“I tell my sister everything.”
I felt her sigh. “I should have. It would have at least earned me some grace.”
And then she sobbed in my arms for several minutes while I waited for her to tell me what she wanted to.
“You know, in a lot of ways, it was probably my fault.”
I stilled, frozen. No. Thank Christ I couldn’t see her face.
“Ken—”
“We were together for a few months, and I tried to end it.”
I let the silence hang between us. I wanted the story, but I hated that her pain had caused it.
“I tried to end it, and he wasn’t done yet. So, he locked me in his house.”
I pulled her closer, knowing where the story was going, but wanting to deny it at the same time.
“Did he rape you?”
“What is the definition of rape? Everything he’d done to me, we’d done before.”
“Kenny, did you say yes?”
Her body shook as she sobbed in my arms. “No.”
And that was the last word I understood from her. But I did know that I was ready to kill the person who had hurt her. As much as I wanted to put a boot in Tyler and Connor’s ass, that was nothing compared to what I wanted to do to the nameless and faceless bastard who hurt her.
Eventually, she stilled, and her breaths came more evenly. My brain on the other hand was reeling. Other than my sister, I had never met a woman as smart and strong-willed as Kendra. And some motherfucker took advantage of her.
It wasn’t lost on me that while she’d been hurt by another man, she was still trying, still dating, still in her bed with me as her comfort. She might have named her dildo Lucifer, but she wanted more. Fuck, I wanted to be the man who made her trust again. I wanted to give her a reason to trust again.
As she slept next to me, I had so many things that I wanted to ask her. But I also knew that I only got the information because she was drunk and vulnerable. Fuck.
I pulled my phone out and sent my sister a text.
Me: So, what do you do when you take a woman home, and you’ve ended up so far in the friend zone that you hold her hair while she pukes and then comfort her when she cries?
Colby: You don’t want to be in the friend zone, correct?
Me: Is there a way to be there temporarily?
Colby: She’s an employee, isn’t she?
I both hated and respected my sister for being able to figure it out so quickly.
Me: Yes.
Colby: Where is she right now?
Me: Asleep in my arms.
Colby: Sorry. This is going to hurt. There is no way you don’t get hurt with this one.
And how the hell are you texting me right now?
That’s what I loved the most about my sister but also hated. She spoke the truth. Even when it was the last thing I wanted to hear.
