“We’re not giving up, we’re still monitoring her.”
I roll my shoulders. “I’m also well aware that Poe hasn’t done anything out of his norm, but I just can’t shake that feeling I’m missing something with him, too.”
“You’re sure it has nothing to do with you just being overprotective of her?”
“Absolutely not.” I link my fingers behind my neck. “I need more time before I close her case, so until then, I’m tracking her like I would any other client.”
“But she’s not just a client.”
“Who’s not just a client?” Charlie sticks her head into the room, and her long, dark hair gathered on the top of her head swishes, defining why it’s called a ponytail.
Drew grabs his phone off the table and holds his hands up. “I’m not in this.” He hugs our sister as he’s walking out.
“Who’s not just a client?” she repeats.
“What are you doing here? Everything okay?”
“I haven’t seen you or heard from you in almost a week, so I could ask you the same thing.” She searches my face, then narrows her eyes at me. “You know I know she’s here. I heard from Mom how wonderful she is, and then Dad went on about how proud he was of you for doing right by her. Imagine my surprise when I find out that you got Annie a job and an apartment here from Kit.”
Charlie was the only one I truly let in after I was shot. I let her help change my bandages, she brought me soup when all the meds were making me sick, and she took me to physical therapy.
We were always tight, but in that time, we got even closer.
I helped her work through her own trauma, I held her when she cried, I woke her up from her nightmares…and she woke me up from mine. Nightmares that nobody else knows about. Nightmares that Charlie blames Annie for, along with everything else I went through.
I love my sister, I adore her, but she can hold a grudge like no other. “I don’t want your bitterness chasing Annie away because I don’t want her to leave…ever.” Saying it out loud came easy, but it shocked Charlie.
Her eyes pop. “You think I would chase her away?”
“You placed a lot of blame on her and let me know exactly how you feel about her.”
“Yeah, because I was pissed my brother was hurting. Do you seriously think I’m such a bitch that I’d be mean to your girlfriend?”
I chose not to answer that directly. “What I feel for her is deep…and I don’t want to be forced into a position where I have to choose sides.”
She lurches back, her long dark hair flying with the quick movement. “You’d choose some woman you barely know over your own sister?”
“I know Annie better than you think. And I know her well enough to know she’d never put me in a position to choose in the first place.”
“Wow. So I guess that’s a yes…nice.”
I don’t deny it fast enough, and she storms away.
“Dammit.” I take off after her and don’t catch up until she’s halfway down the block in front of her salon. “Stop running, or I’m gonna take my key back so you can’t sneak into the bar and steal Kahlúa anymore.”
She yanks her wrist out of my grip and makes fists at her side. “I don’t steal from Someday’s…Iborrow.”
“I don’t care that you do. Why do you think I always have half a dozen bottles of RumChata?”
Her eyes get soft for a split second before she pokes me in the chest. “If she makes you happy, then I’d never do anything to mess with that.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just…” I sigh. “She has no one else, Charlie. No family, maybe a couple of friends, and me. I didn’t exactly give her much choice to be here, but I’m going to do everything I can to get her to stay.”
“Okay. Fine. It’s all good. I’m just annoyed because Tara’s my first client and I don’t want to deal with her.”
Tara Ellis used to be in my sister’s friend group and always had a thing for me. I do not like the woman, and I am not attracted to her in the slightest. So when she vied for my attention, I turned her down repeatedly with the lie that I didn’t want us dating to affect her and Charlie’s friendship.
She then begged and pleaded with Charlie so much that my sister finally had enough and essentially forced me to take Tara out. It was the most uncomfortable and awkward date in my life, and when I told Tara there wouldn’t be another, she took it as a challenge.
