“Oh no. I should go check on her.”
Kate stepped away from Donovan and hastily gathered her scattered underwear. Donovan picked up his T-shirt and threw it on a chair close by. She’d been ready to let him ravish her even though she knew they stood in her apartment with walls that seemed to be made out of paper. She’d been so worked up, she’d let all inhibitions go.
How could she be so careless—stupid even? She certainly didn’t want to hear her sister with someone behind closed doors. Ugh, okay, time to get that thought out of my head.
“Yes, I think she needs you. Might as well sleep here tonight, cupcake. I’ll wait for you here in your room. I’ll possibly be asleep when you’ll return, but I guess that’s for the better.” He smirked and treated her to a wink. She took a deep breath and placed her clothes on the dresser next to the doorway. She grabbed her bathrobe from the hanger on the back of the door and put the black silky robe and some clean underwear on.
She glanced back over her shoulder, and sure enough, Donovan lay on her bed in his jeans only, trailing his eyes over her body, his interest clearly on display, if the bulge was anything to go by.
Swiftly, she turned her head, clearing it in the progress. She needed to see how Errin was doing. She knew her younger sister like the back of her hand. She would normally give them a lot of shit for fooling around behind closed doors, just to let them know she could hear them, but she would have ribbed them with a smile in her voice, never with anger.
She turned the lock and closed the door behind her after entering the hallway. She went straight to her sister’s room and found the door closed. A few soft knocks went unanswered.
“Errin….”
“Go away.”
“Bunny, please open the door, I’m so sorry.”
Sighing, she leaned on the door and tried thinking what to say next, but luckily she didn’t need any more words. The door opened before Kate could center herself, and she nearly flew into Errin’s room. Just in time, she grabbed the doorframe and steadied herself.
“Wow, way to make an entrance, sis.”
“Errin.”
“Now, don’t you ‘Errin’ me, Kate. You two are as loud as two horny lions in the damn zoo. Moaning and roaring and shit. I figured you of all people would have a little more respect for me than to laugh at my feelings. I know how hard it was for you at school to be an outcast. Well, I guess now I know how it feels.”
“I’m—”
“No. Leave me alone. Just go back to him. You know what? I’ll just go and pick up Harvey and give you two a concert of my own.” Errin bristled and turned around to her closet to pick up a box on her top shelf as she stood on her tiptoes. Knowing Errin’s infatuation with the Harvey character from the TV show Suits, she probably meant to pick up her vibrator or some such.
“Bunny, tell me what’s wrong. You know you can tell—”
Errin spun around and shouted, “I just freakin’ told you!”
Kate blinked at her outburst but was determined to make her sister see what had happened. “I know it was wrong of us to laugh, but the situation was just so… absurd. But I am truly sorry. It was more that we were laughing at the situation. Definitely not at you. Never, Bunny.”
Errin placed the box back on the shelf and turned around with a trembling lip. On closer inspection, Kate noticed her red-rimmed eyes and snotty nose. She’d been crying, and one thing she knew for sure about her younger sister, she never cried—not even when Gloria died in her arms when they were younger.
Gloria had been Kate’s cat when they were kids, but she couldn’t face it when she was sick and about to take her last breath. Errin stepped in and took a ghostly meowing Gloria from Kate and sat with her in the back of her closet. Kayla took care of a crying Kate while Errin soothed Gloria into a peaceful sleep before she died.
Without complaining or worrying for herself, Errin stepped up to help her, just as she did on multiple occasions later on. Kate had been so wrapped up in her new life in Austin with her work at the kindergarten, her new friendship with Bree, and her crush on Donovan that she missed out on what had been going on with her sister.
“I’m so sorry that I haven’t been here for you. Please, come sit down and tell me.”
Kate patted the dark purple bed linen in the hopes of convincing Errin to join her on the bed. Her sister righted her shoulders and took a deep breath before she walked over to the bed and joined her.
“It’s not your fault. I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Errin said, wiping her palms over her faded jeans.
“What’s going on?”
Errin sighed and shook her head. “I don’t even know where to start. I feel so out of place here. Kayla’s got Duncan, and his family loves the fuck out of her. Cait’s like her BFF. You’ve got your work here, befriended Bree, and now even Donovan is here. And I… I feel so homesick. I really like Duncan’s family, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just different. I miss our stupid, overbearing brothers and our mom and dad. And I can’t even hold a damn job.” She chuckled while she sobbed. “I guess some things will never change.”
Kate snorted and bumped her shoulder to her sister’s. With Errin being a professional dancer by heart but without a steady gig, she often took on part-time jobs to make ends meet. She never held on to a job longer than six months or so. Errin’s capricious way of life was a long-running joke in the Walsh family.
She placed her hand on Errin’s knee and gave it a loving squeeze. “What else’s been going on? You left last night with that guy from the dojo. I know you told me it was nothing serious, just a hook up, but did something happen?”
“Ugh. No. Jake is over and done. We had our fun, but that’s that. No, I’ve been with Blue today. She’s a girl I met at the dojo. She and I meet up from time to time to take yoga classes together, and we’ve had lunch after twice now. But today she flat-out told me she didn’t want to meet up anymore. Said I was a bit too much for her. Can you believe that witch? She even looks like Maleficent.”