Chapter 21
twenty-one
Cash
“You’re really gonna let Dad drag you to some bullshit builders’ show this weekend?” I ask my sister as we lie on opposite ends of the couch in my living room, Mr. Jangles napping near my head.
“He wants company.” Maisy stretches her legs out, nudging mine over a few inches. “Besides, it could be my job someday.”
Snapping my head in her direction, I gape at her. “Wait, what happened to us having our own plans in life?”
“We do, but I feel bad for Daddy. You can tell it’s killing him to have to step back.”
“We’ll be there to help.” I look away, not proud of the vagueness of my words. “But you’ve worked your ass off to get into grad school, you’re not throwing that away to go home.”
“Can we not talk about this right now? We’re three months from graduating, and I want to enjoy my freedom without having to think beyond it.”
“Fine.” I reach over my shoulder to pet Jangles and can’t help noticing how ripped my arm is. “We could talk about how good I’m looking. In fact, go grab a tape measure, let’s check my biceps.”
“Forget it, let’s talk about my depressing future.” She reaches her hand into the bag of cheesy popcorn on her lap and tosses a kernel at me—which I catch easily with my mouth. “Nice catch.”
“Nice throw.” At the sight of Maisy’s placid smile—the first genuine one I’ve seen since Willow dumped her two days ago—I make a decision. “Hey, I need to tell you something.”
“I already know the draft is on your mind.”
“Not that. Georgia and I are together.”
“Uh, excuse me?”
“Georgia and I are together,” I repeat. It sounds even better the second time.
“I swear to god, Cash, if this is a joke, today’s not the—”
“It’s not. You already know how I feel about her.”
She blinks in rapid succession and props herself up on her elbows. “But I told you two to stay away from each other.”
“And?”
Her eyes widen. “And?”
“I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want this to happen, but it did, and you trying to set rules about what Georgia and I can do was never going to stop it.”
“So what are you telling me, that she’s your girlfriend? Or you two slept together and now you’re going to try to pretend that’s something real so I can’t be mad?”
“We’re not pretending. She’s my girlfriend, and it’s real.”
Guilt clashes with irritation watching Maisy’s mouth form around words she never manages to speak. I hate hurting my sister. But she can’t offer any understanding? Any happiness that I’ve landed the girl of my dreams?
“I can’t believe this,” she finally huffs, furiously rolling up the bag of popcorn. “Wait, no, actually I can. This is exactly why I didn’t want you going near her and why I didn’t want her coming home for Mom and Dad’s anniversary.”
“You were never gonna stop it, Mais.” With that truth in the air, my emotions settle down into certainty.
Crimson stains her cheeks, fitting nicely with the scowl now locked into place on her face. “Funny how you freak out when someone hurts me, but somehow it’s totally okay for you to do it.”
“Hey, I’m sorry that this hurts. I really am, and I don’t want to be the person to do that to you, but all you’re thinking about is yourself.
What about Georgia? What about me? I finally find someone who means something to me—means everything to me—and you want to shoot it down because some girls were shitty to you in high school. How is that okay?”
She presses her lips together, her face stony.
“I love her, Maisy.”
An incredulous laugh bubbles out of her, inciting a flash of anger in me, but I let her say her piece. “It’s been, what, a month since you met her? Cash, you can’t love someone after a month!”
“Turns out I can.”
“You can’t even know a person well enough to love them, and you certainly can’t know Georgia well enough. The girl is a fortress. She gives away nothing.”
“Maybe to everyone else. And fuck the rules, Maisy. I get that everyone thinks I’m moving too fast or I don’t know what’s good for me, but I know what I feel.”
Baby-soft fur brushes the back of my ear as Jangles rises. I twist to find her staring at us, her tail at attention, before she leaps silently from the couch and pads off toward her bedroom.
Maisy waits until the dramatic exit is over before continuing. “Don’t make me argue against your happiness. I want that for you, but this is messy.”
“How?”
“How? Nothing will ever be the same with the three of us! I’ve just lost my friend, and now if I want to stop by your house, what do I have to do, text first to make sure she’s not there?”
Bass-heavy music pulses from upstairs, rapidly gaining volume. Reeve’s music. Guess these thin walls are leaking our sibling squabble. Well, good; now I can be as loud as I want.
“Lost your friend?” I scoff. “I’m starting to think you like the drama because in what world does this mean you’ve lost Georgia? You’ve only lost her if you choose to. You know how much she cares about you? How worried she was about hurting you?”
“Apparently not enough to keep her clothes on.”
“Watch it,” I say, my voice dropping. “I don’t care if you’re my sister, you’re not going to start like that.”
Snatching her phone up, she pulls herself off the couch, her nose in the air. All too easily, my anger fades as I watch her stalk into the kitchen, her jaw set. She has no right to tell us what to do, but she was only protecting herself.
I give her a minute, then follow. “Be happy for me, Maisy. Please? The only thing I want more than to feel this way forever is for you to find someone who makes you feel this way too.”
“Really? Maybe I should fuck Lorenzo, then.”
Jesus, she’s not letting this go anytime soon. Sighing, I pull her into a hug. “You could, but then you’d be making an enemy out of Ruby, and that’s a dangerous game.”
Maisy’s stiff in my arms, but I don’t let go, knowing if I can wait out the anger, I’ll get to the hurting part of her—and I do. She still won’t look at me, but she softens.
“Don’t think I forgive you. Either of you.”
“But you will.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I’m your twin, Maisy. You have to forgive me eventually.”
The heat dancing over her skin moves right through the fabric of my T-shirt when she lets go and leans her weight against me. “Yeah, but she’s not.”
When Georgia opens the front door of her aunt’s house for me, her sunny smile is all the reassurance I need that what we’re doing is right.
One glimpse of it fills me right up. I wrap my arms around her and squeeze tight, inhaling the scent of her hair.
She indulges me for a minute before pulling back. “That was a nice hug.”
“I’m a nice guy.” I slip my coat off and hang it on the coat rack, where I spot an unfamiliar jacket. Big. Sun-faded. Definitely a man’s. “Whose is this?”
“Oh. That’s Aaron’s.”
Jealousy shoots through me. “Aaron’s.” I picture his bland face from the night he took my girl out to dinner. “Why did he take his jacket off inside your house?” Just saying it is enough to set my mind running with scenarios that make my blood pump hot.
Georgia has a look of knowing patience. “He didn’t. He left it outside one day when he was working, and I didn’t want it to get snowed on.”
Right. I grab the jacket off the hook. “That was sweet.” Then I take her hand and pull her toward the front door. “Come on.”
She sighs but cooperates. I lead her down the porch steps and into the grass until I find a sloppy corner of the yard where old, dirt-covered snow sits melting into a mess of black mud and pebbles, then drop the jacket in its new home.
“There. Now it’ll be easy for him to find when he wants it back.”
Georgia spears me with a look that’s half amusement, half impatience but keeps quiet until we’re back inside. “Was that necessary?”
I turn and take her face in my hands and step close so my hips press to her warm body. “You’re sweet, Georgia. I love that about you. But you don’t do sweet for men who want a taste of you.”
“Possessive today, huh?”
“Know why? Because you officially belong to me.”
“I already belonged to you.”
“Yeah, but you and I are no longer a secret.” I pause, drawing out the moment and savoring the look of anticipation on her face. “I told Maisy about us.”
The smile crystallizes on her lips, then slowly dissolves. “What?” She pulls back. “You told her we’re together? I said I was going to do that.”
“I wanted to take it off your shoulders. You’ve been so stressed about it, and then the other night she was too upset. I thought you wanted to get it over with.”
Brow furrowed, she wriggles free from my grasp. “I did. I wanted to get it over with. Cash, I told you it was important that I be the one to tell her.”
“Okay,” I say, trying to tamp down my irritation. “Does it really matter, though? You wanted the secret out, and now it is.”
She starts pacing the room. “I did the one thing she asked me not to do, and the only way I could possibly expect her to forgive me is if I’m honest about it. And you just took that away from me.”
“Come on, it’s not that serious. You can relax.”
“Telling me to relax isn’t helping.” She hits me with a glare I’ve never seen before. “So is she pissed?”
“Well, yeah, but we knew she would be. She’ll get over it.”
A sound of despair rumbles from her throat. “This is exactly what I was afraid of.”
“Maisy’s feelings aren’t your responsibility, honey. Let her feel what she feels and let go of the guilt.”
She sighs in exasperation. “You always think everything you do is right.”
“So it was wrong of me to tell her?” I ask testily.
“What I mean is, you think that as long as your intentions are good, you’re in the right. It’s not always that simple.”
“Why are you turning this into an argument? I’m sorry, I should have waited for you to do it, but she’s my sister. I have the right to tell her anything I want.”
“That’s not the point. I asked you to let me tell her.”
I shrug. Didn’t I save her a long, awkward conversation? “I didn’t like keeping her in the dark any more than you did. I was just thinking of her.”
“Right. You were thinking of her feelings.” She tries to turn away from me, but I don’t let her.
“Hey.” I take her hand and drop a kiss on her knuckles. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d be upset, but now we’re free, right? You and me together, and the whole world knows it.”
She studies me for a moment before her expression softens. “True. You and me together. But I still have to tell her.”
“She knows, baby. She’s not gonna forget.”
“What I mean is, I have to talk to her. Even if she already knows, she deserves to hear it from me.” Hope and worry swirl in her troubled blues. “You think she’ll talk to me?”
“Oh, she’ll talk to you. Maisy’s not one to keep quiet. But maybe give her a couple days to cool off.”
Worry edges out the hopefulness in her gaze as she looks beyond me and shakes her head. “No, I owe her better than that. Besides, I can’t sit with this feeling.” She untangles herself from me and grabs her coat off the rack.
A heavy weight sinks in my stomach as I watch her go, the door slamming and cutting off my view, and I fight the instinct to follow her.
How’d I get that so wrong? Pissing off both my favorite girls was not in the playbook for today, and while Maisy’s reaction was expected, Georgia’s has me a little shook. I was only trying to protect her.
Can’t she see that?