“Ellie, that’s hissister,” Travis says.
Her shoulders tense, the fight draining out of her. “What?”
“Ellie, that’s Pacey, Penn’s little sister. Pacey, Ellie,” Travis says, his lips twitching. He obviously finds this amusing. Fuck, he might have fallen in love with Ellie just now, if he wasn’t already.
Pacey stands up and smiles, reaching her hand to Ellie, not fazed at all by her outburst. “Hi! I like you already.”
Ellie laughs, taking her hand. “Shit, I am so sorry. I jumped the gun. Oopsie.”
“Hey, no worries. I love knowing there’s someone around here who can put these guys in their place if needed.” Pacey waves her finger between Travis and me.
The girls share a laugh, and I’m vaguely aware of Ellie apologizing to me. “I’m sorry. I may have misread the situation a tiny bit.”
I blink at her, unamused.
She sighs. “Look, full disclosure, you should probably go talk to Liv.”
“She’s sick.”
“She’s not. She’s been avoiding you because she showed up at your last gig to surprise you, but she was the one surprised when she saw you with someone else. Someone I’m guessing she didn’t know was your sister.”
No wonder she won’t answer the phone and has barely responded to my texts.
“Fuck.”
“You good?” Travis asks me. “I had no clue she was going to come in guns blazing, man.”
“Don’t worry about it. I need to go talk to Olivia,” I say, glancing at Pacey, who’s talking to Liam.
“I got this,” Travis says.
I don’t waste time; I tell my sister I’ll see her later and throw my guitar in my case before racing to Olivia’s. I don’t even call or text her because I know she won’t answer.
I pound on the door, loud enough to wake her up if she’s sleeping. A few minutes later, she opens the door, eyes red and tired. “Forget your key—Penn!” she shrieks my name, realizing I’m not Ellie.
“Feeling better?” I ask, cocking my head. Then my gazefalls. She’s wearing nothing but my shirt, and the sight has all the blood rushing to my dick.
“Um, I?—”
“Cut the shit.” I push into her apartment.
She closes the door behind me and leans against it, away from me. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to see you.”
“Well, I was sleeping, and I still feel sick. Come back tomorrow.” The little liar even tosses in a fake cough. I give her a look, and she crosses her arms over her chest. “Ok. What is it?”
“The girl you saw me with at the bar is my sister.”
Her eyes widen, then narrow as if she’s trying to work out if I’m lying.
“Ellie made quite an impression on her tonight.”
Her mouth drops open. “I didn’t—I had no idea Ellie was going to be there.”
“I figured. Can we talk?” I ask, and she leads me to the couch. I lean back and sigh, preparing to lay it all on her. “Pacey showed up out of nowhere. We haven’t talked for months, and I haven’t seen her in even longer.” I squeeze my eyes shut at the painful reminder of how bad things have been as I tell her everything.
Things I probably should’ve told her before, but it didn’t feel like it was my story to tell. Now I see how stupid that was. I wanted every piece of her and only gave her a sliver of me. The parts that weren’t as jagged or fucked up.
