Page 89 of Rainbow Kisses

“What? Who?” Who the hell could be visiting?—

From the corner of my eye, I caught movement in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Hey.” Rebel stood there, hands shoved in his pockets.

I just stared at him as my sister got up from the table. “I’ll give you guys some privacy. Nice to meet you, Rebel.” Then she disappeared into her bedroom.

I stared at him for several seconds before I spoke. “What are you doing here?”

“Probably being an unwanted pain in the ass.” He sighed as he took a few steps closer. “I talked to Rain yesterday. And I don’t know what you did to her, but you better fucking fix it.”

“What the hell are you talking about”

Had Rain told Rebel about us? What had she said? And why wasn’t Rebel trying to beat the shit out of me?

“Bullshit. Don’t be a dick. I know my sister well enough to know she cares about you and you hurt her when you left.”

That cut through my gut like a knife. I hated to think that I’d hurt Rain.

“Mom said Rainy’s been quiet. When have you ever known my sister to be quiet?”

Hell, she wasn’t even quiet in bed, but I definitely wasn’t going to tell her brother that.

Rebel took a step closer. “Look, man. I love my sister. She may be the second-biggest pain in my ass in my life, but I will fuck up anyone who messes with her. And apparently, you’re messing with her.”

Fuck.“This is none of your business.”

“My sister is my business.” Reb lifted a hand and stuck an index finger right in my chest. “And you are my business, asshole. You’re one of the only friends I’ve ever considered as close as a brother. I can handle the distance between us, but she fucking misses you. So you need to be the bigger person and tell her how you feel.”

“The bigger person, huh?”

Rebel rolled his eyes. “For some unknown reason, she cares about you, asshole. And not like she cares about everyone else. You’re special.” His jaw flexed. “And I’m not going to be the asshole who stands in the way of what she wants. So if you’re avoiding her because of me, knock it the fuck off.”

“I’m not.” I grimaced and ran a hand through my hair, which definitely needed a trim. “I texted her the night we left. I texted her the next day. You know when she got back to me? Today. I’m not fucking avoiding her, but when she doesn’t text for a week and then only to tell me how busy she is, I’m not an idiot. I get the hint. Why the hell do you care anyway? I figured you’d be glad she was getting rid of me.”

“Is that what you think? That I’d be happy you hurt my sister? You think she wants space? Did sheactuallysay that?”

I tried to shake some reason back into my head. “Reb, what the actualfuckare you doing here?”

For a second, I thought he’d turn and walk out the door, because that was how he usually handled conflict. Or punch me. I might’ve preferred that because at least I’d have a response.

Instead, he took a deep breath. “I’m checking on you,” he spoke way too slowly, as if I was an idiot and couldn’t understand him, “because my mom is worried about my sister and my sister’s worried about you. I was close. So here I am. Checking on you.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what was going on between you two. And I don’t want to know. What I want is for my sister to be happy again so my mom doesn’t worry and ask me to check on you. Text. Her. The. Fuck. Back.”

I nearly choked on a laugh, because the situation was just too absurd.

“You drove here just to say that?”

Now Rebel looked like he was going to punch me. “Yeah, actually, I fucking did.” He stopped to suck in air and glance at the ceiling for a quick second. “Look, I know how important family is, okay? I get it. But,” his jaw worked, like he was having trouble forming words, “we’re your family too. I might want to punch you occasionally because you’re an asshole, but then I do the same with Rowdy. And …” He sighed. “I don’t like when my sister’s upset.”

Fuck. I didn’t want to cause her any pain. “I thought it’d be easier on her if I didn’t text all the time. You don’t know how many times I’ve picked up the phone to call…”

“So why haven’t you?”

I shook my head. “Because I’m an idiot. Is that what you want to hear? Because maybe she doesn’t want to talk to me. Becausethe one and only time she texted was to tell me how busy she is. Maybe she’s just too fucking busy for me.”

Rowdy rolled his eyes. “Jesus, maybe if you both weren’t so fucking blind, you’d be able to see you’re making excuses not to be the first one to put their heart on the line and risk getting it smashed.”

I just stood there and looked at him for several long seconds. “Dude, who the fuck are you?”

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