Sweet Forty-Two(48)

Ember smacked his stomach. “Shut up, ass.”

Bo laughed and Ember did too, so things seemed okay there, I guess. Though navigating the complex knots of Bo and Ember’s relationship wasn’t something I had the time or training for.

After locking up the studio, Ember and I headed to my car. A few minutes into our drive, she yawned and looked at me. “I’ve missed seeing you every day.”

“You mean you miss keeping an eye on me. Spying on my emotions,” I teased.

“Regan, I couldn’t spy on your emotions if you drew me a map.” She knocked softly on my head. “Closed book.”

I shrugged. “I’m not that closed off, I’m just not ... Bo.”

She chuckled and leaned her head back on the headrest. I’d intended to tell her about the card from Rae but was getting gun-shy.

“So ... Willow...” I didn’t have enough emotional attachment to the San Diego socialite to care that I was throwing her under the bus in my cowardliness.

“Argh! What about her?” Ember growled.

“Last week she told me about ... you know.”

Ember snapped her head back around, looking deadly at the side of my face. “No, I don’t know. What’d she say?”

“She said you were all pissy at her because she put the moves on Bo.”

“Is that all she said?”

Dear God, what did I just get myself into?

“Isn’t that ... all there is?”

Ember chuckled, but it wasn’t the friendly kind. It was the kind that made you expect to see a crow on her shoulder, the way her eyebrow didn’t arch, but pitched to a severe point. “I guess that’s all there is.”

“Okay...” I didn’t believe her.

She continued, “Unless you count her telling me she thinks we’re half sisters.”

I swerved into the next lane, grateful that weekend traffic this early in the morning was nearly non-existent. “What?”

“Can you f*cking believe her? Seriously! Always something to get attention.”

“Did she ... are you ... do your parents—” Given my history with the emotions of Ember, she seemed to be handling this well. Maniacally, maybe, but well.

She reached her hand over and patted my leg. “Calm down. She’s full of shit. No, I haven’t said anything to my parents. Willow blurted it out one night when we were drinking when we first got here. She said we had to have the same dad.”

“Had to?”

“She went on about how our families were always together growing up. Even when I pointed out that they were all f*cking hippies who lived in co-ops together and shit our whole lives, she had to point out the vague similarities in our looks.” Ember ran her hand through her hair and left it there, as if mentally comparing it to Willow’s.

Vague was not the correct term to discuss the similarities between Ember and Willow’s looks. Sure, Willow had darker skin, since her mom was black, but they had the same long wavy hair. Willow’s was only slightly less auburn than Embers, but their eyes were identical. Not just the color—a striking jade that often had me staring at both of them for too long—but the same shape and same size. Slightly too big for their face by some standards, but breathtaking by anyone who could see clearly. It wasn’t a far stretch to believe they were related, but I wasn’t about to tell Ember that.

“What?” she cut into my thoughts. “You believe her?”

Shit.

“I ... I don’t have ... any facts?” I shrugged, trying not to sound like a complete bastard. I knew that girlfriends were supposed to believe each other no matter what, but I wasn’t her girlfriend. And, when I looked at Willow and Ember side by side, I saw two counter culture children who could very likely share DNA.

“Oh you know what, you and Bo can just go shove it, okay? There’s no way that on top of everything else I went through in my childhood that my parents would have lied to me, too.”

“Ember, your childhood wasn’t anything to go through. Calm down. And, who’s to say that even if it were true, which I’m not saying it is, that anyone knows about it?”

Ember rested her elbow on the tiny ledge next to the window. “Willow says she asked her parents about it when she was in college and stumbled across pictures of us as kids.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“I know it is.”

“So ... why not ask your parents? I mean, seriously. Willow’s one ... interesting chick, but ... why would she lie about this?” Ember glared at me, but I continued. “Think about it, Ember. She’s got money, status, and plenty of family and friends. Why would she lie about this, but only tell you about it? If she wanted to make a thing about it, wouldn’t she, like, I don’t know, put it on Twitter, or something?”

Ember was silent for a few seconds, and when I looked over at her, I found her wiping under her eyes.

“Em, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be pushy.”

“No,” she sniffed, “it’s okay. This has just been really under my skin. I don’t know if it’s because I think it’s true, or what ... Bo thinks I should just talk to my parents and get it over with. I feel bad, though. I didn’t mean to be so bitchy with Georgia, but this was just ... taking up my brain space.”