Page 45 of Fortune's Control
I took back any thanks owed to Aiden Taggert.
15-Shane
Lilah sat alone on the porch swing, one leg tucked under the other, with a foot pressed on the wood floor to keep up a steady sway.
“Your iced coffee.” I passed it over and took the space beside her. Lilah shifted and cuddled into my side. “Did I get it right?”
She sucked on the straw. “It’s perfect. You want some?”
I raised a hand, stopping her. “That’s a sugar bomb.”
“Yes, that’s the whole point.” Lilah took a sip and sighed. Her voice quieted, growing wistful. “Mornings have become my favorite part of the day since arriving. It’s cooler, and the birds all sing. Look at the crows over there.”
A pair jumped and danced on the grass.
“They’re eating,” I said.
“Eating with so much joy, they’re forced to dance.”
“Well, don’t let Pirate see them.” The cat didn’t hunt birds, but two dead mice had appeared on the front door. Our efforts to bring the cat inside still progressed, but Pirate resisted, racing for freedom every time a door opened.
“Our precious kitty knows better than to upset a pair of crows. They have long memories, you know. Pirate is smart. She won’t attack them.”
“They wouldn’t have any memory because they would be dead.”
“A collective crow memory. Pirate knows the other crows would remember.”
“That’s not a thing.” I checked my watch. “Where’s your friend?”
“Emma? Awake and dragging. Jobs do that. She needs to turn into a lazy slug, like me.”
I ignored the subtle reference to her jobless state. It would happen once the right opportunity appeared. “My sister and I plan to visit my parents soon.” I rechecked my watch. “Any minute now.”
Lilah’s features softened as she leaned in and offered a tentative kiss on my cheek. “I’ll be with Emma the entire time. I mentioned the antique stores, and now she wants to shop. We’ll probably drop by Aiden’s demolition derby later.”
I smiled at her for letting me know she wouldn’t be alone. “I’m glad she’s here for you.” Emma took over the downstairs guest room, putting Lilah upstairs, next to my bedroom. The closer location led me to wake at the ass crack of dawn for my morning run, which didn’t bother me. Years of pre-dawn wake-ups as a Marine inured me to it. Plus, my runs were short, only thirty minutes, which allowed me to shower and dress while the world slept.
I squeezed my knee. “As long as she’s with you.”
*****
Our footsteps echoed down the stone pathway, breaking the graveyard’s somber atmosphere.
“This is our first time visiting them together.” Sophie stroked Mom’s headstone.
I wanted to protest, but I realized she was correct. We came for the funeral, and rarely after it. Once I joined the Marines, and she went to live with relatives, our visits grew sparse, and we never came together. “We’re here now. I think that counts.”
“Almost twelve years.”
I came to be alone and think during my last visit, when Lilah found me. It was the first time I connected with someone else in a year. She opened up about her family, and a deep appreciation filled me. She trusted me enough to share, so I did the same in return.
“We should come here more often. Together,” I said.
“Lilah put you up to this, didn’t she?” My sister’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, and I noticed she kept our mother’s headstone between the two of us. We were together, and she still placed a physical barrier between us.
“She played a role.”
“I knew it.”
