Absorbed(11)
Half a dozen emotions form on my sister’s face at once. Disgust. Disappointment. Irritation. All of them make me sick to my stomach, so I keep my gaze off of Kylie’s brown eyes as I yank on a pair of Nike shorts. “Nice, Lucas. Really nice,” she finally says. She scuffs the soles of her blue Converse together for a moment and then sighs. “If you’re expecting me to bitch, you shouldn’t.”
“Get up,” I order. She complies by moving a few feet away from the bed to sit on the black chair that’s adjacent from the bed. “And no, I didn’t expect you to bitch. Just don’t like when you give me that look.”
She shrugs and brings her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “Guess I’m hoping for a happily ever after.”
“From a f*cked-up * and a woman who won’t even return your calls. Fuck, let me rephrase that. From a woman who has already changed her number. You should expect the worst.”
Kylie flinches. “What happened?” She places her chin on the tops of her knees and follows my movements carefully as I make my bed.
“She’s already moved on.”
“You don’t know that,” she says. When the muscles in my back tighten, she sucks in a breath through her teeth. “You saw her—did you see her out with someone else?”
I’m not going to confirm it directly—because I don’t want to face the f*cking emotions that it sends rolling through me—so I slam one of my pillows into place and shrug. “Shit happens.”
Kylie lets go of her legs and stretches them back down to the floor. She rakes her hand through her short, black and blue hair and presses her lips together into a thin line, working them back and forth. Trying to come up with what to say to make me feel better. It only makes me uncomfortable.
I sit on the side of the bed facing her, gripping the mattress tightly. “Don’t you need to go check on Brenna?”
Nodding, my sister rises to her feet. She smiles one of those smiles that won’t reach her eyes. I’m used to seeing her look like that when it comes to Wyatt, but never with me. “Pull your shit together, big brother. You want her. You’re in love with her. So do something about it.” She walks to the door, shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans. “Besides, you’re not exactly playing the part of Mr. Innocent. Just calm the hell down and fix things, okay?”
I give her a tight-lipped smirk—and I’ve been doing a lot of that lately—and I nod my head. “Thanks for the advice.”
She lifts her shoulders slightly, and my gaze drops to her giant cluster of blackbird tattoos. Even though she knows I’m looking, she doesn’t move to cover them up like she used to. “You’re the one who wasted your ten days with her and got only eight because of your stupidity.”
“And thanks for shooting me in the balls. Anything else you want to hurl at me while you’re being a shithead?”
Her eyebrows draw together in sympathy. “I’ll come tomorrow to do, you know, actual work.”
“Trying to tell me something?”
She walks backwards into the hallway, her hands still in her pockets. “That it would be nice for you to get off your ass and make music and give me some errands to run so I can get paid.”
Noted. I wait until she and Brenna are gone, and I see her tiny car leave my driveway, to go downstairs. I’m in the middle of ordering lunch when I realize just how important Kylie’s words to me are. How they’re what I’ve been looking for.
I forget about lunch, forget everything else, as I write the first two lines of Sienna’s song. A song that I don’t know if she’ll ever hear, but one I’ve got to write so I can get her the f*ck out of my system.
“I’m the one who wasted ten days, trading it in for eight
And I know you’re probably saying, f*ck me right now . . .”
Before I grab my guitar and put music to the words, I send Kylie a text.
11:08 AM: Be here first thing tomorrow. Shit to do.
She takes awhile to respond, but when she finally does, there are no words on the screen. Just a few symbols in the shape of a heart.
Chapter Seven
Kylie Wolfe
I’ve spent enough time with my older brother to know precisely when he’s lying to me. Lucas is usually too direct for his own damn good, so it’s easy to pick up when he’s being an evasive bull-shitter. When Brenna and I left his house yesterday afternoon, I was certain that he came home after drinking the night before—and after seeing Sienna with another man—by himself. Even if he’d wanted to get Sienna out of his system, or get back at her, he hadn’t slept with someone else.