Page 66 of Tell Me When It's Over

rpose of them being there was to warm my bed when she wasn’t in it.

“What’s she up to now?” my sister asks, probably noting the time. It’s going on nine o’clock.

Clearing my throat, I walk downstairs to get something to drink. I told myself tonight would be different than the last time she went out. I’d keep my distance to show I do trust her. “She went out with Chase again.”

There’s a pause, but I hear the smile in her voice. “Oh, yeah?” Translation: tell me more.

I don’t. “Yep.”

“Kyler,” she whines.

Chuckling, I fill a glass with milk and sit down at the island. “I’m doing what you told me to. I’m staying out of her way.”

“But I want details!”

Of course she does. “You were right to call me out on being an asshole to her. I decided not to involve myself. I’m sure she’ll tell you about it if she wants to.”

I doubt she’d want to tell me anything considering I freaked out on her last time. We barely talked before she left tonight. I got a quiet goodbye and a door in my face after I told her to have fun.

She mutters, “I wouldn’t say ‘asshole’ exactly…”

“Mia, your exact words were ‘quit being such an overprotective asshole to Leighton, you douche bag’ to which your supportive husband laughed while nodding his head.”

Another pause. “Okay, so maybe my hormones got involved in that conversation. It’s not like I don’t understand. We watched her grow up in a way. It’s probably weird to watch her go out, especially since it’s with Garrick’s little brother.”

I don’t want to think about that any more than I already have. Chase showed up a couple days after their date to drop off something Len forgot in his car. He asked how I was, how my music was doing, and didn’t push to come in or wait for Leighton. The kid is respectful, exactly the kind of guy she deserves to be with.

So why the fuck do I want to ban him from coming here? Why do I want to tell Lenny that I’m not okay with them spending time together? That I regret telling her to give him a shot? As friends, it was safer, because safe means I don’t have to share my time with a nineteen-year-old, no matter how respectful he is.

He isn’t me, and that’s the fucking problem.

“We didn’t watch her grow up.” Len only spent four, almost five years with us. Four plus years that I watched her develop into a smart, pretty teenager with a quick wit that she loves using on me now. That’s hardly anything in the grand scheme of things. “It is weird,” I relent quietly.

“Plus, you two are constantly in each other’s space now that you share a house,” she points out. “It makes sense that you’d fight more. I just wish you’d fight about normal things.”

“Normal things?”

“You lost it on her about a boy, Ky. It’s just…I don’t know. I have a lot of thoughts about why that is.”

“What exactly is your point here?”

She sighs. “My point is that you’ve become testy with her. You’ve both said you’ve been arguing more. She’s noticed. Do you know how many times I’ve had to reassure her that it isn’t her?”

My heart drops in my chest. “What?”

“Yeah, dumbass.” Her tone is hardened, full of disapproval like it was the night I showed up pissed off and wanting to talk. I’m pretty sure I interrupted something because her face was flushed and Dylan’s clothes were in disarray, but I honestly didn’t care. “You know Lenny. She worries about everybody. I mean, thank God she’s toughened up over the years, but you’re still her weak spot.”

The hell? “What is that—”

“Oh, hush,” she cuts me off. “I don’t mean it in a bad way. We all have people we want approval from. Dylan is mine. You’re Lenny’s, and I’d put a lot of money down to say she’s yours.”

This time, I say nothing.

“Thought so.”

I never considered Lenny as my weak spot. It doesn’t sit well with me that there’s truth stitched into the statement. “I’m not sure I agree with your theory, but I don’t have the energy to argue about it.”

She takes that as a victory anyway. “Just to be clear, you’re not going to pick a fight about who she spends her time with just because you’re jealous, show up at my place, and ruin my sex life, right?”

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