Page 79 of Regrets

My jaw ticks and part of me wants to find my sister and scream at her, but I’m assuming this new development is my fault from earlier today. Although, I’m also really fucking proud of her. I just didn’t think she would take P away from me. “You don’t have to move across the country. We can figure it out together.”

“How? By hate-fucking every chance we get and never really talking?”

“You want to talk?”

She shakes her head slowly, the water dripping down her face. “No. I don’t have the energy for it right now. There’s so much to process and sift through. I need time.”

I pull her back to me, her hands holding my back and one of mine smoothing over her wet hair. “I don’t want you to go.”

“But you can’t really ask me to stay, right?”

I hold her body to mine, feeling the loss already. “Right. If this is what you need, then you need to go. I can’t and won’t stop you.”

Her nose rubs against my chest as she nods her head, her eyes lifting. “I’ll always love you, no matter what, Linc. But just like you can’t ask me to stay, I can’t ask you to wait for me.”

“That your way of telling me you’re going to whore around California?” The thought of anyone else touching her makes me sick and furious with jealousy.

It’s a dick thing to say, one I shouldn’t, but she just laughs. “Who knows?”

I growl and press her back against the shower wall. “You’ll always think of me.”

She lifts up on her toes and bites my bottom lip. “Always.”

“I’ll always think about you.”

Her lips slide into a playful smirk. “You gonna whore around Kansas?”

My hand twists in her hair as I tip her head back and kiss down her neck. “Probably.”

“Think of me.” The whisper makes me way hotter than it should as I drive into her for the second time of the day, unable to get enough.

Because I’ll never get enough of her.

43

LINC

TWO YEARS LATER

California.

I sit in my rental car, looking up at the massive, two-story beach house, and I mean the fucker is literally right on the beach. It has large glass windows, and on the top story, there’s a balcony with chairs and a fire pit.

Apparently, my sister goes big.

I take a deep breath and force myself to get out of the car, walking up to the front door.

I’ve never been here. I haven’t seen anyone in my family except my mother for two years. I took some time to be a bitter asshole after P moved out, then I decided to take the time apart and do something productive.

Nothing has really changed. I miss Penelope with every breath I take. I think about her every single day, but I haven’t called. I haven’t sent a message. Nothing.

I wanted her to have the space she needed to find out who she was, like she told me she needed. But the thoughts creep in, wondering if someone else has discovered how amazing she is and stolen her away.

Two years is too fucking long. Time’s up. I’m here.

I have to know.

I ring the doorbell, and it’s Lola who answers the door, looking the same as she did two years ago. Dressed to the nines, her hair and makeup perfect, even if it’s early morning. I think she wakes up like this.

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