Page 51 of Save Me

Okay, now the gloves were off.

Slowly and deliberately, Ryleigh got to her feet. She knew exactly how to move, how to look, and the tone of voice to use to put the fear of God into her little brother. “Are you threatening me?” she asked with a deadly calm she didn’t feel. Her mouth was dry, her stomach was in knots, and she was starting to sweat. “Are you that spineless and selfish that you would dare come intomyhome and start throwing threats around to get your way?” She advanced on him and almost laughed when he started to back away.

“Um…”

“Listen here, you little punk,” she snapped, giving him a hard shove. “You leave Ryker out of this because I’ll tell you what—I’m smarter than you and I can drag this out with Mom for as long as it takes. I’ll be sure to send Fallon around and I’ll even offer to go fishing with Dad so it will add fuel to the fire.” Another shove. “Donotmess with me, little brother. You are out of your league.”

“Ry, come on! You can obviously tell how desperate I am! I don’t know how to handle this sort of thing!”

“Welcome to my world! And Ari’s! We’ve been dealing with this stuff our whole lives! You’ve had to deal with it for two weeks and you’re crying already? Man up!”

“Pfft…you can’t man up to Mom and you know it!” He growled with frustration. “Just…tell me what I’m supposed to do!”

“I just did!”

“Specifics, Ryleigh! You can’t just throw out phrases like ‘man up!’ You’ve clearly been dealing with this shit longer than I have, so please! Help me!”

“Why should I? You were only thinking of yourself, Jamie. Maybe that’s what I should do and see how you like it.”

For a moment, they were at a standstill.

“You won’t do that. Not really,” he said after letting out a shaky breath. “You know what this feels like and…and…maybe now I’m realizing it’s not so funny. I’m sorry. All the times you bitched about things and I made light of it, well…now I sort of know how you felt.”

“You’ll never know because none of this has been directed at you,” she reasoned, softening slightly. “It’s making for an uncomfortable atmosphere, but none of it has anything to do with you.”

“Bringing Fallon in sort of felt like a direct jab at me.”

“Oh, please. Mom adores the entire Murphy family. They’re best friends. I’m sure there was a completely logical reason for her calling Fallon in to help.”

He didn’t look even remotely convinced.

“Here’s the thing, Jamie, this isn’t about us joining forces and making things better. Obviously, you all tried doing it for me and it didn’t work. How many times did I have to make a spectacle of myself when Ari and Will first started dating?” She shrugged. “Confronting Mom isn’t the solution for you. Talking to Dad is. I know she likes to think she wears the pants in the family, but we all know Dad’s the only one she listens to.”

“Only sometimes.”

“Yeah, well…maybe this is one of those times,” she said. “There’s only one way to find out.” Before she could say anything else, there was another knock on the door. “Ugh…I swear, if this is Ari, Liam, or Patrick, I’ll scream.”

Yanking the door open, she smiled when she found Ryker standing there.

“Hey,” he said shyly, holding up a bakery box. “I thought you might have time for an afternoon coffee break. I bought brownies. Is this a good time?”

Tugging him through the door with a small laugh, she said, “You have no idea.”

He paused when he spotted Jamie and the two of them shook hands and gave each other curt nods without saying a word.

Ugh…men…

Looking at her, Ryker asked, “Am I interrupting something?”

“Yes,” Jamie said, as Ryleigh said, “No.”

“The two of you might want to get your stories straight,” he said before walking over to the kitchen and putting the brownies on a plate.

“Ooh…brownies,” Jamie said as he came closer, and Ryleigh instantly stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

“Nuh-uh. You’ve got other things to do and I’m not feeling too kindly toward you right now so I’m definitely not sharing.”

“Seriously? I thought we were good!”

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