by Jill Shalvis
“Oh, honey. Did you call the police?”
“Yes. But Ashton had told me he was a financial planner, and I stupidly believed him. He was supposedly mobile and traveled to his clients, and didn’t have an office. I never met any coworkers. No friends either, since he was so busy. So I didn’t have much to give the cops to go on. He never left his laptop around. Never let me see his phone. There were a million red flags, and I didn’t see a single one of them,” she said bitterly. “One morning, I kissed him good-bye to go to work, and when I came home, he was gone. With everything. The building manager had changed the locks because he’d been given notice that we were leaving—three months prior. All that’s left is a few boxes of stuff to remind me of how stupid I was.”
A sound from behind her had her going still and closing her eyes. Crap. Shit. Dammit. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and turned around.
Everyone was crowded in the kitchen doorway. Max. Kinsey.
Eli.
“I’m sorry,” Kinsey said softly. “We came in to see if we could help get dinner ready.”
Eli’s gaze never wavered from Brynn’s. “I’d like to help.”
“Me too,” Max said. “With my foot up that guy’s ass.”
Raina swiped at a few tears on her cheek, hugged her daughter tight, and then smiled brightly at everyone. “I’m so glad you’re here for my girl.”
“Always will be,” Eli said in a voice of steel.
Raina hugged each of them in turn, then pulled back and looked at Kinsey. “Dinner’s ready. When do you think your mom might arrive?”
Kinsey grimaced. “I’m sorry. She’s always late. I called and left her a message, but she didn’t get back to me. Please don’t hold up dinner for her.”
“Maybe she got caught in traffic. No mom wants to miss family night.”
“Just don’t hold your breath,” Kinsey said with a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. “She’s usually too busy for stuff like this.”
The doorbell rang.
“Look at that,” Raina said, smiling at Kinsey before moving toward the door. “She surprised you.”
“Oh, I’ll get it,” Kinsey said, trying to rush past Raina, but Raina was the ultimate hostess. She and she alone greeted the guests. “I’ve got this,” she said to a worried-looking Kinsey. “You just relax.”
A minute later, Raina was back, leading the way, with Kinsey’s mom right behind her. “Everyone, Teresa’s here.”
Teresa looked like Kinsey plus a decade, which meant she either had great genes or she’d had work done. She breezed toward the group, all smiles.
“Sorry I’m late, I got here as soon as I could.”
“She means she got here as soon as she wanted to,” Kinsey muttered.
Teresa didn’t appear to hear. She waved at everyone including Kinsey, but mother and daughter didn’t share a hug, which Brynn thought was odd.
“Mom,” Kinsey said. “I asked you to call me back about tonight. We didn’t know if you were coming. Plus, I really needed to talk to you first. Can we go outside for a minute? Alone?”
“Sorry, darling. Busy week. We can talk later. I’ll tell you all about Rick. He’s why I was late—I was waiting on him. Turns out, he meant he was going to be permanently late. The asswipe dumped me by text, if you can believe it. Men, am I right?”
Olive nodded. “You are right.”
“I honestly can’t believe it,” Teresa said. “A damn text.”
“I can believe it,” Kinsey murmured.
Teresa looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“It means it’s the same pattern as always, so I don’t understand why you’re surprised. You let someone into your life, you let him hurt you, he leaves, then next comes you using it as an excuse to fall apart.”
Teresa blinked.
So did Brynn. Because that was her pattern too. And that wasn’t exactly a fun epiphany to have in front of a crowd.
“So,” Olive said into the awkward silence. “How’s it been renewing childhood friendships?”
Teresa looked around the group. “Childhood friendships?”
“Mom,” Kinsey said, sounding a little panicked. “I really need to talk to you for a minute. In private.”
“In a minute, darling.” She was eyeing everyone curiously. “You’ve all known each other since you were kids?”
Raina beamed. “Eli, Brynn, and Kinsey were in summer camp together for years. Isn’t that cute? There’s nothing deeper and more meaningful than a childhood friendship, right?”
Teresa stilled, her mouth opened in a wide O as she set down her glass. Before she could say a word, Kinsey grabbed Brynn’s arm and yanked her toward the hallway.
“What the—” Brynn started.
“Real quick,” Kinsey called out to everyone with a smile that Brynn was sure Kinsey thought was pleasant and unassuming, but was brittle as hell.
In the hallway, Brynn yanked her arm free. “What’s going on? What’s the manhandling about?”
“Okay,” Kinsey said, holding up her hands. “Don’t freak.”
Brynn narrowed her eyes. “I’m getting a bad feeling.”
Kinsey blew out a breath. “Yeah. Warranted. So . . . there’s another itty, bitty secret. We’re sort of . . . half sisters.”
Brynn blinked. “Say that again?”
“We share a sperm donor as a father.”
Brynn’s mind took a beat to process this, the meaning of the words hitting her like a Category 5 hurricane of sheer shock. She spun on her heel and strode back out to the other room, where everyone was sitting in awkward silence.
Teresa smiled. “They even walk alike.”
Brynn realized Kinsey was right on her heels. Ignoring this, she looked at her moms. “Kinsey said that we have the same father. Is that possible?”
Her moms looked positively stunned, wide-eyed with the shock of it.
“Could that be true?” Brynn asked, needing to hear that no, it couldn’t possibly in her wildest imagination be even close to possible.
“I don’t know,” Olive admitted, always truthful and upfront. “I mean the odds . . .”
“Not really as huge as you might think,” Teresa said. “There weren’t many fertility clinics with sperm banks back in the day. There’s only one in this whole county. Guys came from all over to, you know, make deposits for extra cash.”
“Not helping,” Kinsey said tightly to her mom. “Brynn—”
“No, wait. Give me a second.” Brynn put her hands to her temples, which were suddenly aching. “We’re . . . sisters.”
“I mean, all you really have to do is look in the mirror for confirmation,” Teresa said. “You both have the same frown when you’re pissy—”
“Mom!” Kinsey shook her head. “Please, stop talking.” She was pale. Looking sick.
Brynn figured she looked about the same at the moment. As far as worst-case scenarios went, this was pretty much numero uno—that she was related to the one person on earth who’d tortured her more than anyone else. And that that was probably the real definition of sisters wasn’t lost on her.
Teresa was still staring at Brynn as if she was just a sight for sore eyes. “We tried contacting you when Kinsey was fifteen to ask if you’d be willing to get tested to see if you might be a good kidney match.”
“Oh my God, Mom,” Kinsey said, sounding near tears. “Stop.”
With her pulse beating in her ears, Brynn took a step back. “No, that’s actually not true. You called and then hung up when I answered. And even though I tried repeatedly to call you back, you never picked up.”
“Yes,” Kinsey whispered, looking tortured.
“Why did you hang up? Why didn’t you just tell me the truth, that you wanted one of my kidneys?”
Kinsey opened her mouth and then . . . shut it again.
Brynn could feel her eyes burning, but she refused to cry in front of an audience. She started to leave the room, but stopped. “No,” she said. “I ne
ed to know. Was this”—she gestured between the two of them—“just a long con for my kidney?”
“No. No,” Kinsey repeated when Brynn made a disgusted sound. “And that’s the reason I didn’t follow through with the phone call all those years ago. It’s the reason I was upset when Eli ran into you at the hospital and offered you a room. It’s the reason why I didn’t tell you I was sick. Because I don’t want your kidney.”
Right. And she was supposed to believe that. God, she’d done it again. She’d let someone in and had gotten hurt. What was wrong with her? “You know, when I moved back here, I wasn’t going to put up with bullshit from people anymore. And yet, here I am—” She cut herself off when her voice broke, because she refused to break down in front of Kinsey.
Her half sister . . .
Shaking her head in disbelief, she strode out of the room. She heard her moms calling after her, and Eli too, but she grabbed her purse and got the hell out of Dodge.
Because sometimes a girl just needed a pity party for one.
Chapter 19
From seventeen-year-old Brynn’s summer camp journal:
Dear Moms,
Now that I’m officially a counselor and they’re paying me, I’m actually having fun. There’s a little girl here with thick glasses and out-of-control hair, and I love her. She’s scared of . . . well, everything, just like I used to be. I hold her hand and read her stories.
I wish I’d had me at camp back then!
Love you guys,
Brynn
ELI STARTED TO go after Brynn, but Olive stopped him. “Honey, let’s give her a moment. Trust me when I say she’s stubborn and that she needs to come to terms with things in her own time. Hearing she has a sister will be a blessing once she thinks about it.”
“Maybe I should go,” Kinsey said. “She’s my sister.”
“Is she really your sister if she just walked away from you for being an idiot?” Max asked.
Kinsey glared at him. Everyone did.
Max tossed up his hands. “What? Kinsey should’ve told her sooner.”
“Thank you, Einstein,” Kinsey snapped. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Eli shook his head and moved toward the door. He was going after Brynn and no one was going to stop him.
“Wait,” Kinsey said. “You’re just leaving me here?”
“Yeah, Kins. I’m going to leave you here. Your sister’s out there thinking the only reason you befriended her was for her kidney. Even you can’t be that selfish.”
“She gets that from her father,” Teresa said.
Eli gave the woman a long, hard look and then turned back to Kinsey. “I’m going to try to help her through this, for all of us.” Not completely heartless or clueless to what this was costing Kinsey, he looked at Raina. “You got her?”
She nodded and came around to put an arm around Kinsey, also handing her a tissue.
Kinsey looked shocked to find herself with tears on her face, and Eli knew why. She never cried. The woman was a rock. A grumpy, sick rock that he understood and loved with all his irritated heart.
“We’ve got you, honey,” Raina said, patting Kinsey’s back.
Teresa shifted on her feet. “I should . . . go. I’ve got a thing . . .” She looked a little surprised when Olive opened the front door for her, before she’d even finished her sentence.
Kinsey started to make a move to go too, but Olive took her hand. “Stay, baby. I’ve got the most amazing flan de queso for dessert.”
Eli watched Kinsey blink, looking touched and shocked that they’d want her to stay after what she’d done—or not done. With a grateful nod at Olive and Raina, Eli left.
Brynn had a few minutes’ head start on him. But he’d find her. Maybe he wasn’t crazy about how deep his feelings had developed for her, feelings he’d promised not to catch ever again, but that was him not wanting to get hurt. Brynn was a totally different kind of woman than he’d ever been with. She was warm and giving and open, and . . . well, everything. She didn’t deserve this.
He found her sitting on the curb a few houses down with her head on her knees, gulping in air.
It broke his heart.
She broke his heart.
He sat beside her and put a hand on her back. She was trembling. “Brynn.”
She burst into tears.
“Come here,” he whispered, pulling her against him.
“I’m not falling apart. I just cry when I’m mad,” she said, hiccupping through sobs. “And I’m really, really m-mad!”
“I know.”
She scooted a little closer and lifted her head, giving him a glimpse of her tear-ravaged face before she pressed it into the crook of his neck. “I’m mad at you too,” she said, voice muffled.
He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on her. “I know.”
“Really mad, Eli.”
“I know. I’m so sorry.”
She rubbed her face on his shirt, getting it wet, and then sighed. “I mean, I get why she didn’t tell me. She’s emotionally bankrupt. But you. You knew and didn’t tell me either. I didn’t see that coming.”
“She was going to tell you.”
She snorted and then—he was pretty sure—used his shirt as a tissue. When she pulled free, she gave him a little push. “When exactly was she going to do that? Back when we were teenagers and she first found out—which, bee-tee-dub, would’ve been the right choice. But she didn’t do that, which tells me that she didn’t want to be sisters. Not then, and not anytime in the years since either. Not even when I moved into the house. Which also means that on top of not wanting to be sisters, she didn’t even want to be friends. None of you did. Because you don’t do that, keep this big a secret, not even to a perfect stranger, much less a friend.”
“Brynn—”
“Don’t. Please don’t.” She shook her head. “Let me give you some facts, okay? I’m not good at this stuff, at reading cues from people, cultivating relationships, and especially at keeping them. In fact, I’m a real failure at it. I’m a failure at a lot of things, actually. But I sure as hell don’t want to talk about it, not with you.” Standing, she looked down at him, eyes red-rimmed but fierce. “I promised myself I’d change things up this time, that I’d be in the driver’s seat of my own life, that I’d choose myself if others wouldn’t. I almost forgot that, but I’m remembering now.” She turned from him, and he stood and reached for her hand.
“Don’t run, Brynn. Let me take you home.”
She pulled her hand free and crossed her arms. “Right now I don’t know where home is.”
“I’d like to think it’s still at the house with me and Kinsey and Max. We screwed up, but we can fix this.”
“Remember when you were all butthurt when you thought I lumped you in with my asshole ex? Well, guess what? You fit right in.”
“No argument,” he said softly, his chest hurting just looking at her. “Please, Brynn. Let me get you home.”
“My grandma always said to never take home an asshole.”
“And my grandma always said that when you make a mess, you need to fix it,” he said.
“I’m not your mess.”
“I’m not just leaving you out here, Brynn.”
“Fine.” She crossed her arms. “You can take me home, but you’re still going into the asshole file with everyone else.”
He was just relieved she was still willing to consider his house her home. “Understood.”
WHEN KINSEY LEFT Brynn’s moms’ place, she wasn’t sure what to do with herself. Olive and Raina had been wonderful to her, so kind and sweet even though she hadn’t deserved it, but she couldn’t stay forever. She had apologies to make and fences to mend. Only the minute she left the safe bubble of the house, her chest started hurting.
Okay, her heart. Her heart hurt.
Her mom, as always, had made the evening about her. Shock. But then she’d done the exact same thing. She was grateful Eli had gone after Brynn, and she hoped he’d caught
up with her. She didn’t want Brynn to be alone right now. Max had taken an Uber. Kinsey could do the same, but she didn’t pull out her phone.
Instead, she started walking. It was pouring rain, but she liked the rain. It matched her mood, and within minutes, she was just about as wet as she could get.
And cold.
Fitting, since her heart was also cold.
Except that wasn’t quite right. It didn’t feel cold. It felt . . . broken. She still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around how bad it had gone, and how fast. She felt really alone.
Also her own doing. She could’ve invited Deck to go with her tonight. He would’ve wanted to be here with her. But she hadn’t asked him because she’d been trying to reinforce that they weren’t like that. They were friends with benefits—minus the friends. And even though she knew that wasn’t really true, she also knew she couldn’t change the reality of her life.
Everything felt so wildly out of her control, and, oh, how she hated that.
She realized she’d been walking for half an hour and was shivering and soaked through only when she found herself in front of Deck’s house.
The door opened and Deck stood there in jeans and nothing else except a five-year-old on his back. “Hey,” he said, with a smile that failed when he caught sight of her face.
“Ms. Davis,” Toby yelled. “You came to visit us!”
Deck gently set Toby down. “Hey, kiddo. It’s almost bedtime. How about you go get started with getting on your pj’s and brushing your teeth, and I’ll be right there to tuck you in.”
“But—”
“What did I say about buts?”
Toby sighed. “That they stink.”
Deck ruffled his hair. “Go on now.”
The kid turned his beautifully woeful eyes on Kinsey. “Sorry, Ms. Davis, you’ll have to come visit me another time. I can’t argue my bedtime, on account’a if I do, then I don’t get to go fishing with Daddy tomorrow.”
Somehow Kinsey managed to give a smile and a “no problem,” and then she was alone with Deck.