that,” I tried to reassure him. “Eden still waited by the door though, just in case.”
“You don’t talk about your sister very often,” Drake said, the deep rumble of his voice vibrating through his chest to my cheek. “Tell me about her.”
“Eden’s older than me by eight years,” I explained, twisting my hands in the sheet as I considered just where to start our complicated life story. “We had different dads, and our mom was a single mom who worked two jobs and was barely ever home. She relied on Eden a lot to look after me, so she didn’t have to stay home too much or pay to put me in daycare. We formed a really close bond as we grew older. I even went to live with her when I was fifteen because Mom got this boyfriend, and he was a creep.”
“She had your back.”
I nodded, shifting so my head was on the pillow and Drake was facing me. “She really did, especially when things turned bad with Brian.” His name never failed to make me feel nauseous. I’m not sure if it was a reminder of the pain he put me through or the image in my head I still had of him lying lifeless on the floor at the flower shop. “Until I stopped calling her, asking for help.”
Drake’s brow instantly pulled together between his eyes. “What?”
“Every time she showed up, I’d see the devastation on her face as she looked at his latest handiwork,” I explained, my voice breaking slightly. “But she kept showing up.”
He reached out and brushed my hair back from my face, making sure our eyes were locked before he spoke, “Cass, that’s family. That’s what they do. They stick with you through the bullshit and the pain. They have your back. Don’t you think that’s what your sister would’ve done?”
“That’s exactly what I thought she’d do, which is why I pushed her away,” I said, my voice tightening uncomfortably, and I rolled onto my back, blinking back tears. “Going back to Brian every time wasn’t just hurting me, it was hurting her too. Only it was my choice, so I deserved the pain. Eden didn’t.”
“What about after you left Brian?” he asked, propping himself up on his elbow so I was looking up at him.
I swallowed past a hard lump forming in my throat.
It was filled with shame.
And guilt.
And embarrassment.
And it was trying to choke me.
“I chose a man over my sister,” I whispered, looking up at Drake, expecting to see some kind of judgment, disgust. But there was none. “I selfishly pushed her away, so I didn’t have to constantly feel bad about the choices I was making. I put her second to the man who was abusing me. Why would she want to see me?”
“Because she probably understands you were manipulated, groomed, and practically tortured into loving him,” Drake offered, reaching up and rubbing his thumb over the frown lines between my eyes until I felt my body begin to relax back into the bed. “We all do some stupid shit when it comes to protecting the people we love, Cassie. Especially if it means protecting them from ourselves and our decisions.”
A single tear dripped out the corner of my eye, and Drake quickly caught it with his finger.
“I really miss her.”
I missed her hugs, her smile, her laughter.
I missed the way she lectured me about my health but always bought me candy when I wasn’t feeling well.
Eden had been my best friend since the day I was born.
I heard Drake, and I knew he was right. But I still felt this heavy weight in my stomach that felt a lot like fear. Fear that even if I saw her now and asked her to forgive me, she wouldn’t.
And I’m not really sure what would hurt more—not knowing if she’d forgive me or knowing she hates me for sure.
CASSIDY
Three Days Later
The heat hit me like a slap in the face as I stepped out onto the curb.
Part of me could get used to the heat here in Vegas. I guess I’d gotten so used to how cold it got on the East Coast that this kind of heat made it feel like I was on a tropical island. But the other part of me hated how it made me constantly sweat.
