Page 118 of Between the Lines

“Can we have a library date soon? Mom refuses to take us because it ‘cuts into her social time,’ and once Michael gets his license, I’m sure he’ll be too busy making out with all of his girlfriends in the back of that ugly car to care about us anymore.”

I giggle past the claim she’s made against Michael—my other fear, the disassociation, has likely already taken him captive. “It is ugly, isn’t it?”

My sister huffs a laugh. A sob stutters in my chest and I suppress it long enough to cross the center console and hug her tightly.

“You’d better get back inside,” I say, ruffling her hair.

She nods, the recognition clawing at me.

“You’ll be okay today?”

“I always have been.”

She offers me a tight smile and climbs out of my car, and I don’t start the engine until I see the front door snick shut. When I do, my car routes itself in his direction all on its own.

forty-seven

nathan

“I’msorry I just showed up like this.Again.”

A rope strangles my heart. I kiss the top of Claire’s head again, for what seems like the thousandth time, while we lay on the couch in my study, me on my back, her sprawled over my chest.

“Please never apologize for coming to see me.”

“But it’sChristmas,” she exclaims, teary stains still holding her words captive.

“Consider yourself my Christmas wish, then.”

She sits up.

“I’m ruining all of your plans.” She shakes her head, still in complete denial because of the wickedness that her mother ensnared around her this morning. “It was selfish of me to come here and?—”

“Stop.”

I halt her in the middle of lifting from my embrace, flattening my hand to her back as I sit up, tucking her until she’s half in my lap.

“I’m perfectly happy that you showed up on my doorstep,” I say, lifting her chin with my index finger beneath it, my thumb stroking beneath her bottom lip. “I’m abhorred by the actions of your parents. I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay right here for aslong as you’d like. In fact, I’maskingyou to stay and spend the rest of your Christmas with me.”

She sniffles, her head tilting downward in my grasp so that she can stare into her lap again.

“You aren’t going to see family today?”

“No. Both of my parents were only children. I have no surviving grandparents.”

“What about your brother?”

I stiffen for only a second. “Cal wanted to spend Christmas in the city this year.”

“So you spent Christmas alone?”

She sounds sad for an entirely different reason now. I force her stare back up to mine, eyes hardening behind my glasses.

“No. I spent it waiting for you to call and tell me you wanted to see me. I thought about calling myself, but I knew you had plans with your family, so I sat with my phone across the room so that I wouldn’t be tempted to check it.”

I sound a little pathetic admitting it, but the way that her head kind of flops to the side as her sad smile tips up in admiration makes it worth it.

“I’m not sad, Claire. This is the first Christmas in a long time that I’ve had something to look forward to.” Her shoulders scrunch up to her ears, and the slow creep of her candy colored blush makes me want to forego all the plans I had as soon as she unexpectedly showed up on my doorstep to chase it with my mouth.

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