7
I’m up before the sun rises, grateful my stepbrother isn’t in the living room when I walk out of the bedroom.
This has to be karma coming for me. How the hell does this even happen? I expected to see him at the funeral, but when I screwed up and showed up late, I figured that concern was long gone.
And now, all of a sudden, he’s adamant about staying here?
Last night, he knocked on my door, wanting to talk, but I ignored him like some pissy teenager. I shoved in my earbuds and pretended I was anywhere but here. It wasn’t until the ceiling fan started rattling that I took them out and listened to him pacing around upstairs.
There are three bedrooms: mine, the master across the hall, and the loft upstairs. Thank god he didn’t take the room right next to mine—I haven’t stepped foot in there for a reason. Glad he read the room, for once.
A soft meow nearly gives me away as I’m creeping out of the front door. No other sounds accompany it, so I assume Ayden isstill asleep.
Clover pads down the last few steps to me, and I kneel to scratch her favorite spot before standing again. I’d already filled her bowl with the remaining cat food in the pantry when I woke up. I’ll need to get more—plus treats.
I glance up at the loft and pause briefly before opening the front door and stepping into the brisk morning air. Jogging down the steps, I break into a sprint, heading south. Sapphire Valley is a little over four miles around, and while I won’t take on the whole loop today, my goal is to start running it on the four days I’m off from work.
Yesterday, I met the captain at my station, along with my new team. Everyone seemed nice—and surprisingly young. Maybe that’s why it stuck out to me; this town is small, and people my age usually chase the big city.
It’s the reason I wasn’t home, and the first time I’d been away from the cabin since the funeral.
What a surprise to come back to…
The first mile comes easily, sweat slicking my bare chest as the sun rises over the surrounding mountains. At the south point, I pass a cabin under renovation, piles of materials still scattered around. Strange, the amount of metal they’re working into it—but not my place to judge someone’s design choices.
Without lingering too long, I turn back up toward Wildhart.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. I could kick him out, tell him he doesn’t belong here. Maybe years ago he did, but not now. I don’t care that it’s his father’s place—he didn’t come when it mattered.
And now, suddenly, he wants to be here when they aren’t?
My anger stops me mid-run, and I pace from the lake’s edge, back toward the road.
Ungrateful brat.
Don’t forget whatyoudid to said brat…
I clench my hand into a fist, staring at a tree I’d love to punch—but that would be idiotic. Breaking my hand the day before I’m supposed to start work is the last thing I need.
No, scratch that. The last thing I want is to face my stepbrotherand this conversation.
What pisses me off is even his sister—who lives in another fucking country—made the effort to come to see her dad and my mom.
To see me…
Ayden lives just a two-hour flight away and couldn’t manage a once-a-year visit. Now, he shows up out of nowhere and declares he’s staying in the one place that was sacred to them? It feels so goddamn wrong.
The fucked-up part is I can already hear my mom’s voice, telling me to hear him out. The same thing she said every single year.
“Still no Ayden?” I hate that I ask every Christmas, and get the same response.
“Maybe next year.”
“What the fuck is his problem, Alysa?” I know her dad doesn’t like cussing in his house, but come on, his own son won’t even spend the holiday with him.
With us.
With me.
