Braxton’s sister looked barely old enough to know long division. How the hell could this kid be pregnant and married already? My gaze moved around the church, stuck playing duck, duck, goose, because I didn’t know where else to put it.
This was so fucking fucked.
Braxton should have warned us. I’d get in her ass later, but right now…
Rosalie’s cheery voice, despite the palpable tension around her, brought my attention right back to her. “Hi, I’m Braxton’s sister, Rosalie,” she introduced. She never lost that sweet smile on her face despite my feeling and probably looking like I needed a drink.
“Loren.” I forced a smile as I held out my hand, which she eagerly shook as she jumped up and down. She didn’t appear to be someone who’d spent the night in the hospital, though I still didn’t know the reason why.
“I can’t believe it’s really you! Braxton talks about you all the time, except she mostly calls you names I can’t repeat, or I’ll be grounded until I’m thirty.”
Jesus.
I didn’t know how much more I could take of this shit. I couldn’t believe I’d ever mistaken Braxton for innocent when her sister really took the cake. Thankfully, she moved on to Houston, who was better at hiding his chaotic thoughts.
Rosalie talked his ear off about her going into labor early—the reason for her short hospital stay and our visit—and was too excited to notice his short responses. Meanwhile, I studied Braxton’s parents, who had pulled her aside. Braxton was the spitting image of her mother, a stone-cold fox even with her mouth’s rigid set and the added years. I knew I had the coldness right, at least as I witnessed the way Mrs. Fawn regarded her own daughter.
I recognized that look a mile away.
It was the same disdain my father had shown me many times, and my mother was too weak to tell him any different.
When it looked like they started to argue, I made up my mind to come to Braxton’s rescue when she caught my gaze at that exact moment and subtly shook her head.
Blowing out air, I forced myself to stay put as I shifted my attention to the trio hovering near Rosalie. I dismissed the older couple, and I narrowed my eyes on the pimple-faced shit standing next to them. I knew he was the one responsible for knocking up baby sis. His blond hair covered his eyes as he stood there slouched in black slacks and a tie like he was bored out of his mind and uninterested in anything—including his new wife.
When he noticed me staring, he hesitated for only a moment or two before inching away from his parents.
“I’m Pete,” he said excitedly as if I gave a shit. “I’m a huge fan, man.”
As I pulled a stick of gum from my pocket, unwrapped it, and slipped the stick between my lips, I did some soul searching and reminded myself that he was just a kid too. I seriously doubted the marriage and baby carriage were his doing any more than Rosalie’s.
I knew what had been his bright idea, though.
“Not of wrapping up, apparently.”
Stupid shit frowned before realizing what I meant. He looked a little older than Rosalie, maybe a year or two, so I knew who was the predator and who had been the prey.
It was always the same shit, just a different generation.
“Oh. Yeah,” he said, his gaze turning shifty as he chuckled nervously. “It’s cool though because Rosalie and I…um…oh, we’re in love. Hey, do you think I could get an autograph?”
I kept my expression blank as I stared at him. I couldn’t believe Braxton’s parents allowed a precious thing like Rosalie to marry someone who sounded like he ate paint chips for an afterschool snack.
I turned to Rich, who’d been watching and listening the entire time. Rosalie was still talking Houston’s ear off, so she hadn’t gotten to him yet. Now that she wasn’t fangirling anymore, it sounded like she was ripping him a new one for being mean to her big sister. I laughed to myself at the fire in her already before getting pissed all over again.
What a waste.
“I’ll be outside,” I told Jericho, ignoring Peter the Skeeter’s request for an autograph. One of the others could hook him up.
I was outside for maybe ten minutes before Braxton found me. Houston and Rich were right behind her, and the three of us watched her stare off in the distance at nothing in particular before turning to us. “Can we go now?”
I was nodding before I could even form words. “Hell yeah.”
We started for the rental before the sound of Rosalie’s voice stopped Braxton in her tracks. I almost groaned out loud when she turned around. I needed to get her the hell out of here and sooner rather than later. If I could get away with it, I’d take baby sis with me too.
Rosalie was timid now as she slowly approached with a blush staining her cheeks when she noticed she had more than just her sister’s attention. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she stared at the ground while she spoke, and I almost snapped at her to pick her damn head up. Braxton would have castrated me, even if she did agree because it wasn’t my place and never would be.
Leaning back against the rental, I kept my mouth shut by blowing bubbles with my gum as Houston and Rich stood next to me.
“I know you’re mad at me, Brax, but I really wish you wouldn’t be,” Rosalie pleaded. “I’m okay. I promise.”
“And that’s the problem, Rosalie. You shouldn’t be okay. This is not what you told me you wanted.”
Rosalie finally looked up from the ground only to burst into hysterical tears when her gaze met her sister’s. They poured down her face relentlessly as she sobbed and attempted to talk through them. My heart ached for her, knowing she was being pulled in two directions and much too fragile to endure the strain.
“I know, but I was scared,” she wailed. “They were going to hate me forever, but I knew you never would, so I just did what they wanted, but I was wrong because now you do hate me, and I wish I could take it back, but I can’t.”
It took me several seconds longer than Braxton to decode and decipher Rosalie’s ramble. By the time I did, Braxton had her arms around her sister’s body as she held and attempted to soothe her.
“You were absolutely right,” Braxton told her sister. “I could never and will never hate you. I’m disappointed, and I feel responsible, but that’s my burden to bear, not yours. Take it off your shoulders because it doesn’t belong there. I told you to make the decision that was best for you, and that’s what you did. You didn’t make the one you wanted, but you made the one you thought you could live with. I get it.” Braxton took Rosalie’s drenched face in her hands and lifted her head from her chest to make their eyes meet. “And know this…no matter what, no matter when, every time you look in your corner, I’ll be right there, babe. Gloves up.”
Rosalie giggled, her eyes even bigger than Braxton’s, as her big sister attacked her sweet face with kisses. Our girl seemed reluctant to let go of her sister when she finally did pull away. Each step backward seemed weighed down as their hands held until the very last.
Their parents stood several feet away, watching their daughters closely but not intervening. I really didn’t know what to make of them. Obviously, they were devout, but that didn’t necessarily make them cruel. I guess I had no choice but to wait to hear the full story before forming an opinion, and I wouldn’t need both sides since I only gave a fuck about Braxton’s. There were still pieces of her missing, and I was eager to complete the puzzle.
“Braxton!” Rosalie called out again once the four of us were in our rental.
Rich was in the driver’s seat, ready to take us to the airport since our bags were already in the car. It was a good thing, too, since Houston decided to break the clerk’s nose before we left this morning. No one bothered asking him why, and he didn’t enlighten us.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you want to know if you’re having a niece or nephew?”
Braxton simply smiled when words failed her. There was a strain to it that she fought like hell to hide from her sister. She didn’t want to cause her any more anguish, and it only made me love her even more.
Fuck.
I never even heard the gender baby sis shouted out.
I was too busy freaking the fuck out.
I was silent the entire drive to the airport, but everyone was trapped in their own thoughts as well, so no one noticed. I was completely still as I watched the scenery pass through the window and let my mind turn on itself.
Did I love Braxton?
I felt my heart lurch in answer.
We were back at the airport and boarding the plane to Seattle before I knew it. We had a show tomorrow, but our gig was the last thing on my mind. I was tripping all over my feelings and Braxton’s.
Whatever hers may be.
I wanted to sit her the fuck down, take her hands in mine, and ask if she loved me too. Even with my zero experience, though, I was smart enough to know I’d only look like a lunatic, so I refrained.
Thankfully, Houston was around to distract me by being a dick per usual. When he spoke, I sat back in my seat as we waited for the plane to take off and pretended I didn’t want to make demands of my own.
“Start talking, Fawn.”
