The five of us are a tight-knit little family.
Riley. Hope. Penny. Me.
We’re sisters, even if it’s not by blood.
Hope and Penny are the only ones of us who share any DNA, but they’re not sisters—they’re cousins.
And Mercy…
She may be Hope’s biological daughter, but we all love her as if she’s our own.
“If I have siblings out there… I want to know them.”
“I would, too,” I tell her softly, knowing it’s a touchy subject, a painful reminder of her past. “I’ll get Jake to come over tomorrow. He’ll give you all the details you need, and after you hear him out… we’ll decide where to go from there. ‘Kay?”
“Yeah…” she says, a touch of hesitation in her tone. “You sure we can trust this guy?”
I lift a shoulder and let it drop. “As much as we can trust anyone. He seems genuine. I believe what he told me today, so I think it’s smart for you to hear him out.”
“And he didn’t say anything else?”
“Not about you, no.”
“Oh?” She leans her elbow on the counter, resting her chin in her hand. Arching her brow, she puts all her attention on me. “Color me curious.”
“It wasn’t anything important,” I say, realizing that I fucked up. I said too much and now she’s not going to let it go.
A snort comes from the living room, and I whip around, leveling Penny with a glare.
“Sounds like there’s a story,” she quietly chimes in, carefully maneuvering herself out from under Mercy, who’s fallen asleep halfway through the movie.
“No doubt. There’s gotta be a story,” Riley agrees.
Shaking my head, I roll my eyes, but I can feel the heat rising in my cheeks.
Penny joins us in the kitchen, eyeing me with a teasing grin. “This Jake guy must be hot as fuck to get a reaction like that out of Lexi,” she says to Riley as she slips onto the stool next to me. “Look at that blush!”
“Shut up! It’s not like that,” I deny, sliding my phone out of my back pocket.
“I think it’s exactly like that,” Riley says knowingly.
Ignoring the teasing barbs they toss back and forth about me, I shoot off a text to Jake, asking if he can stop by tomorrow to talk to Riley. He responds immediately.
“He wants to know what time,” I say aloud, interrupting their fun.
“Sometime after lunch,” Penny suggests.
Riley nods her agreement, so I pass it on to Jake and he promises to be here.
A small thrill of excitement runs through me.
Tomorrow…
Jake will fill Riley in on all the details he wouldn’t give me, and she’ll hopefully have the answers to all the questions I’m sure are filling her head. I’m happy Riley might have some “real” family, but I can’t deny that some part of me is anxiously anticipating seeing Jake again.
And that…
Well, I’m not sure exactly what that means.