Page 144 of Killer Kiss

Rafe nodded. “Your place was where I went when I couldn’t stand my father a second longer. If I hadn’t had you guys, I probably would have been doing a whole lot worse than smoking a bit of pot behind the school buildings.” He glanced over at Luna. “You didn’t hear that.”

“What’s pot?” she asked curiously.

Lacey quickly distracted her with a candy, so no one had to answer that.

Augie opened his mouth to argue with them again, but this time it was me who squeezed his hand. A reminder that though he’d screwed up some things, he hadn’t gotten everything wrong.

Banjo waited for him to settle and then looked him in the eye. “Lacey, Rafe, Colt, and I talked it over. We have the money to get this off the ground and we want you to help me run it.”

Augie’s was quick to shake his head. “I can’t. I don’t know how.”

Banjo laughed. “You don’t know how to throw a football with some kids? You haven’t walked in their shoes and come out the other side? You can’t relate to them at all, in any way? Is that seriously what you’re telling me?”

Augie opened his mouth but then closed it when he realized Banjo was right.

I whispered something in Luna’s ear, and she giggled then tapped her uncle on the shoulder.

“Say yes,” she told him with all her three-year-old sass. “You have to!”

He relaxed, his shoulders dipping as he smiled at her. “Do I now? Says who? You? You’re a pipsqueak. Can you even throw a ball yet?”

Luna screwed up her face at him in outrage. “I can so, too!” She scrambled to get down from my arms. “Where’s a ball? I’ll show you right now!”

Banjo smoothed her hair out and gave Augie a knowing look. “See? You’ll be just fine.”

Augie nodded and stuck his hand out for Banjo to shake.

Banjo frowned down at his banged-up hands and raised an eyebrow at his brother. “Really?”

Augie slung an arm around his shoulders and laughed instead. “Fine. No handshake. But I’m in. If you truly want me.”

“We do, Aug.”

We all did. Banjo. Luna.

Me.

At the front of the room, up on the stage, Eve clapped her hands together, drawing everyone’s attention. My brother stood with his family. Lyric and her partner, Zeph, and their little girl were at the back of the room with Phoenix and Eve’s brother, Dylan. Terry, the bouncer, had his arm around his wife, their teenage kids nearby. There were others I didn’t know, but Eve commanded all of the attention.

“I think we all hate that we’re here today. But we need this. She deserves it. So the mic is free. I know I personally would love it if you all came up and said something about her. I want to know the Fawn you all knew, and I want you to know the one I did.” Her bottom lip trembled. “Because she was beautiful. Smart. And one of the best things to ever happen to both me and to this club. Fawn was kind and her heart was big. I’m a better person for knowing her, and I know you all feel the same way.” She wiped her tears away on the backs of her hands then held up her glass. “To you, sweet woman. For reminding me that goodness exists in this world.”

The rest of us raised our glasses in a toast to my sister, and then one by one, we all got up on stage and told our memories of her. Some were sad. Some were funny. Some made my brother groan and cover his ears because he just didn’t need that sort of information about his sibling.

We all left sad, but somehow lighter.

Afterward, when Augie closed our front door behind us, and that sense of safety enveloped me once more, I knew I could finally let my sister go.

She was laid to rest.

And I was home.

EPILOGUE – FIVE YEARS LATER

OTIS

Dad groaned, staring at the damage to the front of his car. “Piece of shit fucking shit! This is so much worse than I thought it was in the dark last night. Motherfucking deer are so stupid.”

He slammed the crinkled hood down and stomped around the other side, complaining as he lowered himself onto a board that rolled beneath the jacked-up car. There was still animal fur and blood stuck in the grill. The windshield was shattered, and I didn’t know what was broken beneath, but I guessed that was the deer’s fault too.

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