“I didn’t know Sandra had other children,” I say, unwilling to call her mom.
“Bullshit,” he spits out.
“Nash…” Sadie says.
“It’s fine, Sades. We’ll be fine. I’ll take care of you.” His gaze cuts my direction again. “We don’t need him.” Nash gives his attention to Rebecca next. “I told you, I can get a job and take care of her. I’ve always taken care of her.”
My stomach twists. I swallow down the bile threatening to come up.
“And you’ve done a very good job of taking care of your sister,” Rebecca says. “You’re lucky to have each other, but as I explained before, you’re a minor. We can’t give you custody of her, and you deserve someone to take care of you too.”
“Fuck that,” Nash replies. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me. I never have, and I never will.”
I straighten my spine, try even harder to shut off my emotions. I hadn’t known what I was going to do when I left DC. Hell, I hadn’t even known what I was going to do when I walked into this room, but seeing them, I know what the choice must be, regardless of how Nash feels about it. “If everything is approved, you won’t have any choice but tocome and live with me.”
Nash’s eyes narrow, and Sadie asks, “Where do you live?”
“In Virginia. Outside Washington, DC.” I figure that’s the easiest way to describe the area because most people know DC more than Peyton.
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Nash argues. “Now that she’s gone and we’re free of her, you want to help? Where the hell have you been?”
I straighten my shirt, frustrated at the crease forming in it. “As I already said, I didn’t know she’d had other children, but I know now.” I turn to Rebecca. “What do I need to do?”
“We’re not going,” Nash says again.
“So you’re going to stay in the system?” I argue. “Be separated from your sister? These are the only two choices here—them or me.” As soon as Sadie begins crying, I realize I should have said that differently…softer? I don’t know. This is all new. I’ve hardly had twenty-four hours to work through what’s happening.
“I don’t want to be separated from Nash. Do I have to?” she asks, then turns to her brother. My brother too, I guess. “We have to go with him. I don’t want them to take me away from you!”
I watch as he pulls her into a hug, as he strokes her back. He might hate me, and hell, maybe even the rest of the world, but it’s clear how much he loves his sister—our sister. This is going to take a lot of getting used to. I respect him for that, for always taking care of her, for being the brother I haven’t been to them.
“Fine,” he concedes. “We’ll go, but this doesn’t change that I hate you,” he makes sure to tell me, before giving Sadie his attention again, and I watch them together, wondering how different my life might have been if I hadn’t needed to deal with the tornado that was Sandra Valentine on my own,but grateful there’s not one more person in the world who had to call her their mom.
CHAPTER FOUR
Colton
August
“Are you excitedfor tomorrow?” Hannah asks as we’re each working on a vehicle in side-by-side bays. She owns the auto repair shop and has been my best friend for most of my life. We grew up together, both of us living on the same street in an older neighborhood in Hampton, not far from Peyton.
My mom and her parents still live there, in houses they struggled to afford years ago, but if they hadn’t held on to them, would never be able to move into now. My mom had worked her ass off to make ends meet, to give me and my brother, Dakota, the best life she could, and that little house on Third Street will always be home.
Hannah and I did everything together—played basketball, and snuck out, and we even lost our virginity with each other. She likes to joke that I was so bad, I turned her into a lesbian, because my best friend thinks she’s funny. I’m very, very good with my cock, so we both know she’s lying. It only took us a couple of weeks of dating at sixteen to realize it was weird and that we didn’t belong together—even before Han realized she’s only into women. And, well, even if she hadn’t been, she doesn’t have a submissive bone in her body, and that’snonnegotiable for me. I don’t know what I would do without her, though. She’s my rock and always will be.
“Excited, nervous. All of the above,” I reply.
“You, Turner Colton Hathaway, have absolutely nothing to be nervous about.”
“I have no idea who you’re talking to,” I tease. She knows I hate it when she uses my full name. Turner is my father, not me.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I won’t give you shit, but I’m serious. You’re going to be great.”
“I’m a mechanic trying to cosplay as an architect major. No one in my family has ever graduated from college, and I think I’ll be the first?” It’s not like me to be insecure like this. If I want something, I usually get it, but I’ve never wanted something so big before. Well, let me rephrase that: I’ve wanted this for a long time, but it’s only been the last couple of years that I started working toward making it happen. It’s a big step. Hathaways don’t do college, and we don’t do work that’s not blue collar, and who the fuck starts university at twenty-eight?
“Hey.” She wipes her hands on a towel and walks my way. She keeps her dark hair in short, black twists. Han looks like a runway model with high cheekbones and perfect brown skin. She feels just as comfortable in heels as she does bent over the engine of a car. “None of that. There’s absolutely nothing you can’t do.”
“You have a point there,” I tease. “I’m very, very good.”
