Page 72 of Rules of Association

I think he did it just to shake me loose. Because instead of going toward the street, he went out to the rocky beach up sea, which I hated at the time because the shells would always stick me and it was nothing like the sandy little bubble behind the house. When we got there he said we could run away into the ocean and become sea people.

Yeah fucking right.

He wasn’t stupid. Not even back then. He knew just how to scare six-year-old me and I could have sworn I heard him laughing as I took off running in the direction of home promising to tell on him.

The silent treatment story, though, it was true. And I didn’t regret it still to this day. The only one it had been hard not to talk to was Tiney. She had once been all of our shadows and she was really hurt by being ignored. But sometimes a man had to put his foot down. Besides, they all broke sooner than I thought they would.

“No! Those stories are meant to be passed on. And I'm ready to have a sister-in-law. But I guess all my brothers are players… And whatever Clint is.”

I snorted. Poor Clint. “Don’t be too upset, Tine, she already knows those stories anyway.”

“She?”

Fuck.

I blinked up at her. She was watching me with the laser sharp focus only a sister who smelled blood possessed.Fuck. Clearing my throat I corrected, “I meant shewillknow. Because I’ll tell whoever I’m going to marry everything, right? You’re the expert.”

“Connor!”

“Clementine,” I warned.

“You reallydohave a girl.” She wasn’t listening anymore. Now she was staring off into space as a waiter came by to set a cup of coffee and a cup of tea down in front of us. “Oh, and she’s funny too! She wouldn’t pull a prank like that if she didn’t have a sense of humor.”

More like a sense of torture. And anyway, it was a slip of the tongue. There’s no way I meant to compare Ceci to my hypothetical future wife. Not out loud, anyway.

Subtlety would mean nothing with Tine gushing excitedly like this, so I skipped it all together and abruptly changed the subject.

“So Clint,” I started around a too hot sip of coffee, trying to appear casual. “He talk to you about anything lately?”

She didn’t fight the change of subject, and I assume it had something to do with the worried look that immediately crossed her face. Slowly, she brought her tea up to her mouth and sipped from the extra hot contents as she nodded. “Yeah. Well, not him directly, but Clay’s told me a lot. When I try to talk to Clint about it he brushes it off.”

“He’s stressed.”

“I can tell,” she sighed. “He also doesn’t trust me with sensitive information.”

I could tell by the way she shrugged and curled her shoulders she was hurt even as she tried to play it cool. I reached across the table and pulled at her braid to snap her out of it. “It’s not like that, Tine. He just doesn’t want to bother you. You’ve been through so much and it’s a miracle you still talk to us after everything. I don’t think he wants to mess that up with shit that doesn’t affect you.”

“But it does affect me!” she whined. “He’s my brother!You’remy brother and…” she swallowed, “just because I was married out doesn’t mean this isn’t my family anymore. So tell me what’s going on.”

Tracking my eyes over her soft features, I recognized an unfamiliar sternness about her now. A confidence that was always there, just a lot quieter before. That husband of hers was wearing off on her. In a good way though.

I sighed, “Last I heard, Clint’s fed up with the document search. We’re finding too many that have been compromised and it’s just working him up more. They range from his first year as acting CEO to now. He thinks our best bet is to just figure out what they could want and go from there.”

“Last you heard?” Tine asked slowly, eyeing me. “Meaning you haven’t been around lately?”

I rolled my lips into my mouth, my eyes going to the clock on the wall. “I’ve been a little busy recently.”

“Mhmm,” she said, eyes following mine over her shoulder and cutting back to me. “Am I keeping you from something big brother?”

I shook my head slowly, giving her a sly smile. “Nothing more important than my favorite sister.”

She grinned. “Onlysister.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief as she smiled. I had to give this girl more credit. She was more observant than she looked. Truth was, I would have forgotten we even made this meeting if it wasn’t for the alert I had set up in my phone. It had only been a few days since Ceci’s incident and the most we’d done was gone to retrieve her car and tell her boss what happened since he seemed super worried about her.

Other than that, it seemed like Cee didn’t want to leave the house. Not for food, not for any of her normal shenanigans either. She didn’t even rouse when I reminded her she was missing her family’s weekly dinner. She just wanted to hole up in my house and watch TV (which really just consisted of her staring blankly at the screen). And if that’s what she wanted to do, I was content to do it with her. But since she was sleeping this morning when I woke up to my alarm and I didn’t want to have to stand up my sister, I’d left her there in my bed for a couple of hours hoping she would still be okay when I returned.

That sister narrowed her eyes on me from across the table. “What do you think of all this?”

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