Touching the tears from my eyes, I don’t miss the accusation in her question, but I’m past all that.

  I simply shrug, acting casual. “I missed you. I haven’t heard from you in a while, and I wanted to check on you. Why haven’t you been answering my calls?”

  She hangs the towel on a hook inside the bathroom and calls over her shoulder. “I’m sorry! I’ve been absolutely exhausted. I rescued two neonatal kittens, and oh my lord, Rocky. I have to feed them every two hours around the clock… I have to stimulate their little butts to make them go to the bathroom. The last two weeks have been intense.”

  “You rescued baby kittens? What happened to them?” My eyes heat, and I feel so stupid. My emotions are so fragile. I’m going to cry over kittens?

  Stopping in front of me, her face scrunches with a frown. “Why are you crying? What happened?”

  “Oh, Renée…” My throat aches, and when I close my eyes, two tears hit my cheeks. Nooo… I don’t want to cry anymore, but my eyes have a mind of their own these days. “Everything is wrong. I had to come home and see you. I just… I just needed to see you.”

  It’s so late, and I’m so tired. I don’t know what I want to say to her, but I can’t do it tonight. Instead, I hug her again, placing my face against her shoulder.

  “Did Patton Fletcher hurt you?” Her voice is not scolding. It’s protective and warm, just like a big sister ought to be.

  How long has it been since she was able to help me like this?

  I don’t even care.

  “No… I mean, not directly.” Lifting my head, our eyes meet. Her hazel ones are so full of concern, I want to talk to her about this, but I can’t do it tonight. “It’s really complicated.”

  “Let me make you some tea. I have a special blend for when I’m feeling down. I call it gogo-gi. It’s made with gogi berries and rose hips, lemon oil, melon, and hibiscus. It’ll make you feel right as rain.”

  I don’t bother reminding her I don’t like hot tea. I’m too tired, and honestly, with the way my insides are, I’m willing to try anything if it helps me feel less devastated.

  Following her into the kitchen, I sit at the long table across from the bar as she fills the kettle.

  Looking around at the modern appliances, I can’t hold back any longer. “What happened to the house?”

  She pauses, seeming confused. She follows my eyes around the room then returns to me. “What do you mean?”

  “It looks amazing. When did you do all this work? How could I not have known?”

  “Well… I guess I should have told you.” Her lips press together as she clicks on the gas stove. “But I was pretty confident this would work out, and it was clear you weren’t planning to come back here to live any time soon. So I did my research and crunched the numbers… And you were so close to finishing business school. I didn’t want you to worry.”

  Listening to her explaining makes me smile in spite of myself. Renée rambles just like I do when she’s nervous. It’s soothing being with her, feeling our family connection so strong.

  “It’s okay, I’m not mad. It really looks great, but how?”

  “I got a loan from the bank about a year ago—”

  “Another loan? Renée!”

  “Now just hang on…” She takes down two mugs from the cabinet and two shiny silver steepers from the drawer. “It was a small-business loan. I renovated this ole place, and now I have it up on Airbnb.”

  I put my elbow on the table and drop my head against my hand. “A concept I’d like to put out of my brain for a few days.”

  “I got the idea from Fletcher International, and you wouldn’t believe it. I made almost five thousand dollars a week last summer!”

  I sit up quick when she tells me that. “What the hell?”

  Nodding, she puts two scoops of tea in a silver infuser and places it in a mug. Then she takes another canister and repeats the process with a different tea.

  “Let me get this straight… You rent the house to people visiting the area, and what? When they arrive you all sleep back there together? Isn’t that sort of crowded?”

  “Oh no, I stay with Ms. Hazel when guests are here. I let them have the whole house. That’s how I’m able to clear so much money.”

  “Why have I been worrying about you being able to make ends meet?”

  The kettle starts to whistle, and she laughs, shaking her head. “I don’t know. I tell you every time you call I’m doing fine, not to worry about me.”

  It’s true. She always tells me she’s fine, but I never believe her. I’ve been living in fear she’s going to have another breakdown when the reality is, she’s putting her accounting degree to work and making a buttload of money.

  Walking to where I’m sitting, she puts the mug in front of me. “Now only let that steep for two minutes or it gets bitter.”

  “Okay.”

  “The best part is I’ve got the small-business loan completely paid off, and I’ve been doubling up on my student loan payments. I’m really making headway on getting out of debt.”

  My silly eyes heat, and I almost start to cry again. “You’re doing so well.”

  Her brow furrows, and she reaches over, taking the steeper out of my mug. “Rocky, that’s not something to cry about. What’s the matter?”

  Shaking my head, I look down at my mug. “I’m just so happy for you.”

  Her lips tighten, and she takes the strainer out of her mug, watching me closely as she sips her tea.

  Inhaling a shaky breath, I do the same. Then I pull back quickly. “This is good!”

  “It’s the quality of the tea leaves and the flowers. Oh, and the metal steeper. I had no idea how much of a difference it makes compared to those paper tea bags you get at the grocery store. My goodness.” She shakes her head like it’s a travesty.

  I take another sip, and I don’t know if it’s the warmth of the liquid or the relief of finding my sister okay and thriving… Or if it’s because I just drove almost eight hours today after not really sleeping for three days… Or if it’s my broken heart. “I’m so tired, sis. Would you be offended if I went to bed?”

  “Come on.” She stands, placing our mugs on the table and taking my hand. I let her lead me back to my new and improved room, and she gives me another hug, stroking the back of my head. “You just curl up and sleep now. We can talk about everything tomorrow. Okay?”

  I nod, feeling like I’m eleven years old again. She goes to the door, and I toe off my shoes. I don’t even remove my jeans. As soon as I hit the mattress, I’m asleep.

  “Now hold its little head like this.” I’m standing beside my sister with my arms over a five-gallon fish tank filled with blankets and a heating pad as she holds the head of a kitten so tiny it’s little eyes aren’t even open yet. It’s the size of my palm.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to hurt it,” I whisper.

  My hands shake, and my heart is beating too fast.

  “You’re not. Now come on, we need to get this done, so I can do the other one.” I watch as she uses a Q-tip to swab the tiny thing’s eyes with antibiotics. “When I found Binky, the fleas were just eating her alive. I cleaned her up, and she’s been growing like a weed ever since.”

  She takes the kitten from me and puts it back in its chenille-blanket cocoon inside the incubator. Then she takes a teeny black kitten and hands it to me. I watch as she repeats the process. “I almost couldn’t see Midnight, it was so dark. You know, I think the lord just brings them to me. He knows I’ll help them.”

  Placing the small animal back in the incubator, she closes the lid and watches them. “They’re too much work for the shelters to keep them.” Straightening, she heads for the door of her small shed. “We’ll have to feed them again in about four hours. Every week I get to add an hour between feedings. When I first found them, it was every two!”

  I hesitate a moment, watching the little creatures bob their tiny heads before burrowing down and falling asleep again. “They’re so cute.”

  “They’re so strong.” She waits for me at the door, and I walk slowly to where she’s standing. “I learn so much from them. It’s so healing.”

  I follow her out to where two bikes are waiting near the gate.

  “How do you know how to do all of this?”

  “YouTube.” She throws a leg over her bike, and I do the same.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I’m not. You can find out how to do just about anything on YouTube. It’s amazing. I even got some tips on making my Airbnb listing more desirable.”

  She pedals faster, and I pump to keep up. So far, since I got up this morning, after a quick breakfast of yogurt and fruit… and coffee. I insisted she let me make coffee, and we’ve been making the kitten rounds… or cat rounds. We fed all ten of the cats that live at Ms. Hazel’s sprawling old place. These neonatal kittens are new, but Renée insists they’re not as much work as they seem.

  “Can we go out to the beach now?” I call from behind her.

  “Just for a little while. I have to work a shift at the store this afternoon.”

  “Why are you working at the store if you make almost 20K a month with Airbnb?”

  Her laugh floats back to me on the salt breeze. “I don’t make that much every month. That’s only in the summertime. Once Labor Day passes, it all dies down.”

  We pedal down the familiar lanes, past towering oak trees with their black trunks and dark green leaves hanging low over the roads. We bump over wooden bridges and quiet two-lane highways. It’s just like we used to do as kids, running to the beach to spend the day.

  Finally, we’re out to the path that crosses Bull River. We abandon our bikes on the brown sand and jog out to the water. Renée’s white skirt whips in the breeze, but I’m in skinny capri pants. The tide is out, but the sand is wet, and the wind blows our hair back. It really is like we’re kids again. We did this every single day when school was out, playing on the beach like mermaids who’d just been given legs.

  When we’re out of breath, we start to walk, side by side, headed nowhere in particular. After several minutes of silence, my sister glances at me sideways. “Are you ready to tell me what happened?”

  Am I? I don’t know.

  I take a deep breath that does little to ease the pain of the hole in my chest. If anybody can help me, it’s the person walking beside me—and not just because she’s a key factor in what happened, but because she knows me better than anyone.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me why you left Nashville?”

  Her chin pulls back like she’s surprised by the question. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to talk about it.”

  The wind blows both our hair around our faces and we walk quickly, leaving matching footprints in the sand.

  “Will you tell me now?” My voice is quiet. I need her to tell me.

  “Oh, Rocky…” She looks up at the sky. “Why does it matter? I was a different person then. I was trying so hard to be a part of a world where I didn’t belong.”

  I’m chewing my lip thinking about this. “It seemed like you belonged there. You graduated at the top of your class. You passed the CPA exam on your first try—”

  “Yes, I knew how to do the work. I was good at it…” She looks away. “But the longer I was there, the more I felt like my soul was suffocating.”

  Scrubbing my fingers against my forehead, I don’t know what to make of this new information. “I thought you liked accounting. You told me you were so excited when you got the job at Fletcher. You were joining corporate America.”

  “I was,” she nods. “I was excited to be out of school. I was thrilled this amazing firm hired me right out the gate. I loved feeling like I was part of something big. It was like something out of a movie… Until it turned bad.”

  We walk a little more. She crosses her arms over her chest, and I briefly hug her waist. “What made it bad? Was it Marley? Did he hurt you?”

  Her brow furrows, and she studies me. “Is that what he told you?”

  “No.” I shake my head. “He never told me anything. I just heard things.”

  We walk several more steps. The only sounds are our feet squeaking on the sand, the wind blowing around us, and the seagulls crying overhead.

  “I didn’t tell you because I felt so overwhelmed. It was like I started something that snowballed until it was completely out of my control.”

  “Were you sexually assaulted?”

  “You mean like… raped?”

  I nod, and she shakes her head. “Marley’s not like that.”

  “Were you sexually harassed?”

  Her brow furrows, and she chews her lip. “That’s the part that gets kind of… fuzzy.” She looks out to the horizon then back to me. “Marley and I were friends. After a while, we started having lunch together, then he started buying me little things. One week he stopped by my office with an ice cream cone or the next week he’d say he bumped into a guy selling flowers, so he bought me one… That kind of thing. It was sweet.”

  “Okay…”

  “Then we went for drinks a few times after work. Only… it wasn’t just the two of us. Everybody would go.”

  “They still do that…” I’m doing my best to understand. It all sounds pretty harmless so far.

  “One night he kissed me.” She drops her chin, and her cheeks turn pink. “It was a really great kiss. I guess that’s when I started thinking of him as more than just a work friend. Then it got to where we’d slip into the break room or the supply closet at work and make out…”

  She blinks quickly, shaking her head like she’s embarrassed.

  “But you were into it?”

  “I was into it.” We walk a little farther, and she’s quiet.

  I feel like I’m about to burst. “But…?”

  She shrugs, holding her hands out. “He started trying for more when we were together. If I’d wear a skirt… well, you know.”

  “And you told him no?”

  “Well… not exactly. I told him I was worried.”

  “Because you were coworkers?”

  “Because the rates of STDs have been skyrocketing in recent years. Have you heard about this?” Her eyes are round, and I’m confused.

  “No?”

  “The CDC has reported a rise in the number of syphilis cases… Syphilis! Not to mention herpes is rampant. And the medicines have terrible side effects…”

  Holy shit, and I thought I rambled. “Renée… Stop for just a second.” We stop walking, and I hold her arms. “What are you saying? He wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

  “He wouldn’t get tested. He said he’d just use a condom, but I said what happens if the condom breaks? What happens when he’s pulling out? A drop of semen could escape and—”

  “Renée. Did you want to have sex with him or not?”

  Her head tilts to the side and she starts walking slowly. “I don’t know. Everyone’s so quick to jump into bed these days. I liked being his friend. I liked kissing him… I hoped Patton might talk to him for me. They were practically brothers. I hoped he would tell him to stop with the pressure.”

  “Instead he fired you. He ran you out of town.” My jaw is set.

  “I don’t think he understood what I was saying.” A line pierces her forehead, and she hugs her waist. “He was just so evil about it.”

  Anger burns in my stomach. “What did he do?”

  She squeezes her eyes shut. “It was more what he said. I’ll be the first to admit making out at work is unprofessional, but Patton made it sound like… He looked at me with those black eyes and asked me how much I wanted.”

  “How much… what?”

  “Money. He thought I wanted money. I guess he thought I was trying to blackmail him or something… I don’t know. He said if I tried to turn it into some kind of scandal, he’d bury me.” Her voice breaks. “But I didn’t want a scandal. I liked Marley… He seemed so sad, but sweet. I still think about him sometimes.”

  Her chin drops, and I put my arm around her waist. “I’m so sorry, Ray.”

  My stomach cramps. Bully doesn’t even cover how Patton treated her.

  She clears her throat and seems to come back from that memory. “I don’t know.” Her eyes meet mine, and she smiles. “Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself, right? It was the last red flag I needed. After that meeting with Patton, I knew I didn’t belong there.”

  We’re at the bikes, and I think about this. “Or maybe you just crossed paths with the devil. Another firm might be completely different.”

  “No.” She shakes her head. “I’ll never go back to that life. I’m so much happier now. And… Oh my goodness, look at the time!”

  She hops on her bike, pushing the pedals. “I’ve got to get to the store. I’ll see you there or back at the house.”

  I wave, watching her growing smaller the farther she rides down the path.

  I’m glad she’s happy. I’m glad she’s found a life that works for her. She says I can stop worrying about her, and I see she’s right.

  Only… now what?

  Rubbing my forehead, I try to figure out what I’m supposed to do. Should I go to California? If she’s okay, I can at least protect my career… and I won’t have to see him.

  Pain like a knife twists in my heart. An image of me pinned naked against Patton’s bare chest under a waterfall, his strong arms over mine, his hands in my hair, his possessive gaze…

  I won’t have to see him.

  Fresh tears flood my eyes.

  Why does that feel even worse?

  28

  Patton

  “Taron left things in good shape.” Marley is in my office, and I’m staring out the window thinking of dark hair and blue eyes.

  Seven days, and I still can’t shake the feeling of her in my arms. I can’t stop remembering a brief moment in time when I felt good, a moment when I could stop fighting. A moment when I let go, and the past didn’t matter.

  “These accounts practically run themselves.” He keeps talking. “The building managers take care of the details, and we collect our share of the rents. It’s pretty brilliant.”