Hearing it out loud—that Thea hasn’t seen us in person in years—uncomfortably twists my stomach. The time passed in a blink. We stay in touch with monthly family video calls, even when Spencer is on the road competing, but we let the distance separate us. There were always reasons El couldn’t visit us, dates when Spencer was out of the country, and times I didn’t have anyone I trusted to cover the rink.
Guilt settles into my gut as I stare at Thea. We should’ve tried harder.
“You saw me last week on FaceTime,” shestates flatly.
Spence throws an arm around her shoulders, momentarily jostling her duffel. “Not the same, TD.” She side-eyes him, the look sharper because of her heavy black eye makeup. “What, I can’t call you that?”
“No one calls me that outside of the team.”
“I guess I have no other option than to use your childhood nickname.” He pinches her side. “Pickle.”
She shoves him and he drifts away from her, laughing. She glances in my direction as if I can rein him in.
“Knock it off, Spence,” falls from my lips without a second thought, having said it all my life. “Right. Well.” I gesture toward the door, hoping to move us along. “Need anything at baggage?”
She turns that sharp-eyed stare on me.Jesus. I am woefully unprepared for her attitude.
“I’m good,” Thea says, shrugging a shoulder and drawing attention to her duffel.
“Let me take this.” Spence places a hand on the handle of her roller suitcase. Thea holds on for a moment before reluctantly letting it go. He flashes me a stupid grin. “You aren’t going to offer to take her other bag?”
She sighs loudly.She’s more like me than I realized.
I glare at him. Something tells me that Thea would resist, wanting to take care of herself. I can’t imagine growing up with a mother like Ella could make a person any other way.
Thea wags a finger between us. “Are you like this all the time?”
“No,” Spencer says, over my muttered, “Yes.”
“Great.” The words have barely left her lips before she heads toward the exit without a glance to see if we are following her. I think I hear her mutter the words,Can’t believe I’m stuck here all summer.
I’d be furious if I had to uproot my entire life and miss out on a summer of hockey with my team because of my selfish parent. Consistent with the rest of my life, I’m left to clean up my sister’s mess.
“Hey, Thea,” I say, catching up beside her. “Would you want to paint your room?”
Her head jerks toward me, a small sign of excitement, before she looks forward, expression neutral again. “Can I pick the color?”
“Yeah, it’s your room.”
“Okay,” she says.
Spence shoots me a thumbs up, thankfully not in the vicinity of Thea’s line of sight.
“Can we also stop at that ice cream place I like on the way home?” she asks as we cross the street toward the airport parking lot.
It’s not on the way home any longer, but she doesn’t know that since she hasn’t seen my place since I moved. But I’ll do anything to help smooth this transition for her, and to keep the peace this summer.
“Yes,” Spencer says, dragging out the word as he rubs his hands together. “I’d kill for one of those vanilla Oreo cookie swirls.” He turns his sad boy eyes on me. “Please, Wes.”
I glance at my watch. We’ll need to wait fifteen minutes for the ice cream place to open, but I suspect these two won’t mind as long as they walk away with their ice cream. I’ve also taken a rare day off,leaving the rink in the hands of my employees today, so I could help Thea settle in.
“Sure,” I say with a shrug. “We can stop.”
It’ll take a lot more than ice cream to help ease my concerns about all the changes in my life. Thea moving in with me for the summer. Selling my father’s home to move him into assisted living. Isla Covington unexpectedly entering my universe again.
But it’s a start.
Chapter 3
