Page 112 of Lucky Penny
I nod, a stinging in my throat.“Honestly, Fi, I didn’t know how to feel when he just reappeared in my life. I was so angry at Jesse forsolong. It was all part of my life plan—we were supposed to be together.”
“You and your life plan.” She rolls her eyes.
“I’m serious!”
“I know you are. But I see the way he looks at you. He almost had a stroke when you wore that miniskirt to Rebel Tavern, you know. I think I was just in denial that someone I consider a big brother was into you like that. But it all makes sense.”
My face blushes, and I toss myself forward, resting my head against the steering wheel before peeking up at my sister and her smug smile. “Okay…but you have to stop referring to him as your brother. It’s creeping me the fuck out.”
Fia scrunches up her freckled nose. “Yeah, I’ll stop, promise.”
“So this isn’t weird for you?”
“Oh, it’s totally freaking weird, but who am I to stand in true love’s way?” she says, pulling out her bagel and taking the biggest bite I’ve ever seen.
“I never said it was true love,” I mumble, feeling my face turn red.
“Hey, I’m the one who reads all the romance books, remember? I think I know true love,” she says, and I don’t argue. “Wait—since I invited Jesse to live with me, that kind of makes me a matchmaker.”
“Not even close, Fi,” I reply.
The tension in my shoulders unspools, slowly but surely, as I crank up the heat, turn on Christmas music, and leave the hospital parking lot.
I didn’t expect it to be this easy to let go of a secret I’ve carried for ten years. Or that she’d receive it with such grace.
Maybe I underestimated my sister after all.
43
Jesse
NOW
Tank quickly got bored with the whole crib-building thing and fell asleep in a slump on the floor next to me. This bedroom’s already too small for a guy my size, but add the thirty pieces of the birchwood crib lying around my snoring dog—splayed out like he’s deliberately trying to take up every inch of floor space—and this quickly became an impossible task.
Well, almost impossible, because my determination to get this done is stronger.
I know nothing about babies. I grew up an only child, and for a while, I thought it would’ve been cool to have a sibling. By the time I was a teenager, I stopped believing that. It wasn’t hard to walk away from the only home I’d ever known, because it was never a home.
But now, as I sit here, building a flippingcribfor Fia, I know how detrimental a sibling would’ve been. I would’ve wanted to protect them from my father’s wrath and probably wouldn’t have left when Penny and Danny invited me in.
The only good thing my dad ever did was cease to procreate after me.
“How can anyone be small enough to fit in here?” I scratch my head, asking myself in this empty house. I toss the tiny mattress pad out of my way, looking for more bolts.
Twenty minutes later, and there’s an oval structure of sorts. It looks like the one we saw in the store, so I wheel it into the corner of the room.
I have no idea how Penny plans to surprise Fia, but I’m sure she’ll be excited. It seems like a nice crib? I haven’t got a clue, I just hope I tightened all the bolts enough.
I stare at it, and visions of the baby falling through the bottom flash through my mind. “Tank, are you laying on the wrench?” I breathe out, squatting down to lift my dog’s back leg. The wrench is underneath, and he doesn’t open an eye.
“Just to make sure,” I mutter, tightening every bolt again.
A little flutter of knocks sounds, and my head snaps up to the door.
“It’s me,” Penny says in a hushed voice. “Can I come in?”
I stand, stretching my cramped limbs, and glance at the clock. I was so obsessed with making sure no screw ever loosens, I didn’t even hear them get home.
