Unfortunately, our shared misery didn’t bring us together.
“So you settled the estate?” I ask.
“Nothing to settle. You said you didn’t want anything to do with the property.”
“You got that right. But you called me to meet you here. So what’s up?” I ask.
Cain ducks into the cabin and I follow. I debate between telling Cateline to wait here. My pranks are child’s play compared to the things my brother used to do.
Cateline stops in her tracks. Fear, concern, and something else—anger maybe—streaks across her features. “Is this where you grew up?”
I nod. “How’d you guess? The loving welcome? The resemblance?” I sense the shadows filling my eyes by the way she looks up at me. Specters from the past follow me wherever I go, but since leaving, they straight up haunt me during the rare times I’ve set foot on this property.
Placing my hand on Cateline’s low back, I usher her inside. She’s safe as long as she’s with me.
My head grazes the rafters. It was by some act of providence that I shot almost six inches the summer before I started senior year. It was by sheer determination of will that I grew stronger than my brother and father. Ironic, since he’d been the one to push me so hard.
Cateline stands by my elbow, letting me be the alpha for now.
“Figured you might want one last look at our lovely abode. Yep. Home sweet home. Does the pretty lady know that you’d wet the bed well past ten years old? Or that you’d cry yourself to sleep? That you had lice and would?—”
“Enough, Cain.”
“Why’d you bring the pretty lady if not to tell her the truth?” Even though it’s darker in here than outside, I see he’s still missing a tooth. “Did you come to prove a point? The big, bad football player. Big paycheck. Big ego. Big baby. Always thought you were better than me. I’d hoped to have beaten that notion out of you.”
I sense Cateline stiffen and then step even closer to me. I angle myself as a shield.
Later, I’ll owe her an explanation. For the time being, I want to get the visit over with. “She’s my coach.”
Cain lets out a long peel of laughter. “That little thing? Not much more than a stiff breeze would blow her over.” Typical of him to talk about her as if she isn’t here. Back in the day, if I wasn’t invisible, I was in the way and he always made sure I knew that.
“She’s tougher than she looks.”
Cain lifts his beady eyes to meet mine. “Is she tough enough to survive out there for a week?”
“What about your fiancée? Is she up for the challenge?”
“No, we’re going on a honeymoon. Headed to Atlantic City for a week.”
“No Enduro this year?” I ask, barely hiding my shock.
“Nope. Hanging up my boots. I’m about to be a married man. But that don’t mean you won,” Cain says as if he has something up his sleeve.
“Actually, it does. I’ll be the last man standing.”
“If you survive.” He chortles. “So the little lady is joining you out there in the woods?”
I grunt because I don’t owe him explanations about where we’re going or what we’re doing.
“And that ring? Surely, you could do better than that, Richie Rich.”
She purses her lips as if holding back.
“So like you, Connor, to pick up strays.”
Cateline tenses beside me, but I’m a cannon, ready to destroy Cain if he so much as says another word. Then a delicate hand lands on my waist. I take a deep breath, remembering that my brother is pushing buttons, desperate to get me to blow so he can then show that he’s the better brother, more civilized.
My lip curls into a sneer. “She is not a stray.”
