Looking slightly offended, Noah sat up straighter in his chair. “I wouldn’t do that to her, none of us would.”
“Not intentionally, no,” I agreed. “But our family has a habit of joking around about things, and I’m worried that this will make her withdraw. Don’t forget, she’s never had this in her life, so she’s not used to it.”
“Neither was Luna,” Noah pointed out quietly. “At least, not until you brought her home with you that first time.”
Tate was uncharacteristically quiet throughout all of this. Archer, Madix and Rich were in the room, too, but they weren’t the ones I was worried about the most. Although Archer and Rich had an uncanny ability to piss off Dahlia’s best friend Bonnie and Lily’s best friend Beau, they tended to be more reserved and gentle with the other female members of the family.
Speaking of which.
“Has anyone seen Ariana recently?”
My sister had been spending more time away from us all since Parker moved to Gonzales County, and it was starting to worry me.
“Saw her at the bar with Bonnie and Beau last night,” Rich replied, the muscle in the side of his jaw ticking at the mention of the woman who we all knew drove him insane.
I wasn’t sure what the back story was between them, but there was definitely something there, something juicy. I had enough of my own shit to worry about, though, without digging into his.
Hearing Bonnie’s name, Archer straightened out of his slouch. “Why didn’t you call me?”
Flicking him an annoyed glance, Rich muttered, “I wasn’t aware I had to.”
“Well now you are.”
Watching them closely, Noah crossed his arms in front of him. “What the hell is going on with you guys? You obviously like them, why not just make shit right?”
Rich had worked with us for years and was like a member of the family, so no offense was taken when he shot Noah a dirty look. “And how exactly do you propose we go about doing that, oh wise one?”
“Apologize,” he replied simply, raising an eyebrow. “You know what that is, right? The word sorry, flowers, chocolates, maybe a few pecks on her ass cheeks.”
“And is Parker meant to do the same thing to Ariana?” he challenged back.
This was where I needed the topic to change. She was my baby sister and the thought of her and a guy made me feel like stabbing myself in the brain with an ice pick. We’d all known she had feelings for the guy since my cousin Tom’s wife was kidnapped and we’d gone to help find her – maybe even before that seeing as how he’d always been around when we’d gone to visit them all – but feelings and actions are very different things.
For months she hadn’t been ok, changing from her normal happy self to someone who looked like she had a ten ton weight on her shoulders. Then he’d moved to obviously be closer to her, and she’d distanced herself even more. I didn’t like seeing my little sister hurting, and even though I was preoccupied with what was going on with Lottie just now, I didn’t like that she was distancing herself from us. That shit better fix itself soon.
Finally, Tate broke his silence. “Not to add more shit to your already overflowing plate, but does anyone know if our grandparents are coming to celebrate with us?”
It’s funny how one question can make your colon turn inside out, whilst at the same time make the three quiet members of the group laugh theirs inside out, too, isn’t it?Five hours later…
Walking tiredly through the house, I made my way toward the bedroom, not noticing Lottie curled up on the couch. It had been five days since she’d been attacked, and thankfully she hadn’t shown any psychological aftereffects from it.
She’d written down that it was because she was safe, she felt safe, and she knew that it was an isolated event. She’d also said that as scary as it had been, she didn’t feel like he’d hurt her – although I begged to differ on that one – and that she wasn’t going to let some drugged up, small pricked, asshole ruin her life. Again, I begged to differ on that, but I was relieved she was strong enough mentally and emotionally to not let him continue to affect her.
It wasn’t that I thought he’d ruined her life, but he’d definitely hurt her and scared the shit out of her. I really was proud of her for being strong, but I didn’t want her to feel like she had to be strong because I was going to do that for her. She’d shouldered everything from the day she was born, it was time she let someone else do it for her – me.
As I passed the couch, something moving on it made me jump until I saw she’d been sitting writing in her notebook while she waited for me. She still couldn’t talk and swallowing food was still painful, so it wasn’t like she could have called out my name, so I should have been more aware.