Page 78 of X's and O's
He grinned over at me. “Plus a sister-in-law and two brothers-in-law.”
I screwed my face up in confusion.
He was quick to explain. “Multi-partner household.”
I raised an eyebrow. “No shit?”
He nodded. “You want to meet them?”
“Now?”
“If you want?”
A car drove by, their headlights flashing over his face.
Our hair was the same color. And so were our eyes. He had his seat pushed all the way back to accommodate for his height. A height I shared.
The image of a gangly teenage boy flashed somewhere in the back of my mind. One with a patient smile and a little black dog always at his side.
Something skittish inside me settled at the memory. Even though the dog scared me, the memory of the boy didn’t. “You were kind to me,” I said without thinking.
“You used to follow me around a lot.”
“You never told me to go away.”
He smiled. “No. I didn’t. You had enough of that from our parents and our other siblings.”
I dredged up another memory out of nowhere. “We didn’t call you Fang though.”
“No. You called me Milo.”
The rush of memories hit me hard. Him at the center of them. Sheltering me from our parents when they’d gotten drunk and fought. Taking me out on a little pink bike with training wheels when he and his friends walked to the store.
Then the crushing pain of him leaving me behind, even though I’d cried for him to take me with him. He’d put a bandage on my arm and then left.
I’d blocked it all out, and I knew why. Because the crushing pain of it still hurt, even now, even knowing there was nothing more he could have done.
But I had a brother. And that brother had a family.
So for the first time in the life I could remember, so did I.
20
LEVI
“It really hurts that you would betray your best friend like this, Whip.”
Whip looked idly over at X. “How many times do I have to tell you? I had no idea your ‘Omelet’ was the same woman as my Violet.”
“You calling her ‘my Violet’ does not help my rage issues. I’m also revoking our best friend status.”
“I’m devastated,” Whip deadpanned. “However will I go on?”
I lifted my head, anger still blazing. “She’s not either of yours.”
She had been mine from the very first letter I’d gotten from her. My heart knew it, and from the expression on Violet’s face earlier, hers had too.
Whip eyed me. “You’ve got some balls claiming she’s yours after everything that just went down.”
