Marrying Ember(12)

“You were in the RV with my parents.” She shrugged as though that was the answer.

I turned and faced her. “I didn’t talk to them about this.”

“Why not? They didn’t try to cover their asses?” She bit her lip as her tone turned angry.

I reached across the car and set my hand on her leg. She moved it as though she didn’t want me to touch her, but I was unfazed. “I’m not in love with them. I wanted to have this conversation with you.”

“If I talk about it, I’m going to cry. I hate crying.” Her eyes pinched at the edges as early tears seeped out. She was the only person I knew who spent as much time apologizing while she was crying as she did getting to the heart of why she was crying.

“Take the next exit.” I nodded to the sign that promised good coffee in less than a mile.

“No.”

I erased all gentleness from my voice as I battled her stubbornness. “Ember, take the next exit.”

She looked at me, most likely checking to see if my face matched my words. When she realized they did, she moved to the right lane and took the exit.

“There’s a Starbucks right up there. I know you want one as badly as I do, since the band refuses to let us stop there.” I was granted a half smile as Ember negotiated the left hand turn to the church of the mermaid goddess.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared if it was Starbucks or a gas station, but The Six drank tea and sunshine, leaving little time to stop for the caffeine the rest of us needed. Badly.

“I’ll do the drive through, then we can park over there.” Ember pointed to the largely vacant lot on the other side of the tiny coffee hut.

I let out a sigh of relief. She was willing to stop the car and drink some coffee. She needed to tell me what happened in that damn RV, and I wasn’t letting us back on the highway until I got some answers.

“Yeah,” Ember called into the speaker. “I’ll have a venti, half-caff, soy, Pike misto with one pump vanilla.”

I had to stifle a chuckle. She chanted her order as if it were a daily prayer.

“You want your usual?” She asked me over her shoulder.

“Please.”

“And also a venti bold with cream and a shot of boring.” She grinned as the barista laughed over the intercom.

Sarcasm was a good sign on Ember’s emotional barometer. Even if it was fleeting. Once we retrieved our drinks and paid, she pulled into a parking space and shut the car off after rolling down the windows. I left my coffee in the cup holder, knowing it would be too hot for me to drink for the next several minutes, but I watched Ember take her lid off and close her eyes as she took a deep breath, inhaling the rich aroma of the drink.

After her first sip, she put the lid back on and set the coffee in the holder next to mine. She closed her eyes once more and rested her head against the headrest.

“Well,” she sniffed as she let tears roll down her face, “Willow and I really are half sisters.”

“Shit,” I puffed out my cheeks as I exhaled and grabbed her hand. I knew this information, given Solstice had said it several hours ago, but hearing it from Ember made it more real. “Who …” I didn’t know how to ask which man had fathered two daughters.

“My dad.” Her voice went up several octaves as tears choked her tone. “Ashby … he … um.” Ember leaned forward and pressed her head into the steering wheel.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned over as far as I could, wrapping as much of my body around her as possible, trying to shield her from the internal onslaught of emotions.

She coughed and sniffed as raw tears flooded the inside of our tiny rental car. “He’s Willow’s biological dad, too.”





“I knew it,” Ember continued as she leaned into my chest but kept her hands on the steering wheel. “I just f*cking knew it the second Willow said something to me.”



I rested my chin on the top of her head, which was hot from the force of her crying. “Is that why you didn’t want to talk to them about it? Your parents, I mean.”

I felt her nod beneath my chin. “I knew she had to be right. Why would she make that up?”

“Well … she’s not exactly on high moral ground.”

Ember sniffed. “I know. But coming on to you was out of character for her. I knew she was acting out.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “I guess.”

Finally, Ember sat up, wiped under her eyes, and looked at me. Her eyes weren’t as empty as they’d been when she left the RV earlier, but they weren’t filled with anything pretty, either. Rage, torment, and a splash of something unidentified. Something I didn’t want to try to name.

Ember dug her fingers through her hair and left them resting against her head. “This whole time I was afraid to ask my parents because I didn’t want to lose my dad. I knew we didn’t share a mom, that much was obvious. So, one of us grew up with the wrong dad. Over the last few months I’ve looked through all the oldest pictures I could find. I dug through my parents albums, and never once were either Willow or I seen with anyone but our parents in family pictures.”

“So what—” I don’t know what I started to ask,but Ember cut me off.

“I was so focused on the fear of losing my dad, it never once f*cking occurred to me to envision how I’d feel if it was the other way. If he was also … her dad.”