Page 42 of A Wreck, You Make Me (Bad Boys of Bardstown #3)

So I should stop worrying about him and start worrying about why I came here.

Callie sounded confused on the phone when I mentioned that what I’m here to talk about involves her brothers as well.

She probably expects something drastic, but I don’t think even she can guess what exactly it is that I’m here to say.

Even so, like the most amazing friend she is, she springs up from her seat as soon as she sees me and rushes over. Like Tempest, she gives me a tight hug, meant to reassure me. Then it’s Wyn’s turn, who also rushes over to wrap her arms around me, and I swear it takes everything in me to hold on.

So it’s a good thing that when the welcome is over, Conrad speaks in a calm but authoritative tone. “Let’s take it to the living room.”

His command is followed by the screeching of chairs and rustling of people springing up from their seats.

Then everyone is shuffling out and walking down the hallway to the living room.

They all grab a seat where they can, with Callie herding me toward an armchair in the corner.

She gently motions me to sit and then takes a seat on the arm.

Tempest stands right beside me and Wyn stands right beside her in a show of solidarity.

They didn’t need to do that, but I’m thankful they did.

And I guess there’s nothing else to do but to speak.

“I’m…” I begin, running my hands up and down my shorts and my thighs and deciding to keep my eyes firmly planted on the floor.

I don’t think I’d be able to take it if I had to look at their faces while I tell them the truth.

I need to get everything out first, make my case for Snow, and only then will I be able to face it, their judgement or hatred or whatever it is their reaction is.

“First, I know this is weird. Me coming over like this. So I’m sorry…

about all the weirdness and stuff.” I lick my lips, staring at their shoes.

“And second, I’ve imagined this moment a hundred times in my head.

I’ve imagined coming over to your house and…

talking to you all. Telling you this story… ”

I shake my head and keep wiping my sweaty hands up and down my thighs.

Tempest squeezes my shoulder in encouragement, and I take a deep breath.

“I guess for you to understand everything, I have to start at the beginning. When my mother was married to my father, she had an affair with another man. My dad found out about it”—I clench my eyes shut—“through me, and left us. He divorced my mother and never looked back. I was five at the time. And then, a few months later, my mom married this man. For years, we lived in a small suburban town in Pennsylvania. My mother never really worked, but my stepdad did. He had odd jobs here and there. Until he started getting fired from them. For, uh, his drinking.”

I notice their shoes moving, then. I hear the rustle of someone sitting up on the couch.

Someone else has uncrossed their legs, as if becoming alert.

As if starting to realize where this might be headed.

But I keep going or I’ll never get this out.

“He’d get fired left and right, come home and be angry. Take it out on my mother.”

This time there’s a light gasp, and I think it’s from Callie because she reaches out and grab my hand, squeezing it.

I squeeze it back and keep going. “It’s okay though.

It’s fine. Because my mother, she knows how to take care of herself.

She knows how to… hit back, I guess. Oh God, what am I saying?

” I close my eyes again before continuing, “None of this is okay. But that’s not the point of this story.

The point is, years passed until my stepdad, he got a job here.

In Bardstown, and so we packed up and moved away from home and came here.

I was twelve at the time and that’s when I found out.

About you all. Because my stepdad is,” I clench my teeth, “ your dad. Jeremy Thorne.”

At this, Callie squeezes my hand. Hard . I hear not only shuffling of feet and squeaking of the couch as my stepsiblings change positions and go alert, but also of a couple of masculine growls. I want to look up then and see what they’re thinking. But I have to make sure to get the whole story out.

“I know,” I begin again, squeezing Callie’s hand and hoping she doesn’t hate me too much.

“This raises a lot of questions, and I’ll answer all of them.

But I’m sorry to say that’s also not the point of the story.

The point is that when my mom was having an affair with your dad, she got pregnant.

With my sister. She never told anyone, definitely not my dad.

Until the truth about her affair came out and my dad finally realized that my sister isn’t his daughter, but,” another deep breath, “Jeremy’s. ”

“What the fuck?”

This, I know for sure is from Ledger.

But I keep going regardless. “God, I know it gets more fucked up by the second, but I want you to know that I wanted to tell you. So many times over the years, I wanted to… But every time I saw you guys in town, you looked so happy . So together, so… like a family. The kind I’ve never had.

The kind that I wanted for myself and… And I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t put you guys through all that shit all over again.

” I swallow. “And when I became friends with Callie”—her hand spasms in mine and I squeeze it once again—“and actually saw how you guys were, how much you loved each other and looked out for each other and just were there for each other, there was no way I could’ve ever brought it up.

There was no way I was ever going to bring him up. But again, that’s not…”

I come to the edge of my seat, my breaths choppy and on the verge of breaking.

“My sister, she needs help. She’s sick. She…

She has a heart condition. It’s genetic, and last year, she had a big surgery where they replaced her heart.

And they told us that everything would be okay.

That she’d live a long and happy life and…

But last night, she got sick again. Her body is rejecting her new heart.

They’re saying her blood is defective and she n-needs…

She needs another surgery. She n-needs a bone marrow transplant.

They say siblings are the best match but I…

I’m not a match. I can’t help her. I can’t…

“Look, I know this is a lot to ask. You don’t even know me except as Callie’s friend, and now you know I’m a liar too.

I hid things from you when I should’ve… When I should’ve told you.

I should’ve come to you before and it feels like a betrayal, I know.

But please, please don’t punish Snow for that.

Not that you said you would, but I… She’s really sweet, my sister.

She’s only seventeen and she loves books, and she loves soccer.

God, does she love soccer. She loves all of you guys.

She’s seen all of your games. She has your wallpaper on her computer and her phone and…

And she wants to go c-college. I mean, I keep telling her she should go but she doesn’t want to leave me.

She says she won’t go until I go, but she’s so smart.

She’s so bright and I-I love her so much.

She’s the only thing I have in this life.

I can’t… I can’t lose her. I can’t… She’s my baby.

And I… I have her picture on my phone and I can show you. I can…”

But I trail off because first, even though I know where I put my phone, in my back pocket, I still somehow can’t reach it. Probably because my hands are shaking so bad. And second, because just as I stop speaking and fumble for my phone, I’m enveloped in the tightest hug of the night.

By Callie.

And she whispers, “It’s okay. It’s fine. You’re with family now.”

And I guess that was the last straw because I break down crying.

I sag in her hold with relief, with exhaustion, with all the love I have for her.

I know she never knew, but I always considered her more than a friend.

I always looked at her like a sister and wished so hard that she’d do the same.

And she is now, isn’t she? It hardly took any effort.

All I had to do was tell the truth and she accepted me as I am.

That gives me the courage to open my eyes and at last look up.

Only for my eyes to land on somehow the last and also the only person I wanted to see.

Him . He’s standing off to the side. In fact, he isn’t really in the living room even but still at the mouth of the hallway, by the stairs.

I’m not sure when he arrived or how he got there without me noticing—probably used the back door, but I can’t be sure—but somehow I know he heard everything.

He was there for every single second, and he heard every single word.

He never gave me a chance to explain that night.

Not that he owed me his time but if he had, I would’ve told him.

I would’ve told him everything. About when I saw him for the first time and how I followed him around for years.

I probably would’ve told him everything in my heart so he could crush it and have his revenge.

Maybe it would have made everything even sweeter for him than leaving me on the floor, naked, my core pulsing from the touch of his boot.

And now that he knows everything, I have absolutely no idea what he’s thinking right now. All I know is that his eyes are locked on me.