When we reach his truck in the parking garage, he tosses the bucket into the back and then reaches up and cradles my face in his hands the way he did that day on the Leightons’ front porch.
“Black shit,” he says, letting one side of his mouth turn up as he wipes the streaks away with his thumbs. Then, he moves away and opens my door. “Happy birthday, Sunshine.”
“I wished that my hand would work again,” I tell him when he climbs in after me. It was my first wish and the only one that mattered.
“I wished my mother was here tonight, which is stupid, because it’s an impossible wish.” He shrugs and turns to me, drowning the smile that cracks me every time.
“It’s not stupid to want to see her again.”
“It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see her again,” he says, looking at me with the depth of more than seventeen years in his eyes. “I wanted her to see you.”
CHAPTER 33
Josh
“There are clean towels in the guest bathroom. I’m going to shower in the master.”
“I hope you have a big hot water heater, because I may never come out,” Sunshine yells from the hall. She’s still shivering because she has almost no body fat on her and I kind of feel like shit for the whole fountain thing.
“I’m going to put water on for tea. You want some?” I call from the kitchen where I’m filling the tea kettle.
“You drink hot tea?”
“So?”
“So, you’re not old. Or British. I can count on one finger the number of teenage boys who drink hot tea.”
“I used to make it for my grandfather. I got used to it. Shut up.” I finish filling the kettle and put it on top of the stove before I head into the bathroom. “You want it or not?”
“Not. Tea sucks. I’ll be out in an hour. Maybe two.” The bathroom door slams.
I’m out of the shower ten minutes later and the water is still running in the guest bathroom so I guess she wasn’t lying. I throw my wet clothes in the empty washer then head into the kitchen to turn the stove burner on. Maybe tea does suck, but I heat the water anyway. She won’t turn down hot chocolate.
The doorbell rings and I figure it has to be Drew, because other than the girl using all the hot water in my bathroom, he’s the only person who would come over here. He’s got a key so I don’t know why he doesn’t just come in.
“What?” I open the door, ready to hear about whatever minor irritation has sent him fleeing from his house this time, but it isn’t Drew. It’s a kid I’ve never seen before and he’s staring at me so intensely that I feel like he’s checking me out. Not like he wants me, but like he wants to know who the hell I am, except that he’s the one knocking on my door.
“Can I help you?” I finally ask because the kid isn’t talking.
“Is my sister here?” Sister? “Margot said she’d probably be here. Nastya.” He spits out her name like it tastes bad in his mouth.
“She’s your sister?” There’s not much of a resemblance unless you really, really look. He actually looks a lot like Margot.
“Yeah. She left. Is she here?”
I push back the door and let him in. The water in the shower is still running and there’s no ignoring it. Damn it, Sunshine. He’s not looking relieved and I can guess why as I stand in front of him in a t-shirt and sweatpants, still wet from the shower, while we listen to the water continue running two doors down.
“She’s in the shower,” I say, because it’s not like I can hide the fact. I need to warn her before she comes out. “I’ll go let her know you’re here.”
“Why is my sister showering in your house?” he demands before I can get away. He’s pissed. I’m getting the full over-protective brother treatment and I kind of respect him for it, but I don’t like the way he’s talking to me, in my own house, like I’m some sort of scumbag. It’s the same thing Margot did when she came over. I don’t think I’m particularly threatening and it’s not as if Nastya comes across like some delicate flower.
“Your sister is eighteen years old. She can do more than shower here if she wants.”
“My sister is emotionally stunted at fifteen.” He levels his eyes at me. This is not really a conversation I anticipated having tonight. I don’t even know how to respond to that.
“So you’re saying she’s immature?” It’s the only thing I can come up with. And I can’t decide which side I’m on anyway. Some days she seems older than anyone I’ve ever met and others she’s like a little girl.
“I’m saying she’s messed up.” He exhales and he looks tired, like he’s said this a thousand times before and he doesn’t want to be here, saying it now.
“I don’t agree.” I do agree. I just don’t know why or how or anything that might matter.
“I know my sister.”
“I know your sister.” I know what she tells me. The fragments of a life she gives me glimpses of on the days she’s feeling particularly generous, or maybe just reckless.
“Did you even know today was her birthday?” he asks. I don’t answer. “I didn’t think so. From the look on your face earlier, you didn’t know she had a brother, either. You ever wonder what else you don’t know?” Always. “She’s got issues and she doesn’t need another one. Leave it alone.”
I don’t appreciate being referred to as an issue.
“If there’s something you want me to know, why don’t you tell me? Otherwise you can take the condescending attitude and get out of my house.”
He doesn’t answer. He won’t betray her, and as much as I want to know what the hell is going on, I can respect that. Still, I’m not letting him make me the villain here. I want to like this kid, but he’s starting to piss me off.
“You like taking advantage of messed up girls? Is that your thing?” he asks.
“What’s yours? Pointless accusations and intimidation?”
The water stops running and I’m ready to bolt down the hall to intercept her before she comes out, but the door opens before I can get there. I didn’t even have a chance to leave her a dry change of clothes. She comes out of the hallway, dripping wet with a towel wrapped around her and all the blood drains down from my brain and my stupid dick twitches because that’s what it does when beautiful, wet, towel-clad girls come out of my shower. I wish I could enjoy the view because, seriously. But this isn’t the time, and fortunately, my dick gets the message that her extremely pissed-off looking brother is standing next to me and stays down.