Page 24 of First Comes Revenge

I puff up my chest. “That’s right. It was me.”

“My hero,” she laughs. She puts her hand on my arm, then pulls it back a little too quickly.

“So you said you have a sister?” I ask.

“I do. Dani is my older sister. People are always surprised we’re related because we look nothing alike. She’s red haired and blue eyed. I’m…this,” she says, gesturing to herself.

I do a chef’s kiss, grinning. “Thisis great, by the way.”

She chews the corner of her lip. “And my little sister, Maddie, is sixteen. She’s going through some kind of phase, but she’s really sweet once you get past how she’s trying to come off. My last sibling is Troy. He’s thirty-four and he used to compete in these strongman competitions. He doesn’t do that anymore, but he could probably still rip a door off its hinges. And he’s kind of super protective.”

“Yet Vaughn is still breathing?”

“I haven’t exactly told him the truth about the breakup. I don’t want Troy to wind up in jail. Right now, my family knows it’s over, but they think we just drifted apart.”

“Anyone know the truth?”

“Just you and Dani. I usually tell my friends everything, but they’re both out of town right now for a girl’s trip. I canceled on them at the last minute so I could go to the convention in Arizona. I’m really not looking forward to telling them, though. I’ve been fibbing when they text for updates because I know everybody is just going to say they told me so.”

“From where I’m sitting, I’d say your abundant ability to trust a scumbag shows how kind you are. And that’s a good thing.”

“I’m sure that has nothing to do with you being exactly the kind of guy women probably never trust?”

“Nothing at all,” I say, smirking.

“What about you?” she asks. “Only child? Or are there other Wolfes running around out there.” She makes a show of shuddering, as if the thought is terrifying.

“Two. Cleo and Kate are my sisters. Cleo is an esthetician. It’s like a makeup artist, sort of.”

“I know what it is,” Charli says with a half smile.

“Oh. Yeah, well that’s Cleo. She’s twenty-six. Or maybe she’s twenty-seven, now, actually. And then Kate is finishing her legal degree. She works as an intern when she’s not in class. She’s always busy as hell. She’s twenty-two.”

“Are you and your sisters close?”

“Somewhat. I was already finishing high school when they were starting elementary. I think I was more like a shitty dad to them than a brother.”

“Oh, come on. I bet you weren’t shitty.”

I shrug. “Shitty in the sense that I probably let them get away with way more than I should’ve. We were always racing shopping carts and crashing into bushes. Sometimes we’d all pile on my skateboard and go downhill, dodging traffic until we dented a car and had to run for it.”

Charli is smiling. “You sound like a good not-dad to me. My older brother just taught me not to share anything. If anybody ever did something remotely wrong, he wanted to kill them. So I had to keep everything bottled up. I guess I learned not to rock the boat, you know?”

I nod. “Been there. Except I think I chose a different path. My dad was a piece of shit. Impossible to please. Always riding us. Maybe I could’ve learned to play nice, but I went the other way. I looked for every opportunity to piss him off. I think I figured he’d eventually burn out, you know? Over-exposure to my shittiness would eventually just fry his ability to get mad. But then he split up with my mom when I was in college. Mom kind of withdrew. She blamed herself. I blamed myself. Yada yada.”

Charli’s forehead scrunches. “You shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“Nah, maybe not. But you know how that stuff is. And I really was a shit. It had to be part of why he wanted nothing to do with us.”

Charli surprises me by reaching over and hugging me tight. “I’m sorry,” she says.

I’m struck by an unexpected wave of emotion. I didn’t think I really cared about any of it anymore, but her sympathy makes me see it all in a different light. “It’s no big deal,” I say, even though I don’t particularly feel it at the moment. “That was a long time ago, anyway.”

She just hugs me a little tighter. I put an arm around her and give a squeeze. “But if talking about my sad past is going to get you to keep doing that, I can go on.”

Charli lets go and I can’t help laughing when I see she’s a little teary eyed. “What the hell?” I say, still chuckling. I reach up to wipe her eyes.

She shakes her head. “I get emotional easily, okay? Don’t make fun of me.”

---