Always With You (The Connor Family 6)

y friends say if they heard you?”

“That your older brother is in your corner, and they’d better not mess with you.”

“Uh-huh. That will earn me so many friends. Oooh, look. I want to try this on.”

I sighed. I’d set myself up for this, so I had no one to blame but myself. I’d brought Bianca shopping on Rodeo Drive. It was her favorite activity. I liked to make her happy. “Let’s go to the evening gown department. I promise this is the last store.” She batted her eyelashes, giving me a pleading look.

“You said that three stores ago.”

“Well, it got us moving, didn’t it?”

I nodded and she darted to the dresses section, heading straight to the sales associate. At seventeen, Bianca was just as full of energy as she’d been when she was a toddler. There was a big age gap between us, because Bianca had been a miracle child for my parents. I was fifteen years older, and from the moment they brought her home, she’d become my favorite person. It was hard to grasp the fact that my little sister was now trying on prom dresses. She was a young woman, though when she had her black hair pulled back in a messy ponytail like right now, she looked much younger.

“Hmm... neither of these are good enough for prom. But I could use the black one for Mom’s parties. What do you think?”

“Buy both if you want to.”

She waggled her eyebrows, grinning.

“How’s school?” I asked after I paid, and we walked out into the blinding afternoon sun.

“Oh, you know. Same. Boring and never-ending.”

The edge in her voice clued me in that something was awry.

“Anyone giving you trouble?”

She avoided my eye, taking an inordinate amount of time closing the clasp on her bag.

“Tell me.”

“I don’t want to upset you.”

Fuck. What was going on?

“Bianca, what’s wrong?”

“Well... ever since Marion has been saying all that stuff about you, some idiots at my school have been attacking you to provoke me.”

“Bianca, you know none of that is true, right?”

I hadn’t even read everything Marion had said. After the first article showed up, I hadn’t wanted to read another word again. I’d figured since it was all lies, there would be no reason to read them.

She straightened. “Of course, I do. I showed them, right?”

“What do you mean?”

Averting her gaze, she went on. “Err... I got suspended for getting into a fight.”

Her words hit me like a punch. “Bianca....”

My sister had never gotten into trouble. She was a good kid. She liked movies more than school, and her grades weren’t all that great, but she’d never gotten into a fight until now. She’d never been suspended.

She shrugged. “It’s no big deal. It was just three days.”

“When did this happen?”

“A while ago.”