My eyes blinked as I tried to adjust to the inside lighting.
I laughed at the sight in front of me. It was a trick of Riley’s.
It had to be.
There was another young woman sitting there. She looked to be around college age—that would make sense if she was a friend of Riley’s.
“Hey there, I was looking for Riley.”
The girl nodded. “She’s out for a run right now, but she’ll be back later.”
“Okay.” I turned to go, not wanting to interrupt a stranger’s morning.
“Are you here to ask her out?”
I glanced down at my watch. It was seven o’clock in the morning. Of course I wasn’t there to ask her out. I spun around and stepped through the door to stand on the threshold. “Do people ask her out all the time?”
The girl shrugged and rolled her eyes, making her look younger than I’d originally thought. “You’ve seen Riley. I bet you could answer that yourself.”
I nodded slowly. Riley was beautiful.
“If you’re waiting for Riley, you might as well make yourself some coffee.”
I nodded slowly, not sure what to say, then turned around to find the coffee pot. At least that hadn’t changed since I had known Riley. There was still warm coffee ready.
“Are you her roommate?” I asked as I poured myself some coffee into a mug I’d pulled from the hook on the wall. It seemed a little odd that the girl hadn’t asked who I was—or why I’d barged into their trailer. Who knew, maybe this was typical trailer park behavior. I was probably fitting in already. Riley was worried about nothing.
“I’m Wren,” the girl said as she walked past me and set her bowl in the sink. She was tall—as tall as Nola. But standing closer, her youth was obvious. “I’m Riley’s sister.”
I coughed, trying to stop myself from choking on the hot coffee. “Little sister?”
She smiled, the first one I’d seen from her. “Yes. I’m her little, taller sister.”
Old conversations with Riley flew through my mind. She’d talked about her half-sister who’d been much younger than her. She’d visited her occasionally but had never lived in the same house with her. “How old are you? You’re as tall as my sister, Nola.”
“I’m fifteen.”
I did some quick math in my head. Riley was nine years older than her. That meant that Wren had been born the year after Riley had been taken into custody by DHS.
“I know who you are,” Wren went on.
“You do?” I asked.
She pointed to the picture I’d noticed a couple days before—the picture of Nola, Riley, and me. I guessed she would know me then. Although, I looked like I’d lifted nothing heavier than a piece of paper in that picture.
“Hmm, yeah. I don’t think that’s me.” I looked at the skinny kid with his arms around Nola’s and Riley’s shoulders. “Couldn’t possibly be me.”
She pulled something from around her wrist and tied her hair up on the top of her head. It made her look her age—finally. “Pretty sure that’s you. So. Why are you here?”
“I like to show up in strangers’ trailers and drink coffee with them.”
Wren sat down at the table again and picked up her phone. “I heard my sister was yelling and screaming at you in your house yesterday. Sorry about that.”
“Word travels fast.”
“Sure. You’re about to find out how fast it can travel living here. Hey, don’t take anything personal that Riley says to you. She talks about you all the time. She just doesn’t know how to fit our two worlds together. But if you tell her I told you that, I’ll go to my grave saying it isn’t true.” She nodded toward the door behind me.
It was the only warning I had.
The door swung open, and Riley stepped in, breathing heavily with bright-red cheeks. A baseball cap was pulled low over her eyes. She didn’t realize I was there.
She flipped her hat off, letting it fall to the floor, and began fanning the bottom of her shirt. Wren snickered and commented, “Looking good, sis.”
“Ha, be quiet, you. You didn’t even—“ She cut herself off when her eyes landed on me. With a jerk, she yanked her shirt down to cover the hint of skin she’d exposed. Her red cheeks had turned ghostly white. “What are you doing here?”
“Just drinking coffee with your sister.” I took an exaggerated drink without breaking eye contact with her.
“Wren, don’t you have somewhere to be?” she asked icily as she swiped at the sweat on her neck.
“Not that I can think of,” Wren said with a smile.
I liked that girl. Mom would eat her up if she got her hands on her. I’d have to introduce them.
“I thought you were going to the lake with Macy today.”
Wren leaned back in her seat. “This seems a lot more interesting.”
Riley turned the full force of her glare on Wren. Wren stood up and grabbed her phone. “Sheesh, not even eighteen and getting kicked out of the house.”
“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Riley said with a small smile.
Her comment brought me back to all the times in high school and middle school when she would kick me out of the room her and Nola were in.
She said the same thing every time she threw me out.
Since my sister, Nola, was only eleven months older than me, it had been my life goal to annoy her and Riley as much as possible. Somewhere along the way, I developed a crush on Riley. I’m not sure I even knew when. It had steadily grown on me until I recognized exactly what I felt for her.
But no matter how much I liked her in high school, I couldn’t seem to stop annoying her, and in return, she’d dished it back to me. Seeing her tease her sister in the same manner made me nostalgic for those years we’d spent together.
It was good to be back around her, but I couldn’t help but wonder
