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“What’s wrong?” he went to her and sat down, hiding his painting under the table. He wasn’t ready to talk about where he got a painting this early in the morning.
She wiped at her tears and looked at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Dad is being transferred.”
Kiel played it cool. “What are you talking about?”
“I heard Mom on the phone. I don’t know who she was talking to, but she said Dad is going on orders to another base and we’re moving.”
Kiel wanted to knock some sense into his parents. None of them believed this vacation was for family time. He shook his head and searched his mind for the right words.
“You’re not moving, Ciara.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know,” he told her. “Believe me, okay?”
She nodded and wiped her tears.
“Did you tell Skyla?”
“Did the world end?”
“Valid,” he said. “Just keep it to yourself, okay?”
“Do you know what’s going on?”
He nodded. “I do and can’t say anything right now, but I assure you, you’ll get to finish your senior year at school with your friends.”
Ciara nodded and welcomed a hug from her big brother.
“What’s her name?”
“Excuse me?”
“The woman you spent the night with. What’s her name?”
Kiel sat back. “Uh . . .”
“You can’t even lie, Kiel. You smell girly. You better go shower. And she gave you a present.” Ciara’s eyes looked down toward the canvas.
“I showered,” he said, ignoring the elephant in the room.
“Gross, Kiel. I don’t want to hear about your hook-ups.”
“Then don’t ask who she is.” He cocked his eyebrow at her.
Ciara rolled her eyes. “Do you like her?”
He nodded. “More than I should since she lives here, and I don’t.”
“Yeah, that’s tough.” Ciara sighed. “So the gift?”
Kiel groaned and picked the canvas up. “She’s an artist and painted this last night.”
“Holy shit. She did this last night?”
“More like three in the morning.”
“Okay, I don’t want to know what you were doing until three in the morning.”
