“Yeah. Come on, Cousin Luca.” I follow Lil up the stairs to the third floor. She heads to the left and all the way down the hall, then around a corner. The space opens into a living room with a bathroom off of it and continues on to a hallway with four doors.
“Which one is her room?”
She points to the farthest door on the right. “That one. But she doesn’t sleep in there. Bring her into my room.” She walks to the room across from the one she pointed out as Ariana’s, but I don’t move because that doesn’t make sense.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Lil turns back to me.
“Why does she sleep in your room?”
Lil sighs and leans against the door frame. “It’s… it’s a long story.”
I stare at her, waiting.
“Do you want to put her down first?”
No. I don’t want to put her down. Not now. Not ever. But I don’t say that. I shake my head. “I’m fine, just confused.”
“Okay, I mean, you know she’s lived here since she was five, right?” I don’t even get the chance to nod before Lil continues. “Well, her bio parents were the type of dickheads who thought it was okay to leave bruises on their kid.” My blood boils at that information, and I hold Ariana a little tighter. “So Dad told them to knock it the fuck off, but she wasn’t safe with those assholes, so he gave them a bunch of money, and they gave us Ariana.”
Lil walks back to the living room and sits on the couch with a sigh. I follow. “Even before that, she had abandonment issuesbecause they would stay out all night or even for a couple of days, and she was alone. A lot.”
“She was five!” I shout louder than I mean to, and Ariana stirs a little. I lower my voice. “What the fuck, who leaves a five-year-old home alone?”
“Her fucking stupid birth parents, that’s who. So anyway, even though Mom and Dad would tuck her into her bed at night, we would always find her with one of us before morning because she hated to be by herself. Especially at night. After a couple of weeks, she just started off in my bed with me instead of hers.” Lil shrugs and continues on. “She slept in Becca’s bed when we went out to the lake.”
I drag in a ragged breath. “Your dad told me about her coming that first year. I don’t remember. I didn’t know my mom…” my words trail off.
“Threw a fit? I kind of remember it. I definitely remember hating her. And I hated leaving Ari. We all did. But Mom and Dad didn’t want her to be mistreated by people who were supposed to treat her like family. After five years, we stopped going because Ari’s one of us, and fuck whoever says different.”
She pauses again. “Us leaving for a week at a time didn’t really help with the whole sleeping-alone thing. And we’ve had a few scary things happen over the years that solidified it.”
“Scary things like what happened tonight?”Please say no, please say ‘scary shit like finding a big hairy spider in her room’ or something. Spiders suck.
“Yeah. Even scarier than what happened tonight.”
Fuck. FUCK.“Because of the family name?”
“Sometimes. Sometimes because of other reasons. Sometimes because bad shit happens to girls in general. And no, I’m not going to tell you about any of it right now.”
I glare at her but let it go. For now.
“Look, we know we’re not ‘normal’ to most people.” Lil raisesher hands to do the air quotes. “We’re best friends. We’re sisters, doesn’t matter if we don’t share blood. We’re codependent and basically joined at the hip. And we don’t fucking care if it’s weird because it works for us. We love each other, and we’re always going to be there for one another, and we know that probably means it’s just going to be the two of us forever because who the fuck wants to take on a girl who comes with a stage-five clinger best friend who is a little unhinged. Or a lot. Depends on which one of us you’re talking about. And honestly, we’re okay with that because if we have each other, that’s enough. Anything else would be a bonus. Anyway, come on. Let’s get her tucked into bed. She’s had one hell of a night, and we could all use some sleep.”
I follow Lil without another word as she heads back to her bedroom. Apparently at least one of them doesn’t know how to use a hamper because there are clothes everywhere. Another tornado of shit. It’s kind of endearing, really. She points to the right side of the King-sized bed, and I gently lay Ariana down.
“Make sure to tuck the blankets up around her shoulders. She can’t sleep with her arms uncovered.” I do as Lil says and force myself to head for the door. “Goodnight, Luca,” Lil says.
“Night.” With one last glance at Ariana, I leave the room and make my way back downstairs.
I already know I want to take on this girl, even if she does come with my slightly unhinged cousin as a stage-five clinger best friend. Ariana deserves someone better than me, but if I have to spend every day of the rest of my life trying to prove myself worthy of her, it’ll be a life well spent.
And something tells me that if she said I couldn’t buy a Maserati, I wouldn’t buy a Maserati.
Chapter 8
Bacon solves a lot of problems
