Emaly grins at me. “You’re too soft for the wilderness anyway, Little Bear.”
I’d take offense to that, but she’s not wrong. “The beds are made upstairs. You can pick whichever one you want. Do you need me to get any of your bags?”
I know her well enough to assume that there’s more than one suitcase waiting for me in the foyer. She doesn’t go anywhere without at least three bags packed to the brim.
Emaly waves me off and walks into the room, sitting down on the edge of my king-size bed. “I think I’ll choose this one. It’s already warmed up for me.”
She peels her shoes off and tosses them onto the floor before smiling at me and curling into the spot I’d just been sleeping. What a pain in the ass.
“Comfortable?” I ask, brows arching.
She settles in. “Yes.”
I roll my eyes and join her, not about to give up my bed. We’ve had sleepovers before. It started when we were teens,not long after we first became friends. Everyone assumed we’d been doing more than talking until we fell asleep, and neither of us ever denied it. We both knew people would think what they wanted, regardless.
It isn’t until a few minutes later that she asks, “Where is the lamp?”
I grin in the darkness, turning onto my side and closing my eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Winter
Luca spots mebefore Kourtney does, and beelines in my direction the second I step into the Chuck E. Cheese entrance. “Aunt Win! Aunt Win!”
I grunt when he barrels into me, barely able to keep myself upright as I wrap my arms around the seven-year-old’s lanky body. “Have you grown since I last saw you?” I ask skeptically when I realize he comes up to my chest. In hindsight, that’s not hard to do. I’m only five foot three, but still.
He laughs. “Mom says I’m a weed.”
“Growinglike a weed,” my sister corrects him, rolling her eyes over the top of his head as she approaches us. “It means you’re growing fast.”
Luca peels himself away from me to look at his mother. “Dad says I’m small for my age.”
The frown that curls my lips doesn’t compare to the one weighing on Kourtney’s mouth. “Your father is confused,” she says through gritted teeth. Apparently, she’s as done with Brad’s bullshit as I am. Maybe that’s a conversation we’ll have today while Luca plays.
When we’re done ordering a cheese pizza and fries, because it’s the only two things Luca will eat right now, we sit down at a table by the arcade games.
Kourtney sneers at the mouse mascot high-fiving a group of kids. “I hate that stupid mouse,” she grumbles.
I snort. “You’re still traumatized by the time Melvin brought that mouse into your bed, huh?”
Her face darkens at the reminder of our childhood cat. He was a mighty rodent hunter. Except that he rarely actuallykilledthem. Melvin simply liked showing them off by bringing live mice into the house, and sometimes, into Kourtney’s bed.
“I’m glad he passed away before Mom and Dad, because I would have put him up for adoption if it were my choice,” she seethes, crossing her arms over her chest.
No, she wouldn’t have. “I loved Melvin too much for you to do that to me. Remember how much I cried when Dad told me he was gone?”
Kourtney’s face pinches. “You made us have a funeral with a eulogy and everything. Do you know how hard it was for me to come up with something nice to say about that pain in my ass? Once, he brought a half-deadbunnyinto the house. There was blood everywhere.”
I cringe. Okay, so I didn’t know that. “What happened to the bunny?”
“You don’t want to know,” she informs me, moving on. “Anyway, what’s going on with you? You’ve got that look on your face.”
My brows pinch. “What look?”
She sips the soda our waitress brought over and waves her hand in my direction. “The one that says there’s something on your mind. Spill.”
I want to talk about her and Luca and Brad, not me. “Is there something going on withyou? It seems like you’re mad at Brad.”
