I nodded and smiled. “Technically your nephew, even though he’s more than a decade older than you. He’ll probably want to meet you when he learns about you.”
“And his sister?” Sully asked.
“Karlyn has had a rough life because of Janelle. She’s closed off, and not easy to get close to.”
“How did you and Justin end up normal?”
Chapter Forty-One
Chasm
I snorted at Sully’s assessment of me and Justin. “I don’t know that I’d call us normal. But we were raised by our moms.”
“Moms? You don’t have the same mom?”
“None of us do. Samuel Peterson thought he was God. He believed that every woman walking the earth was his to use. Hell, we could have hundreds of siblings out there we don’t know about.”
“Eww, how will I ever have a date when I don’t know if the guy is related to me?”
“You won’t be dating,” I growled. “When you’re forty and ready to get married, Justin will do a background check.”
“Forty?” she screeched. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m waiting until forty.”
“Have you and Pardon...?” I couldn’t even say the words.
“Gross, no!” Sully hit me with a pillow. “Stephen is my brother. He may not be my blood, but he will always be my brother. Eww, he’s like a hundred years older than me.”
“Nine years, kid. There’s eleven years between me and Morgan—you saying she’s too young for me?”
“Morgan is almost thirty?” she asked. “Wow, I would have thought she was younger. But no, that’s different.”
“Why?” I asked, curious as to what she’d say.
“Because Morgan is an adult. She’s not a kid.”
“She was twenty-two when we got together.”
Her mouth dropped open. “And you were thirty-three?”
I didn’t know why I was telling my kid sister this shit. Maybe I was looking for justification again. A reason to walk away and let her go. A reason not to be the selfish bastard I was.
“That was young,” Sully whispered. “Do you love her?”
“With every cell in my body,” I answered honestly.
It was the truth. I wasn’t whole when she was gone. When I walked away from her the first time, I became a man I didn’t like. I did things I wasn’t proud of, but it was the pain of being away from her that allowed me to do the things I needed to do.
“Does she know that?”
“She might not want to believe it, but she knows I love her. I tell her every chance I get.”
“Maybe saying the words isn’t enough.”
“I don’t know what else to do. I told you, I’m not good with this emotional shit.”
“Have you explained why you left? Why you waited so long to come back?”
I groaned as Sully’s words mirrored Grace’s. “No,” I confessed.
