Chapter Thirty-Three

Kate

 

Regrets…I have a few…

It hurt to make that moment my last goodbye to Sam.

Half-heartedly hoped he’d come back in the morning before I flew. Or chase me down at the airport. Like one of those rom-com moments? But no.

This was best.

Sonya picked me up in Nashville, as promised. My brother was waiting at the apartment, so I dug the mug out of my suitcase and presented his gift.

“How cliché of you,” he said in deadpan.

“You’re welcome, brat.”

A full beard helped disguise the mild permanent scarring from the accident, and half his expressions. He grew it in college, no longer beholden to dress codes, and kept it since.

The facial hair made me realize he looked like Dad during the years Dad had a moustache. A pang of longing squeezed my heart.

My living room was arranged so he could freely wheel around the apartment. I always chose a ground-floor unit or a building with easy elevator access, and the bathroom door had to be wide enough for his chair to enter.

We were eating subs for lunch. Or dinner. My internal clock was all fucked up. It’d been a four hour flight and this was Central Time, two hours later. Linner?

The DVR clock said 4:30.

“How was California?” he asked.

“I—” Swallowed turkey on wheat. “—visited the cemetery. And the house. I have photos.”

Sonya glanced between us. He said, “Oh.”

“It was good. I mean…cathartic. They’re maintaining the site like they should.”

A manly head bob. “Good.”

“How was the reunion?” Sonya asked in a tone saying she wanted dirt.

Do I get points for not choking on my sandwich?

“Oh, you know, how you’d expect.”

“Did you give Yearbook Hottie Sam something to remember you by?”

I glared at her.

Pete asked, “What’s this?”

“Sam Cord,” Sonya said before I got a word in. “I told Kate to bang him.”

“I don’t want to know this—”

“Not in front of my brother!”

We shuddered.

As far as either of us went, we were both virgins and would always remain so.

Anything else was too much information.

Especially since I had to help him bathe and go to the bathroom before he was strong enough to handle those things on his own. The last thing a tween boy wants is for his big sister to see him naked and wash his ass.

“Mama Jane’s son, right?” Pete asked.

“Yeah. He’s a lawyer now, married with two kids.”

“Until his wife cheated on him.”

“Sonya—”

“What? You dish, I gossip. Did you ask him why he ghosted you?”

A dismissive wave of my hand. “It’s not important. People drift apart after high school, it’s normal. I spent the majority of the weekend with Mama Jane, anyway.”

“She was nice,” he said.

I smiled at that. “She’s awesome. I want to be her when I grow up. It was great reconnecting in person.” We might’ve had a teary goodbye. Just a little bit. “Can we throw on a movie or something? I wanna veg.”

Pete shrugged, but Sonya’s face said she wasn’t done digging. Joy.

All the more reason to keep my brother here as long as possible.

I didn’t know if I could keep sex with Sam a secret forever.