Cassie crosses her arms, jaw tight. “You’vegotto be kidding me.”
“She passed out in the street,” I add evenly. “Middle of the damn parade. She’s a mess, Cass. She looks like she hasn’t eaten in days.”
Cassie doesn’t flinch, but I see it, a flicker in her expression, a crack in the armor. She was never heartless, just careful. Too many years spent cleaning up after other people’s disasters will do that to a person.
“She left this town in flames, Beck. Burned every bridge on the way out, including yours. Don’t pretend you forgot.”
“I didn’t forget,” I say, because I haven’t. Not a damn second of it.
She steps closer. “Then what the hell are you doing letting her back into our house like nothing happened?”
“She needs help.”
“And you’re the guy to give it?”
Her voice cuts sharply, but it lands clean. I don’t respond right away. The truth is, I don’t know what I’m doing. I just saw her fall and moved.
That’s all it ever was with Lo, instinct over logic. Fire before thought.
“She didn’t ask for anything,” I finally say. “But I wasn’t going to let her collapse in front of the whole town. You know me better than that.”
Cassie shakes her head, dragging her hand through her hair. “I just… I don’t want to see you get pulled under again.”
“I can handle myself.”
“I know.” She sighs. “But you never could when it came to her.”
Silence stretches between us, thick and tense.
“I’m not the same man I was then,” I say.
“No,” she agrees. “But she might be the same girl, and you have Rosie in this house now.”
Her words hit where they’re meant to. Right in the gut.
I take a step back, jaw tight. “You think I don’t know what’s at stake? You think I’d ever let Rosie get hurt?”
“No. I know you’d burn the world down for that kid. But you’re not thinking straight, Beck. She comes back smelling of heartbreak and bad history, and now she’s in your house? What do you think that’s going to do to you?”
I glance down the hall, where Lo’s still sleeping, curled in on herself as if she expects to be kicked, even when she should be at rest.
My chest clenches.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I’m not going to leave her in the street like roadkill just because the town still hates her.”
Cassie’s expression hardens. “This town has every right to be wary.”
My head whips back toward my sister. “She didn’t steal the money.”
“Her family took everything from this town,” she snaps. “And while she was running around trying to be some lone crusader, everything else burned. Including you.”
I wince. “I’m not her enemy.”
Cassie throws up her hands. “You’re not her savior, either. She made her choices, Beck. She left. You didn’t matter enough to stick around for, remember?”
I do.
I remember all of it.
