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“Come on.” She laughed. “You both think you’re being sneaky?” She rolled her eyes. “Kit ran to you the second I said it would be okay if he liked you.”

“He doesn’t like me. He hasn’t forgiven what I did. Not sure that’s possible. You say you have, but I don’t know if it’s that easy, you know? Every time you hate the chair, every time you’re afraid to call a guy about a date…that’s my fault, Dakota. I did that.”

She sighed. “But you’re a good person. I can see that. And you’re helping me out.” She waved to the window. “Like with the car. And the volunteering.”

“I’d do anything for you.”

She pressed her lips tight. “I don’t know if that’s healthy. Make amends if you want. Don’t offer yourself up as some sort of sacrifice to the guilt gods, okay? I don’t need your guilt, Joey. I’m carrying enough weight as it is.”

I dropped my gaze to my coffee. She was right. My guilt wasn’t her responsibility. “Sorry.”

“No, that was too harsh.”

I glanced up with a small smile. “Nah. It was fair. But I’m still taking you to that drag show.”

“But—”

“Not just us. I’ve got a group of friends who all want to go.”

“They won’t be weird about—” She gestured to the wheelchair.

“No way. They’re cool. I promise. But there’s a catch.”

“Okay. What’s that?”

“You have to call Felipe,” I said.

She groaned. “Seriously? I thought you’d do anything for me, no strings attached? Now you’re blackmailing me?”

“I like to think of it as a bribe,” I joked. “Besides, do you really want your brother to be having all the fun?”

She snorted. “Well, when you put it that way, how could I refuse?”

The sound of a car roared to life outside. Dakota clapped her hands. “Oh my god, he fixed it! Thank you, Joey. Thank you so much!”

I grinned. “I didn’t do anything but ask him to help.”

“Still, you don’t know what it means to be able to deal with something without calling my brother.”

My chest warmed. “I was happy to help.”

The heavy rock that lived in the pit of my stomach shrank a fraction as Dakota smiled at me. I was helping her, and that meant I was also helping Kit. Maybe I couldn’t undo what I’d done, but I could do something good now.

That had to be worth something.

CHAPTER 20

KIT

Piper tapped on my doorframe before leaning in. “Hey, I’ve got to file some notes on a tricky patient before I leave. Meet up for a run in twenty?”

I hesitated, thinking of my latest text exchange with Joey. He’d joked that I’d have to fuck him against the wall to keep his sheets clean because he was running out of laundry detergent. I intended to make him thoroughly regret that.

“No.” Piper wagged a finger at me. “Uh-uh. You are not canceling on me again. I need this.”

I grimaced. Yeah, I’d been a pretty crappy friend lately. I was letting my dick rule me, and I’d never done that before. It would be one thing if Joey was my boyfriend and I was lovesick. But that wasn’t what this was.

My Joey plans would just have to wait. “A run sounds good. I’ll see you out there.”