Jay’s cheeks flushed. “This isn’t about you and me, Rafael. It’s about Aimee. About herhealth.”
“What about her health?” My pulse skipped a beat, just like it had back in the conference room. “Is she okay?”
I was angry at Aimee for leaving the way she did, and hurt as fuck that she hadn’t stayed in touch, but I loved her like a sister anyway. I figured I always would.
“You tell me.” Jay’s eyes flashed combatively.
“You keep saying shit like that.” I spread my hands. “I don’t know what part of ‘I haven’t talked to her in sixteen months’ is not getting through to you.”
He leaned forward and hissed, “The part where my sister made you her freakin’ emergency medical contact! Why the hell would she do that when you claim you haven’t talked to her in over a year!”
I blinked at him and paused with a mouthful of fritter. “I’mher emergency contact? Me? Why not you?”
Jay folded his arms over his chest. “Excellent question. For that matter, why would my sister be getting treatment at a hospital in Wyoming in the first place? Why didn’t she tell me she was sickorput me on her approved visitor list?”
He watched me closely, like he truly believed I knew the answer. Like he was positive I knew more about Aimee’s condition than he did.
Until that moment, though, I hadn’t known I did. Not anymore.
Aimee had been diagnosed with a chronic heart condition a few years back, after years and years of misdiagnoses.
She hadn’t wanted to tell anyone. Not her family, not my family, not anyone on Whispering Key. For sure not Jay, who would have dropped his recording contract, his tour, his career, and all his musical talent in the trash to stand guard over her. I’d agreed to keep her secret, even from my best friend, and we’d handled things the old-fashioned way, with a lovely little marriage of convenience that got her on my health insurance.
But even when she was on the proper medication, she still dealt with chronic fatigue, breathlessness, and debilitating headaches that made it hard for her to hold down any job, let alone the kind that came with health insurance—and sheneededhealth insurance, or at least someone to pay her medical bills.
Besides which, her symptoms weren’t exactly subtle. You couldn’t be around her for long and not know she was sick. She’d only kept it hidden when she lived on the island by keeping to herself, especially on her bad days. The way she panted with any kind of exertion wasn’t exactly subtle.
How could Jay not know?
“I appreciate that you think I’m omniscient, Jay Don,” I said carefully, my heart rate kicking up a notch, “but I can’t read Aimee’s mind. I never could.” And wasn’t that the fucking truth? Her decision-making rationales had always been a mystery to me. Like the time she decided to try some quack experimental treatment our insurance wouldn’t even consider, or the way she’d up and left the island, leaving me nothing but a note and blocking my number.
“Did you tell her not to tell me?”
I laughed out loud. “How can I say this more clearly? We don’ttalk, Jay. Jesus, maybe she didn’t tell you what’s going on because she thought you’d run off half-cocked, throwing punches and accusing people of shit? Maybe she kept quiet because she hates when you’re overprotective?”
“I’ve never beenoverprotective. I was just-the-right-amount protective. And I haven’t even beenthat. Not recently.” He straightened in his seat. “Which is why you’re going to tell me what’s going on right now, so I can do what I should have been doing all along,” he said firmly.
“Oh, am I?”
In truth, I couldn’t imagine what the fuck Aimee was thinking not coming clean to Jay about all this.
But also, her story wasn’t mine to tell.
Especially not to her freakin’brother, who swung into town like a rock-star wrecking ball, demanding information like I was a member of his entourage contractually obligated to give him information. Hells to the no.
I’d get more information from him, and then I’d check on Aimeemyself.
“I figured since you were the person Aimee turned to when she wanted to leave the Key, you’d be around her all the time.”
“Not exactly.” Jay grabbed a napkin and began tearing it into strips. “She didn’t want to live with me in New York. I’m never home anyway. She decided on Denver, so I got her a place there. And we… I… I was busy. I didn’t call as often as I should. She didn’t either.”
“That’s why you were in Denver last week, when Gage flew out to babysit you, all heart-eyes and hero worship,” I snarked. “Aw.”
“There are no heart eyes. Not anymore, anyway. And you’d better not tease him about it,” Jay said severely. “Jesus, didn’t you ever have a misguided crush on someone when you were young and stupid?”
I snorted. “You have no idea. Worst mistake of my life.” And I flat-out refused to repeat it.
Jay scowled and tore the napkin strips into smaller strips. Precise halves of halves of halves. “Besides, Gage wasn’tbabysitting. He was keeping me company while I tried to find her.”
