The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(65)

This was true. He was there. He was always there. And the thought suddenly made her panic, made her throat close up, which in turn made her feel hemmed in, claustrophobic. Because no matter how hard she tried to keep him at a distance for his own good, she failed. Stepping free, she turned away. “I’ve got to go.”

“There it is.” He let her get to the door. “While you’re already freaked out,” he said to her back, “you might as well know.”

“Know what?”

“I want more than this.”

She closed her eyes. Dropped her forehead to the door.

He came up behind her but didn’t touch her. “I want to be more to you than just a booty call because you’ve had a rough time at a family dinner that you chose to go to alone rather than bring me.”

“Don’t you see?” she whispered, turning to face him. “Being with you . . . having you love me . . . you’re already giving me so much more than I can ever give you.”

“Maybe you’ve underestimated yourself.”

“It’s a gift I can never pay back, Deck. Ever.”

“When it comes to love, there is no paying it back,” he told her. “Real love goes to the ends of the earth with no regrets. It’s there for you, Kins, and it’s right in front of you. All you’ve got to do is hold on.”

“I can’t.” She felt the tears leak from eyes and swiped at them angrily. “I’ve gotta go.”

Shockingly, he reached around her to open the door for her.

And with nothing else to say—after all, this was a disaster of her own making—she walked away.

And he let her.





Chapter 20


From seventeen-year-old Kinsey’s summer camp journal: Dear Journal,

Surprise! I’m still around. Survived the infection from hell, and now I’m going to be living with transplant rejection, but, hey, breathing is breathing, right?

I’m weaning off the depression meds, and Eli is no longer watching me every second of the day like I might jump off a cliff. Fuck that. I want to live, just to prove I can.

But I’ve got a secret. When I was at rock bottom last year, I went looking for my dad. Sure, he walked away from his own daughter, so I don’t know why I did this. Okay, that’s a lie. Honestly? Just between you and me? I think I went looking to see if he’d offer to help me. I told myself I’d never accept his kidney, I just . . . Hell. I just wanted him to offer. My mom actually helped me, and we located him in Bakersfield, a hellhole about two and a half hours from Wildstone.

He was the same charismatic con man I remember. Oh, and he wanted to know what the going rate was for a kidney these days. Charming, right? But . . . when I was looking for more deets on him through one of those ancestry apps, I learned something shocking—he isn’t my only blood relative. I’ve got a sibling, a half sibling, and with some more research, I found her.

Are you ready for this?

It’s Brynn.

Yes, that annoying weirdo from summer camp, the one with the frizzy hair, the one who was even worse at sports than me, the one who also had bad night vision—although mine was less bad.

Mental head thunk here. Because how did I not see this sooner???????

I called her. I don’t know why. I just thought that somehow we’d immediately feel like sisters. She was rude and I hung up. And that’s the end of that story.

Thanks for being here for me, journal.

Kinsey

BRYNN WOKE UP slowly. Mornings always sucked, and this one sucked harder than most. Even lying there perfectly still while trying to fall back asleep, she couldn’t. Because she knew what was waiting for her.

The memories of what had happened last night.

She was Kinsey’s half sister, which had been kept from her.

Which also meant that any progress she and Kinsey had made toward a real friendship was null and void.

Rinse and repeat for Eli.

And if her heart hurt over Kinsey—and, oh, it did—it had actually broken over Eli.

But she’d never had the luxury of wallowing in heartbreak, and now was no exception. She had things to do. People to yell at. People being Kinsey.

Her sister.

Half sister, she reminded herself, trying make the “half” part matter more. But it didn’t. All her life she’d wished for a sibling, and to find out she had one, but that it’d been kept from her—by that very sister, no less . . . Gah. Tired of playing dead, she opened her eyes. She was in her room at Eli’s house. He’d brought her here, a quiet but solid, steady presence that on any other really bad night she would’ve appreciated. He’d tried to follow her into her room to talk, but she’d kicked him out.

He’d sent Mini in as his substitute, and the sweet, gentle dog was at her side, still sleeping.

And snoring. And drooling.

Her head was pounding courtesy of the bottle of wine she’d imbibed alone. And how had she forgotten how much wine made her head hurt the next morning?

With a groan, she sat up and blinked blearily. Mini lifted her head too, thumping her tail on the bed in greeting. Brynn hugged her, then froze at the sight of Eli fast asleep in the chair that usually lived in the corner. He’d pulled it closer. It wasn’t big enough for a full-grown man, so his legs were sprawled out in front of him and his head was crooked to the side, his body loose and relaxed as only the dead asleep could manage. He wasn’t snoring or drooling, which was annoying. He was a liar.