Braxton was no help as we searched for accommodations. The brat sat and brooded in the backseat with Rich while Loren rode up front as I drove around aimlessly for half an hour.
I’d fix her, though.
Eventually, we found a motel near the airport ran by someone who hadn’t recognized us. The innkeeper smiled like he was in on the joke when I asked for one room, and he noticed there were three of us and only one of her.
I wrote his name on my mental checklist and accepted the key to our room.
We were given one on the first floor that smelled like mothballs and smoke even though I’d asked for non-smoking. The small room had wood paneling for walls and shag carpeting in a deep shade of red. There was a box TV on top of an old dresser that I doubt turned on much less worked, a table with two chairs in front of the one window draped by white curtains that had a green, geometric pattern. All I cared about was the king bed centered in the room as exhaustion washed over me for the third time since arriving.
“So,” Loren said after we were all inside, and he’d taken a seat at the foot of the bed. Rich was sitting in one of the chairs staring at his phone as he checked for updates on how well canceling our show had gone while I hovered by the door. I didn’t trust Braxton not to run through it the moment our guard was down. “You have a sister.”
Braxton looked up from the suitcase she was now rifling through to look at each of us. The anger and disappointment in her eyes were momentarily replaced by guilt when she realized we were still in the dark where she’d left us nine, almost ten hours ago.
“I guess I haven’t been very forthcoming.”
Understatement.
“We should have asked,” Rich told her, hefting some of the blame onto our shoulders, which I accepted.
How could I feel this deeply without knowing everything about her?
I knew she preferred her left hand even though she was dominant in both. I knew that she held onto her grudges because she hated the truth that she was hopelessly forgiving. I knew she took her coffee black, gorged on action movies, and preferred sleeping in the nude until well after noon. I knew she didn’t wholly believe in the God she prayed to when she thought no one was looking. I knew that her voice’s pitch had been perfected by the synesthesia she’d only hinted at when she told Loren the lyrics he was working on sounded blue.
I knew all of that, yet there were large and notable gaps that needed to be filled. I was also sure there was nothing else I could learn that would alter my course and that scared the shit out of me.
“I have a younger sister,” she supplied with a nod. “Her name is Rosalie.” Standing with the items she needed for her shower, she stared at the floor as her mind turned over the thoughts and fears plaguing her. “She wanted to be a doctor someday.”
I wasn’t sure how many dots she expected us to connect with that, but Braxton made it obvious she was done sharing when she disappeared inside the bathroom before closing and locking the door.My eyes had barely opened the next morning when I was thrown on my back by Houston, who I’d apparently draped half my body on top of while I slept. He quickly settled between my legs, keeping me trapped with his weight as he peered down into my eyes.
He was angry, and I understood why.
Last night, I refused to talk when I knew they were eager to listen. I’d made demands with no explanation of why I needed them. They hadn’t complained. They simply gave. The only exception had been letting me run away from my problems.
The sweet and woodsy scent of his clove soap wafted off his warm skin, so I knew he must have taken a shower last night. Combined with the intensity of his green gaze, I felt like I was standing in the middle of an evergreen forest. If that forest also smelled like vanilla.
“I know you’re mad,” I blurted when he shoved his sweats off his hips. He then reached over Loren, still sleeping deeply next to us, to flip open the wallet he’d left on the nightstand. I knew already what Houston would grab from inside.
“Mad? No.” Plucking a condom free from Loren’s wallet, Houston tore it open with his teeth before I watched him roll it down his long, thick dick. “I’m livid, baby.”
I tasted cherries on my tongue while my head was scrambling to figure my way out of the trouble I’d landed myself in.
“Okay, I hear you, and I’m ready to talk now.”