Page 59 of Chasing Home

My lips clamp shut when I feel a shift in the air. Whipping my head to the right, I feel that stupid fucking burn in my eyes again. Daisy went to him. That’s why she left so quickly.

A coincidence, maybe. That Daisy found me in a moment I needed not only the company but unknowingly also someone to be my side through this conversation.

Johnny presses a finger to his lips and comes to stand right in front of me, close enough that when I drop my head forward, it rests against his shoulder. His arms wrap around me, anchoring me to his chest as I blink away the emotion in my eyes.

“And I’m your sister,” I state into the phone.

A kiss on my head comes as I wait for a reply. The weight of a large hand on my back, rubbing up and down my spine, is a steady reminder that I’m not alone.

I’m not alone.

“I don’t have a sister,” Wanda says, her tone of voice hard and to the point.

I flinch again, but this time, Johnny’s tightening his hold on me. “I didn’t think I did either. But it’s true. I can show you anything you want to see to prove it.”

A weighted pause. “How’d you even get this number?”

“Does it really matter?”

“Of course it does. You’re out to lunch if you think I’m going to take the word of some random woman who’s somehow come across my number. Are you looking for money, is that it?”

I suck in a sharp breath, all of my fears coming back in full swing. Daisy’s reassuring words get buried beneath them, never to be found again.

I’m so lost in my head that when a gentle set of fingers peel mine from my phone, I don’t fight them. I keep my forehead pressed to Johnny’s chest and inhale the smell of cologne and outdoors.

“Hey, Wanda.”

“Johnny? What the shit is going on right now?”

I cringe at the fact the volume is loud enough he could hear every one of Wanda’s comments before as I hear them all now.

“Listen, you’ve gotta come home. I know this is the last place you want to be right now, or ever, but Rory’s telling the truth.”

I count the seconds it takes her to reply. Ten.

“She’s not. I don’t have a sister, and she’s tricked you into believing otherwise. What game are you playing? Is this some sort of dare?”

“It’s not a dare.”

“Is Anna there? Let me talk to someone else,” she demands. “This isn’t a funny prank.”

Her adamant denial hurts. It’s unfair to have expected her to be at all believing or accepting of this bomb I’ve dropped on her, but it still hurts regardless. Everything is unfair right now.

All but the man who’s wrapped himself around me like a shield. Who’s still dressed in filthy jeans and boots to match. He keeps himself against me and his arms wrapped around my torso as if he’s trying to tuck me inside of him.

I don’t let myself think twice about my next move. Giving in to the desperate urge to touch him, I slide my arms over his hips and lock my fingers at the base of his back, hugging him right back.

“There isn’t anyone else to talk to right now, Wanda. Just you, me, and Rory. And it’s up to you now whether you buy what we’re saying or not, but you’ve gotta drop that attitude before I tell your sister you aren’t worth knowin’,” he says.

I open my eyes to stare at our feet, his threat shocking me. The part of me that hates not taking care of myself and my own problems demands I grab the phone back and take care of the rest of this conversation myself, but the other part of me? It wants me to climb up this man’s body and beg him to kiss me.

Hard. Preferably until I can’t feel my lips any longer.

I haven’t had anyone take care of me like this in a very, very long time, and despite everything, I want to let him.

“Give me your word, Johnny. Promise me this is serious, and I’ll get on a flight as soon as I can,” Wanda says, the biting edge in her voice dulled considerably.

His mouth brushes over my hair as he says, “I promise you that this is real. You’ve got a sister, Wanda, and you’ll want to meet her. I can also promise you that.”

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