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The glass door opens, and I look over my shoulder. My little brother and Connor stroll through with these really fucking annoying smiles. My blood pumps harder in my veins. “Shut the fuck up,” I tell them. Connor’s grin pulls wider, stretched so far that I think it should tear his face apart. It doesn’t. He’s still good looking. Fuck him. And he says, “Shutting up would require talking.”
I wasn’t that upset to see Connor move down the street.
When his eyes finally lock on mine, I pretend to appear perplexed. “I don’t think we’ve met before.” He almost smiles, which makes mine grow wider before I take another taste of ice cream. “Are you fucking sure?” He steps closer, only a few feet apart. “Because I have a girlfriend who looks a hell of a lot like you.”
“I go two days without seeing you, Dais, and it fucking kills me. I never thought I’d love someone this way.”
He says affectionately, “You’re my family, Dais. And if it’s only the two of us in the end, I’d be just as fucking happy.”
She tries to appease me with a small smile. “I’ll be okay, really.” Her foot runs up and down my leg, mostly antsy. She peeks over my shoulder, her face falling, and then she tucks her head closer to my chest. “What do you need from me?” I ask, my fingers lost in her hair by her temple.
I take out my Glock and load the gun. It’s more for her peace of mind than for whatever animals lurk in the dark. “Do you see this?” She nods, inhaling a short breath. “I’m not going to let anything fucking touch you. Okay?”
I touch her cheek with one hand. “Dais, breathe. You’re okay. You’re fucking safe.” It physically pains me to leave her side, but I’m starting to believe someone is out there. I can’t just fucking sit here. I pull the comforter up to her neck. “Hide for me?”
And then a few months ago, he shit on his second chance by trying to hurt Connor, outing his sexuality to the media—all for what? To gain power over Lo again? To protect Lo from Connor? It’s all warped and wrong in his head.
“I’ve been in contact with Emily here and there to hand her checks for keeping Loren’s birth quiet,” my dad explains. He takes a deeper breath and scratches his neck. “Apparently, Emily decided last night was a good time to tell me that Willow was also my daughter.”
Willow is Lo’s full sibling.
Willow is my half-sister.
Before he leaves, I call out, “Wait!” He stops just outside the gate. “What about Lo? Did you tell him yet?” “No.” Jonathan shakes his head. “Just you.” Just me.
Watching someone you care about slowly and then rapidly become scared of the world around them is like being a passenger in a car crash. With no way to pump the brakes. It’s fucking hell. And it’s exponentially worse for her.
“She’s smarter than me,” Lily declares, nodding in astonishment. Wearing a baggy muscle tee and geometric printed leggings, Lily stares in awe at the fashionable baby dressed in a light blue romper while hugging a stuffed lion.
He plops down next to Jane, coloring book in hand. I wiggle his little foot, and I wear a smile that I know looks happy. Moffy flips open a page and mutters to Jane, words that are clearly not English. Uh-oh. Lily coughs on her chip. “Did he…” I pat her back, unsure of how she’ll take this news. “I think he might have spoken French,” I say. “Or maybe it was Spanish.”
Luckily for me, my friendship with Willow shouldn’t really change. She’s the one good friend I have in my life, especially when my old horrible friends are rising from the grave.
“Hey there,” I say with a forced smile, worried. In the back of my head, I remember how he explained Loren’s tell to me once.
Apparently Lo spins his wedding ring when he craves alcohol, and it must have been what Ryke imagined when he watched me twist mine.
Connor says, “I would’ve never recommended a doctor who cheated their way through medical school.” He appears more bored than anything, his arm draped across the empty chair next to him. Rose ignores him and retaliates by snapping three more photos, flashes going off in succession. Connor grins. “I sense hostility.” Rose flips her hair over her shoulder and keeps her back to him. Her silence seems to be driving him stir-crazy. He shifts in the seat and glances at the door and his watch.
The door shuts, and Connor speaks first, as though bursting from holding back for so long. “You need to think about the possibility of miscarrying and what that means for your mental health.” He’s more stern and brotherly than he has ever been with me.
Connor opens his mouth, but Rose touches his arm and whispers in his ear. Mild annoyance crosses his features before his composure returns, blank slate and all.
“If the doctor said I could carry a baby myself, I’d planned to ask you something…” She offered to be my surrogate, but now that I might not need her like that—I do still want her to be a part of this in another way. She listens intently. “Would you consider trying to get pregnant the same time as me?”
my brother runs two paces behind me. He picks up his stride a couple times to catch up, but I easily double mine.
Lo is running Hale Co. on his own, and when our dad stepped down, I did have the opportunity to be CEO with him. My brother proved that he could do it alone and that he wanted the job. So I let him have it all.
I roll my eyes and then rest my hands on my head. “Look…” “I’m looking.” He’s actually glaring—but not as much as before.
He notices my glower and holds up a finger, his eyes soften in an apology. And then they transform to worry. “Wait, slow down, love. Take some breaths.”
Lo’s entire face breaks.
“Should I call you Dr. Lily Hale now?” Lo asks, starting up the car. “Yes.” She blows her nose. “You alone, Lil?” I question. “Yeah.”
Lo can barely talk. His jaw sharpened, his teeth grinding, and his eyes carry so much empathy that they almost redden. I don’t hesitate.
“So I know it may come as a shock, but I watched an episode of that Teen Wolf show last week. It wasn’t fucking awful. That uh…one kid was my favorite. The goofy one with dark hair.”
“Jesus Christ.” Lo curses as soon as he barrels inside, abruptly rotating away and setting his hands on his head. “You’d think you two would know what a lock is by now. Wasn’t Connor seeing you come on your girlfriend’s face embarrassment enough?”
“Where’s Lo?” I ask. “Where’s your pants?” Connor says in his annoyingly calm voice. Rose actually laughs, the sound widening Connor’s million-dollar grin.
Rose tries to control her vocal cords and narrows a piercing glare towards him. “Stop grinning like that.” “Like what?” “Like you created my laughter, Richard.” “Didn’t I? Because if I remember correctly, my words made you laugh.”
“Don’t freak the fuck out,” Lo says, his attempt at calming me, even with his harsh, edged voice. “It’s not like she’s your sister.”
While I process this, he gives me one of his signature Loren Hale death stares, the kind that’d probably terrify all his billion-dollar corporate enemies.
Just as Willow appears from the foyer, someone else trails closely behind her. “What is this?” Lo asks, gesturing from Willow to Garrison, a guy that’s been on all of our shit lists at one point.
Connor chimes in, “As far as first impressions go, you’re now ranked below this one.” I think he’s going to motion to Lo, but his fucking finger is directed at me. I flip him off with both hands.
“Yeah…” Willow pales a little, her nerves fucking apparent. Garrison edges closer to her and clasps her hand in comfort.
“I’m not leaving,” Willow says. “I don’t have plans to move back to Maine. I promise I’d tell you if I was even thinking about it.”
“We’re together,” Willow suddenly says, briefly lifting her hand up with Garrison’s.
“We have rules,” Lo starts. “Have fun,” Lily declares, her smile overwhelming.
“No, not have fun—what the hell, Lily?” Lo gawks at his wife. “They’re eighteen.” “Yeah, we’re eighteen,” Garrison echoes.
“She’s my responsibility, and while I trust you with a lot of things, I don’t want you upstairs in her room past two a.m.—and two a.m. is more than I’d give any kid of mine.” Another step. “And keep the door open.”
He nods to her. “I’ll text you, okay?” She nods back. “Will you check my gifs before you go to bed? I want to post them, but I think one isn’t working.” Garrison almost smiles. “Yeah. I’ll do it first thing.” He acknowledges the rest of us with a curt wave and then heads out the door.
“We talk a lot, so he knows me pretty well,” Willow explains. “I think he knew that I’d want the rules. It’s just…this is new for me.
“Hey.” Willow—quiet, shy Willow—shoves ahead of me. “Get back.”
Then I reach out my hand to hers, preparing for our handshake. She taps her knuckles to mine, and we slide our hands against one another before grabbing on with our fingers. The finger-clutch-squeeze, I call it. A small gesture in goodbye to replace a hug. I love our handshake, which is something unique to our friendship. Something only we share, and it reminds me of Willow.
Hey, little brother, I think before I face a twenty-five-year-old with amber daggers for eyes and steel blades for a jaw. Dressed in all black with features that fucking kill, he could be the devil’s son. In some ways, he is.
“This is yours.” Connor appears next to Lo with a full glass of ice water. My brother sets his empty one on a passing tray. “Appreciated, love.” Lo takes a sip.
