She had it?How?
“I promise,” she insisted, just making me even warier. And hurt.
Okay. I forced my hands loose, forced myself to stay calm. To stay focused on that love inside of me. “What can I do then? What do you need?”
“I don’t need anything,” she said, but it felt more like a slice to my Achilles.
Beside me, Rip shifted and his voice was low as something touched my lower back briefly, so lightly I almost didn’t feel it. “I’ll wait in the car.”
I ignored the sandpaper-quality filling my throat, focusing on the woman in front of me. Because she was a woman. And for some reason I didn’t, and more than likely wouldn’t, understand, I told him, “You don’t have to. You can stay if you want.”
“Luna.” Thea’s voice went a little too soft. “I promise I’m fine. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
She might be a liar, she might be hiding things from me for some reason, but I loved her.I did.“I’d do anything for you. You know that.”
“I know, but I really am sorry.” Her eyes slid to the side, the way they had plenty of times while she’d been younger. “My roommate will be here in a little bit, and I need to talk to her.” She rubbed at her eyes again, still averting them. “I have to be at work at eight tomorrow, and I’ll be there all day.”
“Okay.” I knew what she was trying to say.I knew it.
“We agreed not to let people stay over…,” she kept going.
There it was.
“I’m so glad you came. Only you would. You’re the best half-sister I could ever ask for.”
It was the half-sister that finally,finallymade me flinch.
She had only called me that every once in a while, and only over the last five years. Before I had always beenher sister. Herbig sister.And now, now I was her half-sister.
“I wish I didn’t have to work tomorrow, but I need the money.”
She needed the money.
“I don’t know when I can come down again, but I’ll try to real soon.” My sister gave me a smile that fell flat, that sliced me again, this time straight across my stomach. “I miss you. I wanted to stay longer this last time, but I just couldn’t.”
All I could do was stand there.
With my heart feeling awfully close to breaking.
With a knot in my throat that seemed to be growing by the second.
I loved my sister. I genuinely loved Thea with everything in my heart. She had been the first person to be put into my life that had loved me back.
And she was, in few words, asking me to leave after I’d traveled almost four hours to come and see her.
My mouth watered and not for a good reason.
But I wouldn’t pitch a fit. I touched the LOVEYOU bracelet on my left wrist. I wouldn’t beg.
I just… nodded and gave her a smile that didn’t feel all that understanding, but I hoped it didn’t make her feel guilty either. She had just hurt me, but that didn’t mean I had to hurt her right back. What I couldn’t let go of right then was that freaking ache in me. I wasn’t going to give her a hard time for kicking me out.
But…
ButI couldn’t just walk out of here, letting her think that she’d pulled a fast one on me. As much as I might want to believe she wouldn’t do that… she had. Or at least, she was trying to, and I couldn’t let that small thing go away. Not this time.
“Why didn’t you tell me you moved?” I asked her, ignoring how numb my voice sounded.
She paused, and the face I knew so well grimaced just a little but just enough. “I just…” Was she trying to think of a lie? “I… I didn’t want to bother you.”
