Page 107 of Alive At Night

But I was curious…

“You talked to Juni about the wedding?”

“Of course I talked to Juni about the wedding.”

“And did she…what did she say?”

Gemma’s eyes narrowed. “Julian John Briggs, what did youdo?”

I cleared my throat and looked back at my eldest sister, noticing how all my other sisters seemed to be leaning toward us with interest, too.

“I had a great time at the wedding,” I said, the biggest oversimplification and understatement all in one sentence. “And I think Juni enjoyed herself, too.”

It wasn’t a lie. Technically.

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Gemma grunted, folding her arms across her chest.

“There might have been some problems at work this week,” I allowed.

Also not a lie. Not technically.

Gemma scowled. “I knew you did something. You’re always so hard on her for no reason. But she’s never not shown up before, so whatever you did this time…”

Her voice trailed off in an attempt for me to fill in the blank. But that wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t tell Gemma what happened when I still hadn’t fully wrapped my head around it.

Gemma’s lips pressed together firmly when I remained quiet. Her eyes pleaded a bit, but all I could do was shake my head apologetically, and she flicked her gaze down to her lap, giving up.

Fuck.

Gemma had been critiquing my relationship with Juni for years, but something about this time hit differently. Maybe because I realized how right she was. Maybe because the thought of anyone being hard on Juni, myself included, made my hands ball into fists. Juni didn’t deserve that. She deserved the world.

I wanted to give her the world. I wanted to give her the world so fucking bad, but I didn’t know how to juggle that and work and my relationship with Gems.

Although, right now, I was dropping every single ball anyway.

I stood, pulling out my phone. “I’ll text her.”

“You better,” Josie piped in this time. She was twirling one of her short curls around her finger while shooting me an icy look.

“Yeah, I was excited to see her,” Genevieve added, her small voice nearly cracking my heart.

“Fix it. She better be here at Christmas, Julian,” Gemma warned, pulling my attention back toward her again. “Or else.”

Disappointing my sisters was thelastthing I wanted out of this mess, so I heaved a sigh and walked off toward the garage, finding solace in the cool air and the quiet. I stared at my phone, unsure where to even start.

After a few minutes, I decided to text what felt most natural. What felt most true.

We miss you.

DAISY: We?

My sisters. But mostly me.

DAISY: You saw me yesterday.

It isn’t the same.

DAISY: I thought you’d be happy. You finally get a holiday without having me around to annoy you.

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