“That’s stupid,” Charlie said flatly. “That all happened before I was even born.”
“And after you were born, too,” Cecilia corrected.
“Still,” Charlie said, waving her hand in dismissal. “You’ve lived in California for-freaking-ever. They need to get over it.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” I agreed, shooting Charlie a small smile. Leave it to a kid to get to the bottom of shit and tell it like it is.
“I think if you give enough reason for a person to dislike you, or distrust you, or whatever,” Cecilia said gently to Charlie, “it’s really hard to come back from that, no matter how long it’s been.”
“Bullshit,” Charlie said firmly. She shook her head. “We’re family.”
Cecilia smiled at her little sister, inhaling shakily. “Fair enough,” she said. “But remember what I said. It’s hard to come back from that—so don’t be an asshole.”
“Too late,” Charlie replied, rolling her eyes again. “I can’t help it—it’s in my genes.” She stood up and stretched. “I’m going to go find Molly—we’re all staying at her house tonight so the ’rents can be at the hospital with Leo. I bet she’d take Olive, too, if you asked.”
“Thanks, toots,” Cecilia replied. “I think I’ll keep her with me, though. She’s too little to be away from me that long.”
As soon as Charlie left the room, Cecilia groaned and laid a now sleeping Olive back on the floor so she could fix her shirt.
“Fuck, my back hurts,” she complained.
“I bet it does,” I said unsympathetically. “What the fuck were you thinkin’?”
“Can we not do this now?” she pleaded. “You can yell at me for as long as you want later. I promise I’ll just sit there and let you tear me a new one—but the day isn’t over, and we need to go to the hospital.”
“You need to lay down and rest,” I argued.
“I need to be at the hospital,” she said, getting to her feet. She took a step toward me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “I need to be there for my sister.”
“You sure?” I asked, running my hands up the back of her thighs.
“I know she might not want me there,” she said quietly. “But, if I don’t go, then I’m making the decision not to support her. You know?”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said with a sigh, wishing I didn’t. She needed Lily to know that she was there—even if it went over like a lead balloon.
We stayed like that for a minute, each of us getting our bearings. It had been a hell of a day, and she was right. It wasn’t over yet.
“You sure you don’t want to rest for a little while?” I asked, gripping her hips. “They’re gonna be up there all night.”
“I’m sure,” she said, bending a little to kiss me. It was closed mouthed, and simple, but she lingered there before pulling away. “I’m going to crash the minute I lay down. We need to go before the adrenalin wears off.”
“Baby,” I said as she stepped back, “I’ll be surprised if you don’t pass out on the way there.”
“Maybe Forrest has some uppers,” she joked, stripping out of her dirty pants and reaching for a clean pair. “I’ll grab her bag. Can you put the car seat on the bed?”
“Sure,” I said, going for the seat in the corner. “When did you bring this in?”
“My mom must’ve,” she replied, crouching by the diaper bag with a small groan of pain. “She was probably going to take Olive with her before she decided to leave her with Charlie.”
“Charlie’s kinda young, don’t you think?” I asked tentatively. It wasn’t really my place to say anything, but I wasn’t super comfortable leaving a newborn with Cecilia’s kid sister.
“I was babysitting at her age,” Cec replied. “But yeah, wouldn’t be my first choice. Mom probably thought it would be okay, since there’s always an adult here somewhere.”
“Makes sense,” I conceded as I lifted Olive from the floor.
“I’m glad she was able to go with Lily,” Cecilia said as she dropped the bag on the bed and reached for Olive. “She must’ve been freaking out.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Leo didn’t look good.”
“I know,” Cecilia said quietly.
“Cec—” I hesitated.
“I know,” she said, her voice wobbling.
“His hand, baby,” I continued gently anyway. “Not sure how many of those fingers they’ll be able to save.”
“I’m not thinking about it until we know for sure,” she choked out, buckling the baby.
“He might not be able to sit a bike—”
“Later,” she said, cutting me off. “We’ll talk about it all later, okay?”
“Alright,” I said, laying my hand on the back of her neck, threading my fingers through her hair. I gave a soft squeeze before letting her go.
I grabbed the car seat and followed Cecilia out to the main room of the club, which had pretty much cleared out by then. Forrest was cleaning up supplies and there were a few random guys milling around, but otherwise, things were quiet beyond the table that my team was seated around.