“You should go buy her another coffee after this to make up for being a dumbass,” Bernice supplied as we watched them both drive away.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, trying to erase the way it made me feel to see her not pay attention to me at all.
I held the door to the diner open for my sister, and we got the table in the front corner that awarded us a great view of the town. I noted Odin and Weaver in the corner, but didn’t go up to say hello.
“This place is amazing,” Bernice said, but I was only partially listening, still stuck on the way it made me feel to see Birdee so aloof with me.
“Yeah, it is,” I said.
The next thirty minutes went like this.
Bernice would talk, offering never-ending chatter.
And I would supply one-word answers as I tried, and failed, to think about anything but the pain on Birdee’s face.
Then Vito, Mable, Romeo, and Cody came in while talking and laughing, and my control just…snapped.
“Weaver,” I called out when I saw him and Odin standing up. “Would you mind giving my sister a ride home?”
Weaver smiled apologetically before saying, “No can do. I have to get to work. There are a few power lines down thanks to an avalanche out on Eerie Road.”
I felt panic start to claw away inside of me.
I needed to see her.
I needed to…
“I’ll take her,” Odin grumbled darkly.
I was opening my mouth to say “absolutely not” when Bernice, all flowers and sunshine and hope, hopped up and said, “Thanks. My brother’s done being a dumbass and wants to go apologize to Birdee for being a complete dick to her.”
“Does that mean we can talk to her now, too?” Boone, who I hadn’t seen until now, asked from a couple of tables over.
That just showed where my damn mind had been.
Not on breakfast, and certainly not on my surroundings. Which was a complete shock to me seeing as I was always aware of my surroundings. Half of my life in a prison had honed me into a real-life danger warning system.
“Never said you couldn’t,” I pointed out.
“No, but you were pissed as fuck, and we thought that meant that we were cuttin’ ties,” Huxley said from behind me.
I frowned and looked over my shoulder to see him fixing himself a cup of coffee.
I pinched the bridge of my nose before saying, “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“That’s good, because I’m fairly sure she hasn’t gotten her locks changed yet.” Boone raised his cup of coffee toward me.
I ignored everyone and everything and left, heading next door to the coffee shop.
“Hey.” I smiled at the same older woman that I’d spoken with last time. “I was hoping to get another cup of your milk concoction for my girl.”
“Your girl?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “From the last I heard this morning, you and her aren’t anything.”
That stung.
But…
“I might’ve fucked up,” I admitted, scratching my head sheepishly.
