All the hurt and the pain, and just how long it had been going on. The fear that I was to blame for it. The shame that I didn’t want anyone to know in case it was all my fault, and for a long time, I believed I deserved those punches and kicks, that I was the one failing Derek, not him failing me.
I tell her about starting over in Rios, and about the four alphas I’ve fallen in love with and who have made me feel like me again when I wasn’t sure I remembered who I even was anymore.
“I’m coming to see you,” she declares once I’ve run out of things to tell her.
My ear is sweaty from having a phone pressed against it for over an hour, but I’ve told her everything, including my new pie business. “I’d like that a lot.”
I glance up at Wyatt, who has his eyes closed. He opens them as if he feels me watching and nods. It’s okay for my sister to come visit. Pittsburgh isn’t a million miles away from Iowa, but she has two kids in school, and her husband is a college math professor. She can’t pack up the car or get the first flight out here, as much as she might want to. This visit is going to take planning.
She sniffs. “I’ll bring the kids and Trey. We’ll talk and find a therapist for you because you need one. I don’t want to hear a word about you paying for it.Iwill pay for it because it is the absoluteleastI can do for not being there for you.”
I brush tears away. “You’re not to blame, Missy.”
“I should have known something was wrong. That feeling is not going away soon, which means I need to talk to my therapist about it. And I want to see your pie business and meet your alphas. You have to call it Maisie’s or Maisie’s Pies if you don’t have a name already, but I can brainstorm names and packaging ideas with you. And your alphas sound nice, but if they lay a fingernail on you, I’ll feed their dicks through the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid. I am being serious.”
Wyatt gives my shoulder a squeeze, raising his voice to say, “Noted. I will feed myself through a grinder before I ever hurt Maisie.”
My sister has never been quiet. Wyatt would have heard every word out of her mouth sitting this close to me.
I can tell my sister is smiling when she says, “I think I like that one. Where’d you say he was from again?”
Wyatt grins at me.
“New Orleans,” I say with a smile. “He inherited a bunch of Southern charm from his mom, Leticia. He’ll wrap you around his finger in under two minutes. His mom would do it in one.”
I’ve spoken to Wyatt’s family a couple more times since that first terrifying phone call when I was afraid they would pry into my past. His family treats me like the daughter they always had, and I let slip more and more personal things about myself to Wyatt’s mom. That woman is dangerously good at encouraging a person to open up.
“I’m a tough nut to crack,” Missy says.
“You haven’t met a Comeaux.” I look at Wyatt and smile. “This guy has serious skill in making a woman fall in love with him. You already like him, and you haven’t even met him yet.”
My sister curses, and Wyatt and I laugh.
After telling my sister I love her three times and her saying it back, I promise Missy can always reach me if she calls back thissame number. We make plans to speak again once she’s spoken to her husband and figured out the best time to come visit.
I hang up the phone in a happy daze, relieved the call with my sister went so well.
He presses a kiss on my forehead. “Okay, darlin’?”
I sniff. “She doesn’t hate me.”
“She was never going to hate you,” he says.
“The only one who didn’t know it was you.”
I startle at Knox’s voice coming from behind me.
He takes the seat beside me and lifts my hand, brushing a kiss across my knuckles. “Wondered when you’d stop being chicken.”
I fake a scowl. “I’m not a chicken.”
His smile fades. “I know. You’re one of the bravest people I've ever met, Maisie Lucas. You should be proud of yourself.”
“I run and hide more often than I fight.”
“Those are instinctive reactions that keep a person alive.” He squeezes my hand. “You kept getting up in the morning and facing the day. You didn’t give up on life. Be proud. I won’t ever stop being proud of you.”
My eyes fill with tears and I sniff, brushing them away. “Stop it. I already cried way too much on the phone.”
