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Still, it shouldn’t have taken this long to find the note.
I’m not sure I want to tell Ophelia about it. Not till I understand why he hid it where he did, almost like he didn’t want it to be found.
“Hey.” Ophelia swings her legs. Her feet don’t even touch the ground. She’s always been a short thing and I guess that’s not changing. “I’ll tell you a secret if you tell me yours.”
“Seriously?” I side-eye her hard. “We’re a little old for ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.’”
“Don’t be gross, Grant.” She flushes hotly.
“Mm-hmm.” I take a sip of my beer. “What’ve you got to tell me?”
“Nope. You first.”
I shake my head slowly, looking away from her across the yard. Past the porch overhang, the sky is clear and deep blue, the stars just freckles in the night. “Your news good news or shitty?”
“Yep. Good.”
“Then you go first. Let’s hear something good for a change.”
I’m already waiting for it when it comes—a slender fist thumping me in the arm. “You’re just trying to avoid telling me. Promise if I tell you, you’ll tell me.”
I sigh heavily. “You are a goddamned brat.”
“Asshole.”
“Punk.”
“Dick.”
“You kiss your ma with that mouth?” I growl.
As I say it, I can’t help glancing at her.
Yeah.
I’m thinking she’s gonna be glaring at me like usual, but no.
She’s got the weirdest look on her face tonight. Her skin’s all soft and pink again, like the summer heat crawled up inside her when it disappeared with the sunset.
That mouth I know she kisses her ma with is plump and red, her lips parted, and when she catches me staring she looks away stiffly.
Hell, I do too when I know how messed up that is.
She’s Ethan’s kid sister. The ultimate forbidden fruit.
I damned sure shouldn’t be eyeing her mouth or any part of her at all when I’m pushing thirty and I’m only here ’cause her missing brother was—still is—my best friend.
“I kiss my mom and anyone else I want,” she says haughtily. “Jeez. I hope there are nicer guys than you down in Florida.”
“Florida?” I frown. “What the hell’s there?”
“University of Miami,” she says triumphantly, flashing me a look. “I got a full-ride scholarship for my nursing degree. The letter came a few days ago.”
My chest goes cold.
I stare at her in disbelief.
It’s like my brain shrinks inside my skull as my world gets smaller and darker.
