Page 71 of Follow Me Down

“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” she fires at me.

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean? Listen to you. You were always the voice of negativity. Never trusting anyone as far as you could throw them.”

“Things change.”

“I can see that.” A small smile plays on her lips. “You’re falling for her, aren’t you?”

“Who? Fallon?”

“No, the other woman you have living with you.” She rolls her eyes. “Yes, Fallon.”

“I care about her.” I shrug.

“You care about her.” She eyes me curiously. “I think you more than just care about her.”

I consider her words.

“It’s strange. I was completely content living my life the way I always had.”

“And by that you mean, satisfying yourself with the endless parade of women that have always fallen at your feet.”

“Yeah, yeah. Fuck you,” I jab at her playfully. “But yes, I guess you could say that. And then out of nowhere, Fallon walks into my life and I swear, everything feels different.”

“Because you love her.”

“Seems a little premature to be throwing the L word around, don’t you think.”

“Love doesn’t have a time frame. When you fall, you fall.” She ponders her own words.

“You talk like you know this from experience. Anything you want to tell me?”

“What?” She straightens her shoulders. “No, of course not.”

“You sure there isn’t someone special in your life?”

“Maybe there was, a long time ago, anyway. But that feels like another life.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of this.”

“It’s not like I make it a habit of sharing intimate details about my love life with you.” She gives me a knowing look.

“On second thought, you’re right. I don’t want to know.” I chuckle. “Just let me say this, when and if you meet someone, they are going to be the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.”

“You have to say that because I’m your sister.”

“Doesn’t make it any less true.”

She gives me a soft smile, pushing away from the work bench.

“Well, I guess I should let you get back to it. I need to take a shower and then start packing. My car will be here to get me at eleven.”

“Tell you what, you go take a shower, I’ll finish up here, and then I’ll join you inside in a few minutes. We might have the stuff to make chocolate chip pancakes.”

“God, we haven’t made those since we were kids.”

“And I haven’t gotten any better at it.” I laugh.

“Well lucky for you, I have.” She turns, heading for the door.

“I’ll see you inside in a minute.”

“Sounds good.” She shuffles out of the shop.

---