She looked up from under her thick veil of hair, brown eyes wide as they searched for a connection, but instead met with the apathy in mine.
That was the fucking problem. I was on disconnect.
That plug had been pulled a long time ago.
Never would I allow someone to have that kind of control over me.
Not like she had.
Not ever again.
Monday morning, I rolled up in front of Jared and Aly’s house at the ass-crack of dawn. I squinted against the bright rays of light burning my eyes as the sun climbed over the horizon, chasing the last of the night from the sky.
I cut the ignition and jumped from the cooled cab of my truck. Heat swallowed me whole. You’d think at 5:30 in the morning we’d get a little reprieve. No such luck. Summers in Phoenix were fucking misery.
That didn’t stop the eager smile that tugged at my mouth as I ambled up their walkway.
So what if I had to leave my man card at the door every time I walked through Jared and Aly’s door. Call me a pussy, I didn’t care.My niece had me wrapped around every single one of her tiny fingers.
I rang the doorbell and rushed my hand through my hair, listening for movement inside. A shadow passed behind the draped window, before metal slid as the lock was unlatched. My sister grinned at me when she opened the door.
“Christopher, aren’t you looking chipper this beautiful morning,” Aly teased as she lifted a knowing brow, stepping back to let me inside.
So yeah, I’m sure I looked like hell. Both Friday and Saturday nights, I’d been over at Timothy’s house, living it up. Funny how all that living made me feel like death warmed over. Every weekend left me just a little more hollowed out. I was pretty sure I was slowly killing myself, week by week losing just a little more of who I was, carving away more and more of what had been important to me.
Pretty soon there would be nothing left.
But there was no way to get any of it back.
Ancient history bullshit, anyway.
I shoved all the unwelcome thoughts off, rolled my eyes as I ruffled Aly’s messy hair. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don’t have a whole lot of room to talk there, Aly Cat. You look like you got about as much sleep this weekend as I did. Livin’ up to your name?”
Dark bags sat heavily under her green eyes, and her near-black hair was all tangled. She was wearing an old stained up t-shirt that had to be Jared’s because the girl was swimming in it. Still, my sister was beautiful. Inside and out. No wonder my dumb ass best friend couldn’t keep his hands off of her.
She groaned a little, but somehow the sound was filled with pure affection. “Ella decided she was hungry every twenty minutes last night. I have no clue how I even got out of bed this morning. I feel like a walking zombie.”
Jared suddenly appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as he tugged her against his chest. He buried his face somewhere in her neck. “Apparently Ella likes her mommy as much as I do.”
I’d just about lost my goddamned mind when I found out these two were hooking up. Not because I didn’t like Jared. He’d been my best friend since I was a little kid. Sure, we’d fought like brothers, messed with each other until one of us was crying, but bottom line, we were thicker than blood. Brothers. We were always the first to have the other’s back.
Until the day Jared caused that car accident. The one that stole his mother’s life. That accident had stolen my best friend, too.
An old kind of pain hit me, and my chest tightened. That car accident had stolen everything. Changed everything. None of us had come out looking the same.
Afterward, the guy had fucked away his life, landed himself in juvie then disappeared for years. I never expected to see him again. When he showed up here last summer, there was no question he was still haunted. I recognized it immediately, because I recognized the same bullshit in myself.
Then he’d gone and taken a liking to my little sister, and all hell broke loose. He and I were too much alike, and I wasn’t about to let him bring my sister down. She deserved so much better than that.
Of course the guy had proven me wrong in every way. He loved her. Wholly and completely. Loved her in a way that girls like Aly deserved, with respect and care and devotion.
How could I stand in the way of that?
Didn’t mean it didn’t make me a little sick to my stomach. I took it upon myself to razz the asshole every chance I got. “Watch yourself, man, no matter which way you cut it, that’s still my little sister.”
He nuzzled her more, this time lifting his gaze to meet mine, the mischief in his blue eyes meeting the challenge. “And no matter which way you cut it, she’s still my wife. This girl belongs to me.”
Aly grinned wildly and leaned back into his hold.