“Karma would chew him up and spit him out,” she teased, but I didn’t have it in me to smile back. “She told me what happened.”
“I guessed that,” I muttered seriously, sipping my water. My eyes moved toward Karma, but she knew better than to look in my direction. Blabbermouth!
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Not even a little bit,” I added because it would spoil her good mood. She might be my little sister, but the three of us were super protective of one another.
“You called us on the way to work. You sounded so happy. I thought—"
“Faith.” I sighed. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine,” I interrupted because I wasn’t ready to have a moment at my parents’ house. It was bad enough that Karma had spilled the beans to Faith, and something told me she’d blabbed to our parents as well.
“Joy—"
“Faith. It’s fine,” I repeated. It wasn’t. But it wouldn’t help anyone if I spontaneously burst into tears. I was the oldest. I kept those things to myself.
“Okay…” she gave in. “But just think about it.” She was relentless.
“Faith.” I shot her a look, and she gave me puppy eyes before resting her head on my shoulder.
“I just want my sister to be as happy as I am,” she whispered. I looked over her shoulder to the man sitting next to her. Sure enough, Major Crew McCabe’s gaze was set softly on my sister with so much love in her direction it made me smile.
“I’m happy you two found one another. That’s good enough for me,” I told her sincerely, meeting her gaze, and she smiled.
“It happened because of you.” That was kind of true. I had talked my sister, both of them, into joining the pen pal program, which was how Faith and Crew’s paths crossed.
Just like Linc’s and mine.I swallowed hard. No. Not just like that because lightning didn’t strike twice.
I hugged my sister and got up to go inside. The wine bottle on the table had finished way too quickly. It was Sunday, and I was officially on summer break. I was going to let myself drink way too much, quietly wallow in my broken heart, and make Karma’s big mouth drive me home.
“There you are,” my dad said, stepping into the kitchen, raising an eyebrow as he took notice of the bottle of wine in my hands.
I was thirty years old, yet for some reason, I still felt like an eighteen-year-old getting caught underage drinking. “We were running out.” I lifted the bottle and shrugged. My dad looked at me for a beat and nodded.
He walked toward me, took the bottle, and looked at the label.
“Good choice,” he murmured, settling it on the counter before turning to look at me. My dad was tall, six one with a full head of hair that much to my mom’s dismay was still mostly dark. Somehow, her crazy shenanigans hadn’t made him go gray. “I think we can do better than this,” he muttered as he reached the top cabinet where I knew he stored the hard liquor.
“Margaritas?” he suggested as he brought down on of his best tequila bottles. “Your grandpa used to say that tequila cured everything,” he muttered. I rolled my eyes.
“Who snitched?” I asked even though I had a feeling I knew.
“Karma,” my dad answered. He never lied to us. That had been a family rule in our household. “But she did it because she’s worried,” he added, and I sighed.
“How about we skip the lemonade and get Mom’s blender dirty and just let me have shots?” I negotiated and didn’t miss the way his lips twitched with humor.
“You should have gone into business,” he teased, and I laughed. “Wanna talk about it?”
“No,” I repeated and frowned. I was close to my dad, and I didn’t like keeping things from him. “Love sucks,” I whispered, biting down on the inside of my cheek to keep me from crying. My dad nodded as if he understood.
“Sometimes. But sometimes, there’s an explanation to everything.”
“You would think that, but—"
“This…Lincoln? That’s his name?”
“Jesus, Karma and her big mouth!” I groaned. My dad’s deep laughter filled the room.
“Lincoln is in the Navy?” he asked, not dropping the subject.