Page 236 of Things Left Unsaid

Yeah, she’s a yeller.

Still, she’s always been a force to be reckoned with. The notion of her being sick and not telling me doesn’t sit right.

Distance leaches responsibility in a way I didn’t anticipate. But it doesn’t absolve me of it either.

Of course, there’s barely any distance between us now and I still haven’t shown my face around this place.

“Did you hear about her telling Reilly she saw Clyde in our truck the day Lydia died?”

“Yes. Colt was there when she showed up.” My brow furrows. “Do you think she was lying?”

“Who knows with her?” Calder shrugs. “Either way, Clyde’s in deep shinola which is exactly whereMamielikes him.”

She’s not the only one.

“I’d best go and see her.”

“She’s not that bad, Zee,” Colby assures me. “Aside from the arranged marriage stuff.”

“So reassuring, dude.” I shove the coffee cup at him. “Let’s get it over with.”

“Tear off the Band-Aid,” Calder agrees.

“Pour salt in the wound,” Carson concurs.

“Sounds more like it.” With one foot out of the kitchen door, I ask, “You will be nice to Callan, won’t you?”

Carson sighs. “We will.”

I turn to look over my shoulder. “They have a home theater room. You could come and hang out sometime this week if you want?”

“Will Callan be there?” he asks warily.

“Nah. He’ll stay in his room. But I don’t think it’s fair to…”

“I get it. I’d probably pour a whole thing of sugar in your coffee if you brought him here.”

“Wow, Calder. Thanks for the death threat.”

He smirks behind his coffee cup. “You’re welcome. And we’ll text you when we have a free night.”

“Our social calendar’s pretty full,” Colby declares. “But for you, we’ll make some room.”

“Now I do feelloved.”

“So you should,” Carson calls out as I head into the hall.

The second I’m gone, they bicker like they were when I came in.

I never got to hear Walker like that. It was him and me for a long while with the triplets too young to do little other than be annoying with such a big age gap between us.

And Walker was quiet.

More so than me.

We always got along well too. There was no back-and-forth like with the triplets. We could sit in the living room, him working on one of his projects, me reading or studying, not a word uttered but both of us quietly content.

God, I miss those moments.

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