Page 37 of The Bridges I've Burned

Who would be there? What would they say?

I still hadn’t thought about what I was going to say to my brother tomorrow. How did I tell him good-bye? I’d been so confident when I got here yesterday, but after seeing his face today, so heavy with emotions, it had made me waver.

And the one that had me in the most knots…I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that after I hopped on that ferry, I’d never see Elena again.

“Oh, damn.” A familiar feminine voice came on camera. “Is that my long-lost brother from another mother?”

“What the fuck?” Hendrix said, turning to his sister with a mixture of surprise and horror. We had just been talking about her. “Did I somehow summon you here? Where the hell did you come from?”

She just grinned, her freckled face beaming up at me. “Your door was open, and I came to say hi. Siblings do that, asshat.” She turned her attention back to me.

“Hey, Presley.” I grinned as she shoved her legitimate brother over to make room for herself.

She was nearly a foot shorter than him and half his size. But he made a grunting noise as she slammed into him and retaliated by pushing her back. I shook my head at their antics.

“You look hot,” she commented. “And I mean that in a completely platonic, sisterly way.” She held her hand palm up, as if it pained her to even utter the words.

“Noted.”

Hendrix had never had to give me the don’t fuck my sisters talk because I’d never once looked at any of the Creeds as anything but family. I found Presley about as attractive as a baby kitten. Or a potato.

Not that she looked like a potato. Never mind.

“Are you trying to tie that?” she asked, pointing to the train wreck wrapped around my neck.

“He doesn’t remember how,” Hendrix explained. “I was going to refresh his memory.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, Hen. You barely know how to do it yourself.”

Her brother seemed to scoff at that.

“If you want a woman’s opinion, get rid of it. Unbutton that top button, maybe the next one, too? And it will look much better.”

I didn’t argue. I liked ties about as much as I liked taxes, so anything to get me out of them sounded like a fantastic fucking idea. I pulled the tie over my head and tossed it on the bed behind me, already feeling more like myself. Just as I was done undoing the buttons, a knock came to my door.

“Uh, come in.” I looked at my phone, a tiny bit of panic settling in, and two sets of blue eyes were glued to the screen like I was in some sort of live-action soap opera.

I hadn’t exactly had time to explain to Hendrix where I was or who I was with…

Elena walked in, and I swore I stumbled. Standing seemed like an impossible task, but the room sort of shifted nonetheless.

Holy hell.

This woman could kill a man in that dress.

And what a way to go…

It was red, tight, and made my mouth fucking water. With tiny straps and simple lines, it accentuated her abundant curves. The hem hit just below the knee. Her legs looked endless, and the sky-high heels she wore would no doubt be starring in my dreams tonight.

“Uh, hey,” I managed to say.

Did my voice just crack?

Her gaze lingered on me, moving up and down my body before she noticed the phone perched on the dresser. She did a double take. “Am I interrupting something?”

I turned just in time to see my best friend and his sister wave, both sporting wide grins.

Jesus.

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