Page 47 of All Her Broken Pieces

“Or he was worried about you,” she suggests.

“Maybe. But honestly, I offered to help you because a selfish part of me wanted a do-over. That maybe this time I could help someone and the outcome would be better.”

“You need to be needed,” she says knowingly.

“Trust me, I know you don’t need me, but I promise, you’re not a project to me, and I hope that one day you’ll want more than just my help. Truth or dare?” I tack on the question quickly, not giving her a chance to throw up more walls.

She hesitates for a moment, chewing on her lip before she looks at me and declares, “Dare.”

Several ideas pop in my head before I land on something that will allow me to touch her. “Sit on my lap for the rest of the game.”

She rolls her eyes and stands, crossing to me before sitting on my legs like a child would sit on Santa’s lap. Nothing is intimate about the gesture, so I clarify. “Nope, you have to straddle me, one leg on either side of my thighs.

“That’s not what you said. You said to sit on your lap, and I am. You didn’t say how to sit.”

Well, she has me there.

“This is already uncomfortable. I thought your rugby thighs would be more comfortable than this,” she bemoans, shifting her ass to get comfortable.

“Rugby thighs?” I laugh, confused. “I mean, I don’t skip leg day, if that’s what you’re implying.”

She doesn’t clarify the rugby thighs comment and instead redirects us back to the game. “Your turn, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” I say confidently.

“I dare you to unlock your phone and let me go through it for five minutes.”

I pull out my phone and hand it to her. “The passcode is ‘lizzyb’ spelled out in numbers, and you can spend as much time as you want going through it,” I tell her. I have nothing to hide.

“Starting to think you might have a favorite sister,” she jokes.

“Nah, she uses my phone a lot, and it’s easy for her to remember my code when it’s her name.”

Her fingers fly furiously across the screen, opening up my photos and scrolling through them.

“Wow, that’s a lot of food pics. I figured you’d have more nudes in here.”

Huffing out a laugh, I lean closer to her as I watch her scroll through pic after pic. “What can I say, I’m a chef. Food porn is my favorite.”

“Are these all meals you’ve cooked?”

“Not all of them. I like seeing how other chefs plate dishes. Sometimes it gives me inspiration for new recipes or creative ways to plate my food.”

“Are these your sisters?”

I look over her shoulder before confirming. “Yup.” She keeps scrolling through pictures of me and my sisters before I spot a photo I don’t want her to see. “Actually, I changed my mind, I’ll take that now.” I reach for the phone, but she’s faster, shifting her weight and turning away from me as she clutches the phone against her chest and bends over to protect it from my reach.

“Now I have to see what you’re trying to hide from me.”

My hands wrap around her as I try to grab for the phone from both sides.

“That tickles!” My hands wiggle their way closer to her chest, reaching for the phone. “If you make me fall off your lap, I still get the points,” she declares between fits of laughter. Her pain pills must have kicked in, and I’m careful not to jostle her too much.

With one hand, she lifts the phone up and away from me as she scrolls one-handed to the exact photo I didn’t want her to see. “Who is this lovely lady? One of your sisters?”

I drop my arms and lean back against the couch, draping my hands over my face. “I think you know exactly who that is.”

Her soft laughter wraps around my chest, squeezing it tight. “This is amazing.”

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