He nodded. “They’re visiting my sister—” His hand rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck.
Right. Kenna. Our sister. Our parents.
I couldn’t bring myself to refer to them as such. Not now. Who knew when. None of it seemed real.
The awkwardness between us stretched at the mention of Kenna. An unexpected ribbon of anger went through me. I wasn’t sure who I was mad at. “Everyone” seemed like the answer. But mostly, I was upset that I had a sister who was virtually a stranger to me and a brother who confused the hell out of me. I was the odd one out in this scenario, the one who got the short end of the stick. Strong and startling emotions burst within me, one of them being jealousy. I was jealous of Grayson… Kenna too. They had each other. They grew up as a family in this beautiful home, not that I gave a shit about material things. It was more of what this house stood for. Love. Stability. Family. Security.
Feelings of always longing for a sibling reared up inside me. There was a comfort in numbers, and I thought having someone else besides me to deal with my mother would have made my life tolerable. Not that it was always horrible. There was a time when I was younger when things seemed normal, happy.
Then it all went to shit. Angie drank more. My parents fought often. Before I knew it, they were divorcing and I moved in with the Pattersons. What took years seemed to happen in a blink of an eye.
Grayson forked a hand through his dark hair. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say,” he finally said, cutting through the silence.
“How about that you’re my brother, for starters?” The statement blurted out of me. “God, you’re my brother,” I said again, trying to make it all sink in and make sense.
He flinched but otherwise remained unaffected by my tone. “It wasn’t my intention for you to find out like that.”
It wasn’t his intention for me to find out at all. “And how exactly did you plan on telling me? Or should I ask, were you ever going to tell me?” I replied with heavy saltiness. Bottled-up anger leaked out. I didn’t know how upset I was with Grayson until I got here.
A part of me was so damn thrilled to have siblings. The other part was spitting mad. I’d been kept in the dark, lied to. I might have gone my entire life not knowing I belonged to another family.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he admitted, massaging his temple. “I hadn’t made up my mind until I saw that asshole hit you.” His eyes blazed as if he too relived that night again and again, a dark memory that never went away.
This morning I’d woken up with one hell of a nasty bruise on my cheek. It was impossible to miss. Concealer helped, but it shone for Grayson to see, deep in color against my ivory skin. “I never did get a chance to thank you for coming to my rescue.” Some of the harshness left my voice.
He scoffed, grabbing for an open bottle on the end table between us. “I don’t want your thanks. You never should have been alone with him. That’s on me.”
I eyed the beer. It was a little early to be drowning his problems in booze, but I didn’t say anything. Who was I to judge? I had a mother who started each morning with a Bloody Mary instead of a cup of coffee. “It wasn’t your fault,” I said. I should have known Grayson would blame himself. And we were getting off-topic. Carter wasn’t why I was here. I took a breath, regrouping. “Look, I get this is difficult and you're feeling all kinds of crazy shit, because I’m feeling it too. I’m angry at you, at Brock, at Carter, at my mom.”
Grayson chuckled, shaking his head, which only fueled my rage.
“This is not fucking funny, Grayson,” I snapped.
“No. It is definitely not, but I see what he means,” he said after taking a swig from his drink.
“Who?” I asked, though I had a good assumption.
His entire face relaxed. “Brock pointed out once that you and Kenna both have the same temper. It is so strange to have you here, yelling at me. It’s what Kenna would have done.”
I scowled, my lips pressing together. “I want to meet her.” The demand just blurted out of me. I blinked, realizing it was true. I wanted to see her so much, this girl who looked just like me—my sister.
The momentary smile vanished from his lips, the softening of his features going with it. “When the time is right, when it is safe, I will drive you myself.”
His response didn’t make me feel any better, but I understood how many lives this secret touched. “Fine. But I won’t wait forever.”
An exhale loosened the tightness in his frame, and he sank a little deeper into the chair. Had he been afraid of what I would do with the information? “Thanks. I mean it. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. If the roles were reversed, I don’t think I’d be this understanding or patient,” he admitted. “I’m the hothead in the family.”
“Good to know.” I flashed him a quick smile, feeling a bit better after laying into him. “This is difficult for both of us. I need to know where we stand. Do you still hate me?”
He shifted in the chair. “I never hated you, Josie. I was mostly scared.”
He used my name, and some unknown emotion spun in my belly. “Of me?”
“Of what you could do. I didn’t know if you knew who you were. It was one thing to read about you on a piece of paper. Seeing you… I don’t know, I just…”
“Felt wary?” I supplied.
“Yeah, I guess so.” His voice grew quiet. “Our history with Carter only added to it.”