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It had been a long time, but a happy tear rolled down my cheek. I shut the door on the medicine cabinet and then brought the frame to the living room, where I placed it on one of the end tables.
I said a round of goodbyes to my cats, then locked my door before knocking on Scotty’s. It opened a few seconds later, and he was already talking. “You know you don’t have to…” His eyes landed on my spiky red heels and doubled in size. When that intense gaze slowly dragged up and took in my face, his green irises became slits as his pupils dilated.
He pressed his lips together, his nostrils flared, and I arched a brow, sliding easily into the role that I was comfortable in. “What?”
“You know what.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t need to play guessing games right now.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. He took a backward step, snatched up a key off the island, and shouted, “We’ll be in the car.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the door, then practically dragged me to the Escalade.
Just as we got there, the locks beeped, and he pulled the back door open, put a hand on my back, then pushed me inside. “What’s your problem?” I snapped when he sat next to me.
“What the fuck is this?” He waved his hands in my general direction.
“This is me. If you don’t like it, then you can fuck off.”
“Do not.” He slammed the door and leaned into me, grabbing my jaw with his fingers. “Do not do this.”
I pulled away. “I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re doing everything you can to protect yourself right now, but I refuse to let that shield get in my way. Now, you’re afraid, nervous, maybe something else, but I don’t know what or why. I wish I did, but since I don’t, all I can do is be here for you. If you really don’t want to do this, don’t. My parents, Austin, they don’t factor in your decision. All I care about is you, and if seeing your brother is making you this upset, then fuck him. We won’t go.” I felt my defenses weaken, and like always, he read it.
“I’m scared,” I whispered, too tired to fight. “And I don’t even know why, exactly.”
He grabbed my hands and rested his forehead on mine. “What do you need from me?”
“This.”
“You’ve got it. You’ve got me.” He pulled back an inch, and his eyes were back to the green I’d come to love so much. “If you want to get out of there at any time, ask me, ‘Did you bring in my purse?’ Okay?”
“I didn’t bring one.”
He smirked. “I know, sugar. It’s code. You say that to me, and I’ll find a way to get us out of there without making it obvious that you want to leave.”
“Thank you. I… I haven’t talked to my brother in a long, long while. I don’t have time to explain why right now, but I only did it to protect him. Everything I did was to protect him, and he doesn’t even know that. He just thinks I’m a bitch. Yet he still wants me in his life, and I don’t deserve to be.”
“He probably knows more than you think, sugar. Y’all grew up in the same house.”
I pursed my lips. “But we didn’t have the same parents, definitely not the same father.”
“Trust me, I get it. But he loves you no matter what. You’re lucky you have that.”
I was. “Yeah.” Movement made me look over his shoulder, and I saw his parents slowly walking our way. I looked down at my outfit and felt panic starting to consume me. “God, what did I do?”
“You’re fine.”
“I look like trash.” I ripped my hands from his and quickly yanked my fake eyelashes off, then unclipped my extensions and shoved them in the seat back. “Don’t let me forget them.” He was grinning at me, but when I pulled up the bottom of his shirt and used the back side to scrub as much of my lipstick off as I could, his shoulders shook.
Sal opened the passenger door for Maggie, and she looked back at me as she sat down. “You look great.”
Thank God she didn’t see me two minutes ago. “Thanks, you too. I like that barrette.”
She touched the thin metal butterfly. “Thanks, buttercup.”
I gave Sal the address, and he popped it into the GPS, then we drove off. While we were driving, I gathered my hair at the back of my head, and since I didn’t have a hair tie, it took a couple of attempts to get it into a knot, but I did it.
Apparently, it took longer than I realized because we were already pulling into Austin’s driveway. I had never been here before but wasn’t surprised that his house was brand new. He always liked shiny, new, expensive things.
