“You’re grounded,” Trevor says, which has a bark of laughter startling out of me.
“Nice try, big brother.”
Prescott hands me my phone. “You okay?”
“Yep,” I lie. “You?”
“Nope.”
“Dustin?” I ask, wondering if he’s here as well. Prescott shakes his head in the negative.
“I still can’t believe that fucker just showed up out of the blue like nothing happened,” Austin complains. “What an asshole.”
“You know what?” I tell them. “No more talk of Voldemort tonight. I’m declaring family movie night. Something action-packed and violent with lots of Kung Fu.”
“And lots of popcorn,” Prescott adds, turning left to head toward the kitchen as we go inside.
“Fallon’s flying back and should be here tomorrow.”
“If you said anything to him to make him come home, I won’t speak to you for a month, Trevor.”
“Well, then, don’t speak to me for a month. Be happy that the rest of our patchwork of siblings aren’t going to show up. You know I can’t tell Fallon what to do. I’d have better luck with solving world peace and ending global warming.”
Him bringing up our other five half-siblings makes me smile. We try to do a monthly Zoom video call as well as meet up once a year at Christmas. It took a while for us to track them all down once Trevor and Fallon found me. Three more brothers and one sister, all scattered about. Harper was like me and was born here in North Carolina but has since moved to Texas with her husband to live with our other half-brother, Jordan. Cruz moved from London to California, and Holden is still in Montana. And of course, Tati lives in Spain with her husband and two sons.
“You guys have fun with your movie night. I’m going to get some work done before I turn in.” Trevor kisses my cheek. “I’m glad you’re home and okay. I love you, little A.”
“I love you, big T,” I say back and watch him disappear down the hall.
Austin tugs my wrist. “Alright, since no one else is going to say it, I will. Why is Voldemort back after all this time? I know it’s off-season for the NFL, but he’s never come back before. Why now?”
I plop down on the bottom step of the curved staircase and Knox takes a seat behind me, his arms encircling my shoulders. I lean back into him with an exhausted sigh. “I have no clue.”
Knox lifts my right hand and kisses it. “Prez says you punched him.” I had completely forgotten about that.
Austin chuckles. “She has a habit of doing that to his face. Should have seen the black eye she gave him senior year.”
“Can we please not talk about him anymore?”
Not talking about JD has become a full-time occupation in this house and with my friends. For five years, they haven’t said his name around me. They don’t talk about his football games or his NFL career. I don’t watch the sports news or ESPN. The sports section of the newspaper gets thrown out as soon as it’s delivered. Ridiculous, I know. But that’s how I’ve been able to barely survive over the years. I had to cut every part of JD out of my life, even his name. And now, that’s all I’ve been hearing today.
“Hey, Austin. I’m going to steal Aurora for a few. You and Prez can start without us.”
“Take all the time you need,” he says to Knox. “Rory, I will not allow him or anyone else to hurt you again.”
Austin’s reminder of what happened after JD left causes me to cringe inwardly. Austin saved me from a very stupid mistake, and I will always be indebted to him for it.
“He won’t get the chance,” I promise him.
Knox helps me to my feet and leads me upstairs to my bedroom. Once inside, he closes the door and engages the lock.
“So, this was all a ruse to get me in the bedroom and have your wicked way with me,” I joke to lighten the tense mood, but Knox isn’t laughing. My smile falls at his serious expression.
“I’m not stupid, Aurora. I know you still love him.”
I wave his statement away like it’s a pesky fly. “Knox, come on. The guy broke my heart. He left. Years ago, I might add.”
“Yes. I also know that you’ve never stopped loving him. If you had, it wouldn’t have taken you over four years to say yes to going out on a date with me.”
