Chapter 12
Adalyn glanced over as the door opened, smiled when her sister stepped inside the home gym looking a little sleepy, but mostly rested.
“I knew you were a dog person,” Fleur said as she sat down next to where Adalyn was currently working out and had been for the last hour.
She’d woken up at four and hadn’t been able to go back to sleep so she’d tried meditating, then had decided working out was way better to burn off her energy.
“She just follows me everywhere,” Adalyn murmured as she jogged on the treadmill. She’d set up Gumbo to walk at a slow pace and the pup was happily wagging her tail as she trotted along next to Adalyn.
“Yeah, yeah. Jeez, you’re killing it on that thing. No wonder you look so strong.” Coffee cup in hand, Fleur came to stand next to Adalyn’s treadmill. She was still in her pajamas. “How’d you sleep?”
“Okay. How about you? And how are you handling things?” She turned the treadmill down so she was walking. “Do you want me to get off this?”
“No, no. I figure I’ll burn some calories watching you.” Fleur grinned quickly, but then it faded. “And I’m doing okay. Everything feels so surreal and…” She shook her head. “I can’t believe she’s gone. I know you’ve lost friends. Or you’ve alluded to it?”
Adalyn nodded, not particularly wanting to head down that path, but figured her sister needed it. And she wanted to help her any way that she could. She glanced at the half-open door to the gym. It was on the bottom floor of the house, with all the bedrooms on the second and third floor. And it was on the other side of the house from the kitchen so no one should overhear them.
“Yeah, I have.” Slowing even more, she turned the speed down to only two MPH and looked out the big bank of windows onto the outdoor garden and three-tiered stone waterfall happily bubbling. She wasn’t supposed to tell her sister anything about her former job but she could give her something without divulging important details. “More than I like to think about.” She stopped her treadmill now, then slowed and stopped Gumbo’s as well.
He jumped off and ran for the bowl of water she’d set up.
“But it was in situations where death was expected. And I’m not saying it makes it any easier, but at least it wasn’t out of the blue. You lost someone so abruptly and violently, and I’m so sorry. It’s going to take you as long as it takes you to grieve. There’s no timeline for grief and healing.”
“I know, but it’s nice to hear it. How did you deal with losing people you cared about?”
Adalyn bit her bottom lip, debating if she should be honest or not. “I don’t know that I have. I should have gone to therapy, but being vulnerable is not my strong suit.”
Fleur let out a snort of laughter at that. “Yeah, talk about an understatement.”
“Shut up,” she muttered, laughing lightly as she grabbed a towel and started drying off her sweat. She needed to shower but would have to cool down first.
“I saw him a year ago,” her sister said suddenly. “Our sperm donor.”
Adalyn nearly jolted in surprise, but she’d been trained better than that. Instead, she simply blinked. “Ah, where? Did you talk to him?”
Fleur grabbed a bottle of water from the mini-fridge, handed it to Adalyn as she sat on one of the weight benches, crossed her legs. “He was sitting at a bar alone. Just drinking a beer and watching some soccer game. He looked so much smaller than I remembered. Weak and pathetic.” Fleur shook her head. “I have no idea if it was therapeutic or not, but seeing him like that set something free in me I didn’t even know I needed to let go of. I didn’t talk to him, not that I think he would have recognized me anyway.”
“I’m glad it did, then. But he might have recognized you. You look just like Mom,” Adalyn murmured as old memories swelled up. The images she still held on to were faded at the edges, but she remembered her mom’s laugh. It had been loud, infectious, and everyone had wanted to be around her when she’d been in a good mood.
Amethyst had been an incredible artist with a wild spirit and serious mental health issues.
“Oh yeah. I forget that, mainly because I only know her from pictures. Do you remember her?”
“Ah, a little. Her laugh, mainly. I remember once she took us out on that old pontoon boat that I’m pretty sure she stole from our neighbor when he died. It was winter, sometime in January. She got it into her head to take a midnight cruise.”
“I don’t remember that. How old was I?”
“About three, I’d say. I didn’t understand why Mémé was so mad at the time.” They’d called Zula Mae by her first name or simply Mémé, but never mémère or grand-mère, as she’d said it made her feel too old. “But looking back, I definitely understand that she was afraid for us. It had been freezing and Mom hadn’t taken any food, or drinks, or dressed us properly.” Not to mention who woke up their kids in the middle of the night for a midnight cruise smack dab in the middle of winter? Or during any season. She’d gone on a wild bender a couple weeks later, this time alone, and drowned.
Fleur shook her head. “We got really lucky our sperm donor decided to give us up.”
Adalyn winced slightly. “So…Mémé threatened to kill him. Literally. And I’m pretty sure she paid him off to seal the deal, but she’s the one who broke his knee to drive her point home. She wasn’t letting him raise us.”
Fleur’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”
“Yep. She told me not to tell you, but…” Adalyn shrugged as she sat on one of the mats, stretched her legs out. Gumbo trotted over to her and collapsed on her lap so she scratched under her chin.
Everything about the dog was still except her wild tail, thumping on the mat with glee.
Fleur grinned slightly, some of the shadows in her eyes fading. “She really was a badass.” Then her gaze turned speculative. “So is that a bullet wound?” Fleur asked, smoothly changing the subject.
Adalyn idly ran her finger over the ridged scar on her left side. She was only wearing a sports bra and workout shorts so all her scars were visible, something she hadn’t concerned herself with. But maybe she should have. “Yep.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“When did you get so nosy?”
“I’ve always been nosy and you’re finally opening up to me so I’m going to ask everything I can until you decide to cut me off.”
Even though the words were said lightly, jokingly, they scored deep. Because Adalyn had always kept her sister at a certain distance. She hadn’t even meant to, it was just the nature of her former job. And fine, it was because of the way they’d grown up. “I’ll never cut you off,” she murmured. “I’ll tell you anything I can without crossing lines. And to answer your question, I got it in Cairo after a deal went south.”
To her surprise, Fleur simply grinned. “Total badass.”
Adalyn felt her cheeks heat up. “Didn’t feel very badass at the time.”
Fleur had started to respond when Hailey stepped in.
The petite woman had her dark hair pulled up in a high ponytail and was wearing a T-shirt that read, There is no cloud. It’s just someone else’s computer. “Hey, I’ve found something good.” She paused. “Or bad, but whatever. You need to come look at this.”
“Coming right up. You wanna come?” Adalyn asked Fleur as she stood, stretched.
“You can just fill me in. I feel like I might be in the way. Besides, I need more coffee. She was up early too,” Fleur nodded at Hailey’s retreating figure in the hallway. “Went for a long run. Y’all are wild,” she murmured. “The only time I’m running is after an ice cream truck. Or maybe after Tiago.” She whispered the last part.
Adalyn snort-laughed as surprise punched through her. “Really?”
“What do you mean, really? Have you seen him?”
Adalyn shrugged. Tiago was good-looking but he didn’t punch any of her buttons. Only one annoying man with tattoos and a charming grin did that.