Page 60 of Unbreakable Love

“He’s a student’s father, Maize, and up until two days ago, I was certain he hated me.”

“Love and hate are a fine line.”

“He’s also a part of that family you wanted all the gossip about, so…”

“He’s a Kelley?” She said it like he was a Hemsworth brother.

“You’ve heard of them?”

“Well, no. Not until this week.” She climbed up onto the couch opposite me and tucked her feet beneath her. We were practically mirror images of each other save for her ebony, silky hair, she had to have gotten from her father… a man neither of us knew his name. “But I heard it since, and when the news hit yesterday and I heard New Haven mentioned, I did some digging. They’re crazy popular. And like, mildly famous? Which one is your new daddy?”

I tossed a pillow at her. My sister, the gossip queen. “He’s not my daddy, and you should consider changing your major to communications or journalism.”

“I’m dropping out actually.”

“What?! Maize!”

“We’ll get to me later.” She flipped a hand in my direction.

“Uh. No. We absolutely will not move past this. What in the hell are you talking about?”

She sighed but leaned forward enough to set down her wine. “Don’t kill me. I swear I have a plan.”

My anger and fear were growing by the moment. “Maize…”

“I want to be a flight attendant. I swear, I’m not quitting quitting school, but I keep thinking about all the places I want to travel, and it’d take years to save that kind of money. And flight attendants make good money. The travel will suck for a while, but at least I’ll be getting out of Missouri and seeing more places.”

Okay. A flight attendant wasn’t bad. But this was all a surprise. “You’ve been talking about how much you love school.”

“I mean, not the learning part, but I’m going to tough it out through the end of the year and work hard in case this flight stuff falls through, so I still might have to go back, but if I get a job I won’t. I don’t know how to explain it. I just have this itch to go explore, and this gets me doing it.”

“Well, fine.” Tears burned the backs of my eyes, and I blinked them away. I’d had a hard enough time leaving Missouri and being a couple hours away from her. This would change everything. “You could have told me at a better time.”

“Like not right after I caught you making out like a high schooler getting dropped off from a date?” She leaned forward and slapped my leg and then grabbed her wine. “My news is done with, so let’s get back to you and daddy.”

“God,” I muttered. “You have to stop calling him that.”

“If the shoe fits.”

I loved my sister. She was all energy and had a joie de vivre I would never have even on my best and freest days. But this was also why I loved her. Why I envied her.

“His name is Gavin Kelley,” I finally told her. “He’s the fourth Kelley, out of six, I think?” I did the quick math from the stories Faye and Dolly told me and shook my head. “No, the fifth. And he’s a single dad. Had her when he was a teenager. And, like I said, up until this week, he hasn’t been all that nice, at least not consistently.”

I told her about the first night I offered him help with Josie if he needed it. Him walking me home from the bar, and then I reiterated how pissed I was about the car and how he’d handled it. The dinner at his house where I was basically kicked out. I told her everything, like I always did in the past, and when I was done, her wine was forgotten, and she was grinning at me like she was bursting with a secret she couldn’t wait to share.

“That man doesn’t hate you, hasn’t for a single moment,” she said. “That man has been dying to jump your bones and was pissed he couldn’t.”

“Please,” I drawled out.

“It’s amazing how naïve you can be. You seriously think he saw his daughter’s new teacher and decided to hate her on sight? Please yourself, and then go take a look in the mirror. You’re freaking gorgeous. He was probably pissed there were adults in the room so he couldn’t take you over your teacher desk or something.”

I fought against imagining that and failed. I’d never look at my teacher desk the same way again. “You’ve been reading too many romance books.”

She snorted. “That’s not even a possible thing in life.”

Point conceded. I didn’t spend a ton of time reading, but when I did, it was something with a romantic theme, fantasy or otherwise. “Fine. Whatever. But you must understand why I’m nervous.”

“Only if you’re scared of that dusty, rusty V-card finally being taken, and I can tell you, sister, it really does only hurt the first time.”

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