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Raven narrowed her eyes that were the same color as mine. “And you were supposed to be back like…three hours ago. Did you really think I would be able to sleep while I was worried about what might have happened to you? I mean, you could have been dead in a ditch somewhere for all I knew.”
“I sent you a text that I was going to be late.”
Her brows rose. “Um, yeah, and someone totally could have taken your phone and sent that.”
“You think that’s the way things would really go down, huh?” Amusement infiltrated my voice. The girl’s imagination was wild. Seven years younger than me. Sweet as fuckin’ pie and a giant pain in my ass.
“Well…you never know. People are crazy out there.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Don’t move,” I told her rather than addressing her antics, and I stepped around the massive island that was topped in a thick chunk of whitewashed wood. When we’d moved in, Raven had insisted she’d do the decorating since I couldn’t possibly be trusted.
The cabinets were a teal blue, and the floors were distressed planks of wood.
She’d dubbed it cozy cabin.
Opening the pantry, I grabbed the broom and dustpan then came all the way around so I could help Raven cleanup the mess.
She knelt at the same time as I did, and I started swiping the tiny slivers of glass into the pan with the broom while she tossed in the larger pieces.
With my head downturned, I murmured, “You know I won’t ever leave you. I won’t ever let anything happen to me because I need to be around to make sure nothing bad ever happens to you.”
She exhaled, and I felt her gaze burn into the top of my head. “I know. I just…worry about you.”
Looking up, I reached out and tapped my thumb on her chin, something I’d always done in an effort to soothe her fear.
Might have felt like I was getting cut up by razors admitting it, but my sister was a fuckin’ knockout.
Had to staunch the inclination to stab every motherfucker who went to gawking at her every time she walked down the street.
“Well, you don’t have to,” I promised.
Old wounds flared for a moment, those ugly scars that had kept her far younger than her actual age, before she stuffed the trauma down and gave her bright, blinding smile, acting like everything was just fine the way she always did.
“Um, yes, I do.” She gave a playful shove to my shoulder. “Who else is going to take care of you?”
“Don’t need to be taken care of,” I grunted at her.
She fumbled around to grab the hand towel that was hanging from the stove handle while still remaining kneeling. “Wrong, big brother. You take care of me, and I take care of you. That’s the way this thing works.”
I pushed to standing and moved to pull out the garbage bin drawer where I shook all the broken glass into the container. “Fair, since you know I couldn’t do this life without you.”
I meant every word of it.
She soaked up the water from the floor then sent me a smirk as she straightened and tossed the sopping mess into the sink. “That’s right, you couldn’t. You’d be lost without me. I mean, you know how great I am, don’t you? I even got asked on a date tonight, and I sadly had to decline since I’d already made a commitment to you.”
She played it up like she’d given me one of her kidneys.
Rather than saying thank you like I should, I leaned back against the counter and crossed my arms over my chest. “Who the fuck asked you out?”
My sweet sister cackled, face upturned toward the ceiling as she let it go, before she gave a hard pat to my left upper chest. “Down, Papa Bear. You look like you’re about to go on a rampage.”
She’d never actually seen me go on a rampage. I made sure to keep her sheltered from that part of my life with everything I had.
“Just want to make sure this prick is good enough for you,” I told her.
“Have you seen me, River? No one is good enough for me.” She started to strut around the kitchen, and I was the one shaking my head.
