“Dangerous?”she scoffed.
That made me smile.“She stirs up trouble better than you do.”
“I don’t stir up trouble!Whatever.I’m still surprised you didn’t start with the Biloxi chapter.”
I shook my head.“My family is incredibly close, but I knew we needed to break away from that.Us moving gave our parents time to focus on our sister.”
“But she’s here.”
“No, our younger sister.”
I heard and felt her shift in the bed.“Your parents didn’t have their hands full with you three?”
My body shook with my silent laugh.“Fuck if I know.Things happen.We love Mabel to pieces… and sometimes I think that’s why she’s so spoiled.”
“But it isn’t,” she murmured.
It threw me how well Ivy could read me.
“No, it isn’t.I don’t know what happened, but she’s been a handful for the last five years.Now… she’s gonna be twenty-one soon and I’m not sure she’ll ever get her act together.”
“That’s sad.Why not stay in Biloxi to be there for her?”
I scoffed.“Dad would have liked that.He accused me and Killian of taking the easy way out.”
“Why would he say that?”
It struck me that I hadn’t even talked to Killian about this shit.After a beat, I said, “We saw how the VP’s son was treated when he prospected.Dad thinks we were trying to avoid that.”
Her brows drew together.“Were you?”
My head wobbled.“Not many people seek that shit out, and no question that Block, Tiny, Brute, and Cynic would love giving us shit.Even more than we take here.Bottom line, we came here because of Mickayla – and that’s the worst part of it.Dad doesn’t see that it’s harder being out here.”
“What about your mom, though?”she asked.
“Mom thought having us a day’s ride away from home would be good for everyone.Mabel was fourteen then, and I guess we all had hope.Since then, Mabel’s shoved the three of us away.”
She slunk further under the covers.“I didn’t mean to bring up something that was a downer.”
“Don’t sweat it,” I murmured.
“Sleep well.”
I let it go at that for a beat.She wiggled around next to me, the sheets moving with her, and I had to speak up.
“Ivy.Are you for real right now?”
“What?”she whispered.
“Get your sweet tush over here.I’m not fightin’ you for sheets… and you don’t want me to, believe me.”
She sighed.“Take your sheets.I don’t think we should snuggle sleep because there’s plenty of mixed signals between us already.Sleeping like that makes it worse.”
Dammit.Her logic couldn’t be argued, but hell if I didn’t want to argue anyway.Not to mention I wanted to clear up those mixed signals by kissing her breathless, but that flew in the face of my earlier decision.
But was it really a decision?
The next time I woke up, I heard Ivy speaking in a low voice and it sounded like she was in the bathroom.I opened my eyes and saw the door was open just a crack.
