I wonder what she saw when she looked at me.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve. “Sure.”
She dragged her hands along the snaps for the skirting we’d never once put on the track. “How’s it going?”
I slid a new bolt into the hole and worked on finger-tightening the nut. “It would have been better if I hadn’t left it sitting here for ten years. I’ll be replacing bolts for a few hours. Might need to take a run to Dawson’s and grab some more.”
She yanked on one of the braces going into the corner, her lips twitching. “You’re really going to do this, huh?”
“Looks that way.” My ratchet clicked with every rotation, a sound I’d always loved for some reason.
“And there’s nothing I can do to change your mind?” she asked, crossing her arms and propping her shoulder against the track.
I glanced down at her stomach, spotted the twitch of cotton under her shirt, and grinned. “He’s active today.”
She laughed. “He’s active every day. Now answer the question.”
Ahhh, so this was the part where she picked me apart. Might as well get it over with. “There are kids involved.”
“And a woman from what I hear.”
“Fourteen of them,” I said without looking at her as I dropped another bolt in the bucket.
“Galloway Bay is only talking about one of them though.”
“Galloway Bay needs to mind its own business.”
“They are.”
“Yeah? How’s that?” I crouched under the track to slide in another bolt. I squinted up at her as sweat trickled in my eye. “By gossiping about her or by running their mouths about me?”
“Ouch,” she said with an exaggerated wince that told me my blunt assessment would do nothing to shut down her little inquiry. “I suppose both. But they’re right, though? You and Maisy?”
Or Mayhem…since we weren’t on a first name basis yet. I reached under and started loosening another nut on the shittiest section of the track I’d found so far. “Is there not supposed to be a woman for me, Lilith? Ever?” I knew this thing between Mayhem and me was a dead end, but I sure as hell didn’t need my sister who had the husband, the baby coming, and the one place that felt like home to the two of us telling me what I did and didn’t have the right to.
“I’m not saying that. You know I’m not saying that,” she said, her voice softening as she laid her hand on my shoulder.
Anger burned in my throat at the scathing words I swallowed. I cut her a glance that had her sliding her hand away. “So, what are you saying?”
“You forget who you’re talking to. I know you won’t stay.”
“Well,” I said, huffing out a breath, “I guess it’s good she didn’t ask me to.”
“She’s going to fall for you, you know?”
“Because I’m so irresistible?” I said with a humorless laugh. “I don’t see you talking about me falling for her.”
“Because I’m starting to figure out it might be a bit late for me to be worrying about that.”
“I’m not in love with her,” I said quietly, choking the words past the sudden lump in my throat.
I’d known her for all of five minutes. We’d been fighting for four minutes and fifty-nine seconds of them.
“Maybe not all in, but you wouldn’t have agreed to this if you weren’t well on your way,” she said with quiet confidence. “Is it really worth the pain?”
“Pain’s kept me company for how long now? I’ll be fine.”
She crouched down next to me, wincing as she settled in.
Just like that, I felt like an asshole for climbing under here. “Not your pain…hers.”
I thought about my first night home and the personal rivalry she battled on that track going head-to-head with Tilly.
About the mother who never returned to their room at the Beacon Motel.
The frayed green lace of her skate she didn’t dare throw away.
Her desperation to save Crossroads.
“She’s in pain too.” I wanted to snatch the words back. Four words that confirmed my sister’s every worry.
“Oh,” she said on a quiet sigh. She sucked in a breath and slapped her palms on her thighs. “Well—damn. I’ve run out of all judgment and sisterly warnings.”
I dropped my hands to my knees and laughed. My rigid shoulders relaxed and I nudged Lilith’s chin. When the hell had she become a woman? A full-blown adult woman who didn’t need her big brother anymore. “Don’t worry, it’ll only take a few hours with me for them to realize what a bastard I am. That’ll solve everything.”
“They’ll eventually respect you for it.” She grabbed ahold of one of the supports and pushed to her feet.
“Lilith?”
“Hmm?”
“I won’t screw up this time.”
“You didn’t screw up last time either. And when it comes to our brother—”
Her words sliced into my chest, the only place I could keep my twin safe now. Even if the only thing I could protect was his memory. “Don’t go there.”
“Abel made his own choices.”
Son of a bitch. “I’m the oldest.”
Her hands went to her lower back where she dug her fingertips into her muscles. “By six minutes, Cain. You’re the oldest by six damn minutes. You’re putting how many years’ worth of responsibility on six minutes?”
“Six minutes is still older. And you need off this concrete.” I nodded to the door, hoping she’d take the hint. “You should go inside.”
“Yeah, well…if it makes you feel any better, you’re not the smartest.”
“Ouch.”
She cocked her head with a smug grin on her face. “Someone had to tell you.”
I grinned up at her. “Point taken, Mouth.”
She bent down and wiped my cheek before pressing a kiss to it. “And you’re a damn good coach.”
She'd never said those words. My history coaching had only fueled attitude and frustration from her—with me, with the way this town turned against me after Lana's accident, and with how I wouldn’t help her understand.
Sweet relief slid through me, my skin tingling with the rush, knowing that even now, after all that I’d
