“Is there something wrong with your arms?” I ask bluntly. “I’m no detective or anything but you’re constantly wearing long sleeves and it’s hot and humid as f—"
She rocks up on her tip toes and slaps a hand over my half open mouth. Hard. Now her whole tiny body is pressed up against me. The open cardigan is positioned in a way that the buttons are rubbing against my nipples. In between that and the fact that I can feel her breasts pressed against me through the thin cotton of her t-shirt, I’m getting turned on. Lust starts to swirl inside me like a tornado forming. That feeling of connection from the beach yesterday is back in full force.
Her eyes lock with mine and her eyelashes flutter for a second and I swear I hear her breath catch before she jumps back immediately. “Shut. Up.Please.”
Her head snaps around toward the kitchen doorway, reminding me Aspen is here. Then she glares at me. “Do you have a shirt you can put on, so we can talk outside?” Terra asks.
“Don’t need a shirt. It’s Ocean Pines in a fall heatwave,” I explain.
“Well, I’m being distracted by your oddly shaped, awkwardly hard nipples.”
I glance down. “Oddly shaped?” I rub my fingertips over my nipples and the lust tornado grows bigger inside me, but I don’t stop because it’s riling her up. “They’re shaped just fine, thank you very much. And there’s a draft in here. We’re standing by the front door, you know.”
“Oh my God stop touching yourself!” Terra rants and Aspen’s head pops out of the kitchen. She pops back in when she realizes I’m not touching myselfthat way. I focus on Terra again. “Talk, Tink.”
She runs her hands through her hair, it’s her natural color. When I split three years ago she was in this phase of dying it all kinds of crazy colors. Teal, blue, and she was pink when I left. Now it’s that sandy blonde she was born with. “I need to do this in private. Please.”
She grabs my hand and yanks me outside, firmly closing the front door behind us. Then she walks down to the other end of the hall by the stairwell, dragging me with her. “I need someone to drive me to my dialysis appointment,” she whispers. “The rules are you can’t take a cab or Uber and you can’t drive yourself. I tried to pass Jay off as family once but my doctor called me out on it because of course everyone knows he’s the town Uber driver. So, I can’t pull that shit again. Has to be a friend or family member.”
“Your what?”
“I’m on dialysis,” she says and sighs. “My kidneys stopped working because of the lupus. We fought it with drugs and stuff for a while, but we lost. So now I need my blood cleaned by machines three times a week. It’s not a big deal but I can’t take myself. Finn and Nova are working. Declan is in Boston for a marketing conference. Dad is on the boat and Mom… I love her but she makes it a stressful experience for me and I’d just rather avoid that.”
“How long has this been going on?” I ask and my whole body starts to tingle with shock, like the news knocked it out and every limb fell asleep at once.
“A little over two months,” Terra replies.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” I ask and my voice does nothing to hide my pain. I’m hurt.
Terra’s hard expression softens. “You weren’t here.”
“That again?” I bark because that’s the same excuse they used when Logan went into rehab. I was in Orono doing extra training for work. They know how much that excuse hurt me. How I wanted to know, like a real family member, when it was happening. Even if I couldn’t be there. “Did you know that’s part of the reason I left Ocean Pines, was you guys leaving me out of the crisis with Logan? I was hurt. I was supposed to be family, you all kept telling me that for years but then you cut me out.”
“That wasn’t my call and that was also…” she pauses and looks away. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you everything. But this is different. You moved away. You weren’t just on vacation or whatever. I had no idea you were ever going to move back and so as far as I was concerned, why would you care about my life anymore?”
I reach for her hand. “Terra, I never stopped caring about you or your life.”
We stare at each other. It feels like it’s a really long time but it’s probably only a minute without words. “Can you drive me? I need to go now. Casco Bay Memorial.”
“Come back inside while I grab a shirt,” I say.
“No thank you. I don’t need another glimpse of Aspen’s underwear.”
Right.
“I’ll be back in a sec.”
I walk back down the hall and into my apartment. I’m surprised I’m able to do it without tipping over. I’m reeling so hard from this horrible news that I almost feel like I have vertigo.
7
Terra
He emergesfrom his apartment moments later in a wrinkled forest green t-shirt that he somehow still looks amazing in. We start down the stairs. “Aspen was right there in the front hall, ear pressed to the door trying to eavesdrop, wasn’t she?”
“Maybe.”
“Jake, if you tell her any of this I swear to God I will—”
