“I’m Zoey Gunner.”I hold out my hand.“And you?”
The girl glances from my hand to my face and back to my hand before finally accepting it in a surprisingly firm grip.“Tanya.”Then, she steps in closer, her nostrils flaring slightly as her head cocks.“You’re not from around here.”
Not a question, but I answer anyway.“My grandmother was Minnie Gunner.I’m fixing up her cabin to sell.”
Tanya finally lets go of my hand, but continues to watch me with a certain amount of intensity.“No one was invited to your grandma’s funeral.”
“There wasn’t one.”
The woman was cremated, and Dad drove down to collect the ashes.I have zero knowledge of what my mom did with them.
“Did you want to be invited?”The little I know of my grandmother indicated she didn’t have many friends.
The girl shoves her hands in her pockets.“Nope.Didn’t know her.But the gossips could not get enough of being affronted about the lack of an invite.”
“Why?No one was invited.There wasn’t even something tobeinvited to.”
Tanya rolls her eyes and steps around me, reaching for the doorknob.“That’s just as bad.You denied them the chance to gossip about old lady Gunner.Plus, they’ve been dying for a peek at your mom after all these years.You here to see Warner?”
“Yes,” I murmur, following her up a set of stairs, my thoughts on her words.
Is my family really that interesting to these people?
I kinda thought my mom would’ve been forgotten after being gone for over three decades and my grandmother acting the hermit.
But maybe that just made the mystery grow.
I refocus on the young woman in front of me, finding my own curiosity piqued.
“Are you Warner’s girlfriend?”
“Are you kidding me?”She glares over her shoulder.“Gross!Give me a second while I locate the nearest bucket to puke in.”
“So, no?”
“Hell no.I’m his sister.His favorite sister.”
“You’re my only sister.”The man in question appears at the top of the steps, smiling down at us.“Which means you’re my least favorite too.Hi, Zoey.”
“Hi—”
Tanya juts her hip to the side, blocking me from view.“Yeah, well, I have three brothers to choose from, so you’d better be nicer to me, or you’ll make the bottom ofmylist.”
I continue up the stairs until I can see him over her shoulder.
Warner clutches his chest, as if wounded.“Words hurt, baby sis.Now, move your ass.You’re blocking Zoey.”
“You know what?Maybe Ishouldbe blocking Zoey.I think she might be my new best friend, which means I need to guard her from cruel men.”
My arm is snagged in an unforgivingly friendly embrace.
The exchange is fascinating.Like Tanya, I’m also the only girl in my family.I wonder if this is how dramatic I sound when bickering with my brothers.
I offer her a placating smile.“No guarding needed.I’m just here for his tool.”
The girl’s face goes slack, and then she mimes gagging.“TMI!”
“Power tool!”I hurry to clarify.Only, now, I’m thinking about his other tool.Wondering about the size of it.The feel of it.Imagining all the things I’d tell him to do with it …
