Ally’s crying amplified until she was sobbing so much she couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to do for her, so I stood motionless before her and stared. I cringed as I put myself in her shoes.
Is that what I looked like when I cried? I wondered. Did others feel as helpless as I did?
“What’s going on in here?” Lochlan’s voice suddenly boomed from my right.
I looked at him at the same time he locked his eyes on a still blubbering Ally, and I resisted rolling my eyes when Lochlan’s hardened gaze switched to mine. If looks could kill, I would have been dead and buried with the glare my brother shot my way.
“What. Did. You. Do?” he growled.
Here we go.
“What are you talking about?” I quizzed. “I didn’t do anything.”
He lifted his hand and gestured towards Ally. “Explain her state then!”
I looked to Ally, who was trying to speak but was now hiccupping and couldn’t get any words out.
“I didn’t make her cry – she did that herself.”
Lochlan growled. “I’ve never seen her cry like that, and all of a sudden she is alone with you for a few minutes and she’s a mess of tears.”
Why does he care so much?
“You better close your mouth, turn around and walk off before you say something you regret,” I warned him. “I am not at fault here. She is apologising for the shit she did to me when we were teenagers. She is crying because she feels bad about what she did. We’re talking it out. That’s it.”
Some of the tension from Lochlan’s body disappeared.
He looked to Ally and asked, “Is that true?”
It pissed me off that he didn’t take what I said as truth.
Ally sniffled and nodded her head to Lochlan.
“Oh,” he said, then cleared his throat. “I didn’t know.”
“How could you know?” I questioned. “You never gave me a chance to explain. You came in here pointing your stupid fat finger and jumped to your own conclusion. Typical Lochlan.”
The tension that had left Lochlan’s body came back tenfold.
“I know you, Lane, and you have a way of starting trouble out of nothing,” he sneered.
He might as well have kicked me in the face. It would have hurt less.
“You’re wrong, dear brother,” I mocked. “You don’t know me; you haven’t known me for a long time.”
“And whose fucking fault is that?” he suddenly bellowed.
Ally jumped, but I didn’t. Lochlan didn’t scare me. I was used to his outbursts.
“I’m sorry, Ally,” Lochlan murmured, his voice incredibly soft towards her. “Can you give me a minute with my sister?”
He said the word “sister” like one would say “cancer”.
Ally nodded to both of us, tenderly touched Lochlan’s arm, then scurried out of the room, closing the door behind her. I blinked at the closed door, then looked to Lochlan, and my face lit up when I put two and two together.
“I’m so stupid,” I said, laughing. “No wonder you defended her yesterday in the sitting room and just now: you’re shagging her.”
Lochlan scowled at me. “Don’t talk about what you don’t know.”
I laughed harder. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
He glared at me, his silence screaming a resounding yes.
I shook my head. “For years you never let older boys near me, and now you’re shacked up with someone the same age as me? The exact age as your little sister, Lochlan. This is just bloody brilliant.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he growled.
I ignored him. “Maybe I should take a leaf out of your book and scare her away from you. It seemed to work out well when you did it to me all those years ago.”
Lochlan’s gaze hardened. “That’s different. We aren’t kids anymore.”
“Since when has maturity mattered between siblings?” I asked.
My brother narrowed his eyes to slits. “Leave. Ally. Alone.”
I held up my hands in front of my chest. “No problem, big bro. I won’t be here long enough to screw you out of getting laid. Trust me, the first chance I get, I’m out of here.”
Lochlan’s whole demeanour went rigid. “Stop threatening us with that.”
I looked away from him. “You know I’m leaving when everything is squared away with Uncle Harry’s things. It’s not a threat if it’s true.”
He stepped towards me. “You can stay here if you want to; you know you can.”
“Uncle Harry is gone,” I replied, gazing out the kitchen window. “What’s left for me here?”
“Me!” Lochlan roared.