Page 82 of Caged Bird

“I need to tell you something.” She squeezed my fingers, capturing my attention.

I nodded, but the street outside was distracting. It took me a minute to work out why. I screwed up my face and shook my head slowly. “Why are we at Augie’s place?”

Ophelia’s expression slipped into uncertainty. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. Augie and I… We…”

Exhaustion and fear still clung to my brain, making it foggy. “You and Augie what?”

“We…”

My brother rolled his eyes in a way that instantly gave away which personality was currently steering the ship. Because Vincent would never. “What she’s trying to say is she and Augie are making whoopie.”

Ophelia smacked him with the back of her hand. “Scythe!”

“What? You are!”

“You don’t have to just blurt it out like that. Jesus fuck, you have no filter.”

I couldn’t follow their conversation. It made no sense. “You and Augie are… You’re what?” I’d heard. I just couldn’t understand it.

“They’re bumping uglies,” Scythe explained. “Knocking boots. Planting the parsnip!”

My mouth dropped open. “You’re sleeping with Augie?”

Augie was one of the guys I’d worked with at the strip club. One I’d had a huge crush on, despite the fact he’d been way too old for me and had only ever treated me as a little sister. It felt like a whole other lifetime ago.

Ophelia shot Scythe the dirtiest look I’d ever seen, right as Augie stepped out of his house. He’d barely changed at all in the five years I’d been gone. He was still all blond hair, blue eyes, and just-stepped-off-the-beach vibes. His eyes had a few more lines around them, and he had a short beard he hadn’t had the last time I’d seen him.

But he was still the same Augie I remembered.

Only the way I felt about him was so incredibly different.

It was me who’d changed. Been forced to grow up.

Ophelia glanced between us, a worried expression on her pretty face. “I’m in love with him, Fawn. I have been for years. We tried to fight it, because I knew what you felt for him. We thought you were dead. We bonded over losing you…”

I squeezed her hand, a small smile pulling up my mouth. “You’re in love with him?”

She nodded, tears welling behind her brown eyes.

“And he loves you?”

Her answer was barely above a whisper. “Yes. We met searching for you.”

That sent a warm feeling through my body and wormed its way around my heart. I loved them both. At least something beautiful had come from what had happened to me. “He’s a good man.”

Few people saw that in Augie, but I always had.

And now my sister did too. She agreed quickly. “He’s the best.”

“He might be the best, but I think he’s going to run down here and break a window if we don’t get out,” Zane added.

I reached for his hand, and he took it, little sparks of pleasure racing up my arm from where he touched me. He put one hand on the door and then glanced over at me, waiting for me to give him the go-ahead.

I nodded.

He opened the door and held it for me as I slid out.

Augie took one glimpse of me and sank down onto his haunches, scrubbing his hands over his face. His shoulders shook with quiet emotion.

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