Loren knocks into my shoulder, trying to peer down below. “Did he say something to you?” No. Lily worms her way between us, her nose nearly touching the glass. There’s not room for all five of us, not until Ryke lifts Daisy onto his shoulders, his body squished on my right.
Connor veers towards the gorgeous stone house with manicured hedges and circular driveway. Scott’s house. “He better be gifting Scott rat poison,” I announce. Why wouldn’t he ask me to join him? I recall last time—where I couldn’t bottle my emotions. Where all of us went off the hinges. All of us but him.
“I bet it’s road kill,” Lo guesses. “Maybe a dead armadillo.” That’s something that Lo would’ve done to frighten Scott.
I can’t picture Connor mimicking Loren’s actions. I draw another blank. He’s hiking up the driveway to Scott’s front door.
Daisy has both palms to the glass. “I bet it’s a fuck you cupcake.”
Ryke holds her legs affectionately and stares up at her. “Cute, Calloway.”
Their exchange pulls my mind to that night again, when Scott planted vicious seeds of misery in our heads. “Daisy,” I begin, “did you ever sleep with someone named Trent?” I question how much bullshit Scott was spewing our way.
Daisy opens her mouth and closes it, uneasy since she’s sitting on Ryke’s shoulders.
Ryke glowers at me. Their relationship is ultimately the most private of everyone’s in the house. I don’t know how much they tell each other or what they share. “You can’t ask her that, Rose.”
“She’s my sister,” I refute.
“And she’s my fucking girlfriend,” he retorts. “You don’t need to know who she’s slept with.” He knows the truth. He knows the truth before me. That’s so backwards.
Where is the sisterly loyalty? I try to swat away the reality: that we’re all just a little bit closer to our men than we are each other. This was always going to happen, Rose. I know, but I thought we had more time still.
“It was a really long time ago, and I don’t remember a lot,” Daisy finally answers. “So hey, I figure it barely counts, right?”
“What do you mean—you don’t remember?” I’m ready to shed my protective armor and fling it on my sister. Loren and Lily have pried their gazes off the window and onto Daisy too. Ryke is the only one who seems caught up.
“I drank a lot of champagne. It was after a modeling thing. It really doesn’t matter.” She shrugs this off, her gaze drifting back to outside. “Hey, he’s at the house!”
Her distraction works. Across the street, Connor rings the bell. Seconds pass before Scott opens the door. I can’t discern small details, but I catch Scott’s trademark smile, smug and pompous. After a quick exchange, I expect Connor to shove the present in his chest and leave.
Instead, Scott swings the door wider, welcoming Connor inside. He nods and disappears within the confines of that house, the door shutting closed.
“What the hell,” Lo says, stunned.
“Connor is probably threatening him,” Lily nods a couple times.
“In his fucking house?” Ryke shakes his head. “He’s not that stupid.”
He’s making a deal, I conclude. Our doorbell chimes throughout the house, splitting my thoughts. I didn’t see anyone traipse up our driveway. Every noise, every new change pricks my neck, setting my mood to cautious and severely alarmed.
20
ROSE COBALT
I dart away from the window first, rushing to answer the door.
I’m not the only one.
It’s a stampede to downstairs with Lo lifting Lily in a piggyback, pushing ahead of me. I walk quickly, close to his heels. Ryke still carries Daisy on his shoulders behind us, moving at a lackadaisical pace.
“Did someone call Mom?” Daisy asks, her fingers combing through Ryke’s thick hair.
“No,” we all say. That would be a horrible surprise—to open the door in a quick rush, finding our mother on the other side. I love her, but she already spent Christmas Eve criticizing my gift choices for Jane.
After storming down the steps, Lo stumbles over a decorative three-foot Santa Claus, causing Lily to drop off his back and try to beat me there. I’ve already passed her, speeding through the foyer.
I clasp the knob, partially out of breath. Just as I open the door, the person presses the buzzer one more time.
The young guy solidifies when he meets my hot gaze, and he stuffs his fists into his black hoodie, a blue Dalton Academy beanie shrouding his brown hair. I know exactly who this seventeen-year-old is.
“Uh…” His eyes flicker to Lily. She tries to squeeze through to greet him with open arms. I crack the door so my body wedges into the space, not allowing her exit.
“Rose,” she complains.
“I got here first,” I tell her but keep an intimidating glare on him.
Garrison clears his throat, nervous. “We haven’t met.” He outstretches his gloved hand.
“Yes, we have.” I don’t shake his hand, the ten-degree chill numbing my fingers on the door’s edge. “You and your friends sprayed red punch on my infant daughter and me with a water gun.” Before Halloween, we had a long-standing feud with the teenage neighbors. It ended with all of them being charged for burglary, all but Garrison who chose not to break into our house like his friends.
His character, in my mind, is tarnished until I see otherwise, but he works as a cashier at Superheroes & Scones, thanks to Lily’s kindness and Lo’s empathy for broken, spiteful teenagers.
“It was stupid…I’m sorry…” He chews his chapped lip for a second. “Hey is Willow here? I know she’s a distant cousin, or whatever…”
He means Loren’s half-sister, but Willow has to lie about her connections to her brother the same way that Ryke once did. No one can know that Willow’s mom is actually Lo’s birth mom. I learned that she was underage, only sixteen, when she was pregnant with Loren.
Jonathan Hale would have gone to jail for statutory rape, and he’s had his two sons and this woman cover for him for decades. Willow could live free of this humongous lie, only by returning to her hometown of Maine and staying with her mother. By choosing to be in Philadelphia and be a part of her half-brother’s life, she has to tell everyone that she’s a distant cousin to the Hales.
No one is more upset over this than Ryke—since he had to lie about his familial relationships as a teenager too.
“She’s coming around at two!” Lily answers in the background.
“Lily,” I snap, opening the door just a tad. I remember Lily saying that Willow wanted to stop by later, to not interrupt. I’d like to think we’re inclusive when it comes to blood, but she only knows us from the media. It’s why she’s chosen to live in an apartment and not in our house. I would probably insist she live here, but Lily and Lo aren’t as pushy as me.
Lily gives me a stern look that is especially comical from my loving sister. “Willow and Garrison are co-workers.”
Lo puts a hand on the door, prying it out of my grip. It hits the wall and now he can see all of Garrison. Thankfully he shoots the guy a dark glare. “A co-worker doesn’t show up on Christmas morning looking for another co-worker.”
Garrison scrapes the icy stoop with his boot. “Does this mat say welcome under here? I can’t read it with all the snow.”