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I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to having her like this.

“Are you joining me?” she asks when I make no move to do so.

“In a few minutes,” I say before turning toward the counter, my eyes scanning her products that are neatly lined up in the order she uses them in.

I reach out, grabbing her eye makeup remover, cleanser, cotton pads, and one of her disposable cloths before carrying everything over.

“What are you doing?” she whispers as I pour some remover onto a pad.

“Taking care of you,” I muse as I move it closer to her face. “Close your eyes.”

“I can do that,” she argues, although she does as she’s told.

“Yeah, I know you can. But you don’t have to.”

Gently, I swipe the pad across her eye, cleaning away what’s left of her eye makeup before repeating the process on the other side.

I work silently as I pour some of her cleanser into my hand and then massage it into her skin.

“You’re good at this,” she confesses quietly.

“I had good training,” I explain, remembering all the times I put makeup on Rylee so she could feel normal for a little bit before taking it all off again. “I’m pretty good with face masks and slices of cucumber, too.”

“You must have been an incredible brother.”

“I just did whatever I could to make her life easier.”

“Everyone deserves a Hayden in their lives.”

“Well, lucky for you, you’re the only one who gets me.”

“I wish I could tell her how amazing you are.”

Emotion crawls up my throat.

“S-She’d have loved you,” I force out.

“She wouldn’t think I was a cougar corrupting her innocent brother?”

I can’t help but laugh. “She knew I had a massive crush on you. She’d be happy for us.”

“You’re cute.”

“She’d agree that you’re corrupting me, though. She always tried to live vicariously through me, but I didn’t really have any stories for her. She’d be loving all the things I could tell her now.”

“You…you’d tell her…everything?”

“You mean, would I have told my sister that I willingly crawled toward you and ate you out until you came all over my face?”

Her cheeks blaze red. “I can’t believe I told you to do that.”

“It was hot as hell. But to answer your question, no. I wouldn’t have gone into that kind of detail.”

“I don’t know what came over me.”

“I’m pretty sure it was you coming all over me,” I quip, earning myself a light slap to the shoulder.

“Seriously,” she continues as I wet the towel and begin patting her face. “I’ve never done anything like that before. I don’t…I don’t know where it came from.”