She grimaced, but at my hard look, she relented. “It’s no big deal—”
“The hell it’s not. You were crying!” God, I wanted to throttle Sophia for even coming to the ballpark today, but I always felt that way. Right now, I was extra angry because she was screwing with Gia.
Meanwhile, the woman in question was watching me closely, no doubt reading way too much in my face. “So…” she said slowly. “Sounds like you already know what she’s like.”
“She’s my sister. Of course, I know what she’s like.”
“Yeah, but…” She tilted her head as she studied me. Her eyes narrowed, and her hair slipped across her shoulder. I wanted to pull that sloppy bun apart and run my hands through her hair while we picked up where we’d left off. But she kept talking about my sister, which effectively killed my boner. “You understand that she’s a liar…professionally speaking.”
“She’s a predator. You need to stay away from her.”
She folded her arms, plumping her breasts and distracting me. “You’re not warning me away from her.”
“Yeah, I am! She’s dangerous—”
She waved her hand at me. “Yeah, that’s what I mean. You tell me to stay away from Cassie because you’re worried about her. But with Sophia—”
“She’ll fuck you up if she can.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized what I’d just said. And once spoken, I had to think about them and see the truth.
Sophia liked attention, and she’d done a number on Cassie for sure, but that had been just sibling rivalry. Or at least, that’s what I’d told myself. But I knew she’d hated Gia from the get-go, thinking I’d mess up my career with an office romance. That I’d take my eye off the baseball prize.
Except now I began to question that, too. I thought Sophia had been against Gia because she’d seen us kiss on New Year’s Eve. But what if she wasn’t so much against Gia…as against any woman who might get between me and her.
It was ridiculous. Sophia had lost me the moment I’d realized what she’d done to Cassie. She’d been the voice whispering in Cassie’s ear, telling her she was worthless and would never amount to anything. The idea that she was afraid of anyone coming between her and me was almost sad. Because I didn’t feel anything for Sophia. I just wanted her to stay away from Cassie.
But what if Sophia didn’t realize that? What if she confused working as my publicist as a real relationship? Then she’d do whatever it took to cut Gia out of my life.
Was she that messed up? I didn’t want to think so. She was aggressive and greedy, but we’d had hard years when Mom got sick. It made sense that she needed financial security. And aggression wasn’t necessarily bad, assuming it didn’t run rampant.
But was it running rampant in Sophia?
I was still fighting with that thought when Gia leaned forward, her eyes narrowed. “So why is she your publicist if you know she can be vicious?”
I ground my teeth, trying to think of a way out of this conversation. I could leave. I really ought to be in the locker room anyway, so that was an easy excuse. But the truth was that I didn’t want to run away. I wanted to work out the truth with Gia, even if it was ugly.
“Sophia is my older sister. When my mom got sick, my dad was in no shape to deal with us. Sophia took care of us, saw that we studied, had clothes and food, and didn’t get into trouble.”
Gia frowned. “What about the rest of your family? Ellie’s your cousin, and her parents are great.”
“They were in Chicago, and Dad was in denial for a really long time. He kept saying that we were okay and got really angry when we suggested anything else. We learned early on just to pretend that everything would be fine.”
She nodded, her expression sad. “How old were you?”
“Eleven. Cassie was eight, Sophia was fourteen, which is way too young to become a mom of two kids.” I swallowed. “I owe her a lot.”
“Except I don’t hear gratitude in your voice. And you look like you want to punch something. So I’m guessing she wasn’t a good parent.”
“She was better than nothing.” At least, I tried to believe that. But one look at Gia told me she wasn’t buying that.
“I didn’t have parents, remember? That sucked, but there are worse things.” She touched my arm, her fingertips like coals of heat when my entire body felt icy. “What did she do to you?”
I shook my head. “Not me.”
“Cassie.” It wasn’t a question, but I nodded as if it was.
“Sophia played mind games on her all the time. You’re beautiful, you’re ugly. You’re smart, you’re useless. Mixed signals, outright lies, I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention at the time.”
“You were a little boy.”
