Page 12 of Risking it All

I waited three beats to make sure her little mind wasn’t spiraling into a tornado-driven nightmare, and when she got back up to sing and dance, I went down the hallway. I leaned a hip against the frame of the bathroom door as Lyra applied mascara.

The bathroom smelled like she had tried on twelve different perfumes, and the sink contained a rainbow of colors of makeup she’d somehow dropped. She wore a slim-fitting sequined silver dress that ended below her ass.

“I thought you worked tonight,” I said.

My petite and sassy older sister ran her fingers though her platinum blond hair and then fluttered her blue eyes in the mirror as if trying out the flirty expression. “I work later. I’m going out for an early dinner date.”

A tug-of-war existed inside me. If she dated someone from the neighborhood, I hated it because I wanted better for her. If she dated someone outside the neighborhood, I hated it because I automatically assumed they didn’t have the best of intentions with her. I shoved my hands in my pockets having to work for casual. “Do I know who you’re going out with?”

Whoever it was, I had a feeling she’d been seeing them exclusively over the last few months, and I hated that she was hiding the relationship from me.

She glanced over at me. “You have so much drywall dust on you I could write my name on your arm.”

“I’d take a shower but someone’s hogging the bathroom.”

“Wow, that person must be so rude.” She winked at me.

“So rude,” I echoed. “The date. Spill.”

“You know I’m your guardian, you’re my baby brother, and I’m twenty-one, right? Which means I’m the one who asks questions and demands answers. Not the other way around.”

“How about I frame it like this, when I call the police because you don’t come home, I’d like to be able to give them a description of who you left with.”

“You worry too much.” Lyra touched up her lip gloss.

“I don’t worry enough,” I countered. “I lost my job today.”

Lyra’s constant flippant attitude switched to concern as her head whipped toward me. “What happened?”

“Company went under.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and I could tell she meant it. “It’ll be okay. You’ll find something else.”

“I have a record now,” I said low enough to keep Camila from hearing. “My employment opportunities aren’t bright and shiny. Only reason the drywall company kept me on was because I worked for them before the arrest, and they knew what a good job I did.”

Lyra returned to applying lip gloss. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

I was actually the one who figured it out, and I was damn tired of doing it. When I didn’t say anything, she placed a hand on my wrist and squeezed. “I see you, Relic. When no one else does, I do. So, trust me when I say you worry plenty and work too damn hard. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. You need a break, not to mention a job that’s not going to run your body into the ground before you’re twenty.”

“Because those bills are going to pay themselves.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”

Words that definitely made me worry.

Lyra brushed powder over her nose. “I made plans for Camila to spend the weekend with Alma.” Camila’s great-aunt and the person Camila’s mom lived with before she met our dad.

“You sure Alma’s up for that?” Alma was in her seventies and tired easily.

“She said she can. Alma wants to see her and said she would love to have her all weekend. I say let’s have Camila stay with her tonight and then you can reach out after you sleep in tomorrow to see how things are going. In the meantime, go out, be seventeen. Go do something irresponsible.”

“I’m the one who was arrested, remember?”

“You’re not nearly irresponsible in the right ways. I got into way more trouble at your age. The seventeen-type of trouble.Drinking. Getting high. Getting laid. Not worrying all the time.” Lyra puffed out her cheeks, which told me she had something I didn’t want to hear. “Dad said he’d be happy to watch Camila for us. If we did that, it would give you more time to hang out with your friends. You know…be seventeen.”

“Would that be before or after he sells drugs for Eric?”

“He said he’s not selling for Eric anymore.” Lyra put her makeup back in a bag.

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