Page 86 of Shortcake
I couldn’t let this bomb detonate.
“Haylee,” I said, gently. “Haylee, look at me.”
She shook her head, keeping her weepy eyes cast down as she finished sweeping up the mess.
“Haylee, please. I’m sorry.”
She blinked those huge brown orb puppy dog eyes up at me as unshed tears danced at the lower edges of her lashes. “You are?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I am. You’re right. I’ve been avoiding you this week.”
Her nostrils flared and a triumphant smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. “I knew it.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say I was mad. I just needed time to process my feelings.”
“Your feelings about what?”
I inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “Finn told me that you and he had video chatted with Hope.”
Her tight features softened. “Oh. That.”
“Yeah,that.”
I waved Keith over and without even needing to say a word, he took my spot behind the bar and started taking orders. Bless that man. After years of working together, we had an unspoken language.
Haylee looped her arm in mine and dragged me to the corner of the bar where there was one lone unoccupied table. “Originally, it was just Finn video chatting with her. I was in the background feeding the dogs. And then she started talking about living in New York… and… Finn called me over because we knew so many of the same places.”
“She’s from Rochester? I thought they lived in Texas?”
“Her dad lives in Texas now. But she’s originally from Syracuse.”
Wow. I guess I would know that if I’d ever talked to her myself.
“So, anyway,” Haylee continued, “I just sort of got swept into the conversation.”
Tears burned the backs of my eyes, but I forced them to stay there in place. Willed them to stay back. Buried them along with decades of pain and abandonment issues.
“Addy,” Haylee said and squeezed my hand. “I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you.”
Jaw tensed, I shook my head. “It’s been hard on all of us.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
My jaw gaped for a moment. I didn’t know what to say. I was out of words. So instead, Haylee continued. “The stuff with your dad remarrying? Yes, that’s hard on all of you. But learning about Hope? There’s only one Evans family member I see spiraling and it’syou.”
I sniffled and cleared my tight throat. “Ithasbeen hard on me, okay?” There. I said it. I admitted it. “She already took my dad from us. Now she’s taking my brothers.” With wet eyes, I raised my gaze to Haylee’s. “I can’t lose you, too.”
“You aren’t losing any of us. People don’t have a finite amount of love in their hearts. It’s not like chips in Vegas that once you’re out, you’re out for good.”
I shook my head. “I don’t expect you to understand—”
“Are you kidding me? I totally get it, Addy. I never knew my dad before he passed away, but if I had found out that he had another kid, another family… especially another daughter? I would resent the fuck out of her.”
I blinked in surprise at my friend. It never occurred to me that she might be able to empathize with me about this. But of course she would. Her dad, a famous musician, didn’t want to be in her life in the traditional sense. But he had left herboat loadsof money.
“You get it.” My voice sounded small as the realization washed over me. I didn’t feel quite so alone. Even with my brothers going through this too, they weren’t going through the same thing as me. It was just different when you were the only girl… and the only other girl is the one your dad chose.
God, I’m so fucked up.
