Page 31 of Just This Once

I shrugged, glossing over the details. “My parents took me to this carnival once, where some boy I’d never met before came racing up to my father, calling him dad. And when the shit hit the fan, dear old dad freaked himself into a heart attack. Died on the spot.”

“Holy shit,” Faith breathed.

“I wasthisclose to being number eight of the seven,” I added, holding up my fingers an inch apart. “I joined the boys’ grief group for, like, thirty seconds before Grumpy chased me off in tears.”

“Parker!” Raina scolded, sending him a condemning look.

He merely shrugged.

“No, seriously,” I spoke up. “I deserved it.”

Which made Parker lift his gaze in surprise. I met his stare briefly before turning to Alec with an apologetic cringe. Alec covered my hand and squeezed in support.

Exhaling, I faced the others. “I wasnotin a good place back then. And I took it out on poor Alec. But then he saved my life, and we became besties, so...”

It was all water under the bridge now.

Leaning my face over to hug Alec’s arm to my side, I announced, “Now he’s my favorite person in the whole world.”

“Oh, hey.” Faith perked to attention. “He gave you some of his liver, right?” Glancing over at Hudson, she pointed. “I remember you mentioning that just a few weeks ago.”

“Saywhat?” Raina shrieked, only to scowl at Foster for havingnotalready told her.

As he lifted his hands in apology, I explained, “Yeah, I had cirrhosis of the liver from some genetic disorder that probably grew into hepatitis and inflamed the organ after I got sick once when I was little. And it never healed properly because by the time I was fourteen, I needed a transplant, or I was going to die. So I went begging, and… Alec agreed to give me a portion ofhis.”

“Holy shit, Alec,” Oaklynn breathed in awe. “You saved her life.”

“Well, I mean…” He shrugged bashfully and lifted a hand as if to say there’d been no other alternative.

But therehadbeen. He could’ve told me to fuck off. I’d been nothing but mean to him up to that point, and he’d still willingly gone through a terrifying surgery for me. Even his mother had been against the idea at the time.

He had never wavered from wanting to help me, though. My brother had the purest soul ever, I swear.

“He was only thirteen years old,” I said, looking at him with all the affection in my heart. “And people are technically supposed to be at least eighteen before they can donate anything, but in some extreme cases, they allow it. It’s only happened a dozen times in the United States, so he became number fourteen in the list of child donors.”

“Wow,” Faith uttered, blinking at Alec in shock as if she were seeing him for the first time. “I had no idea.”

“We ended up in the same recovery room afterward,” I went on. “Where we finally got to know each other.” When I glanced over at my Dopey to share a private smile with him, he grinned back.

“We bonded over our mutual disgust for hospital food, and I introduced her toThe Goonies.” Shaking his head sadly, he teased, “I still can’t believe you hadn’t seen that movie before. It’s a freakingclassic.”

I laughed. All my love for him seemed to bubble to the surface, and I hugged his arm again before leaning over to slap a grateful kiss on his cheek. “I’m so happy to be home,” I announced, feeling my joy seep from my pores. “I missed you, Dopey.”

“Missed you too,” he answered with a flattered chuckle as he leaned against me.

Still smiling from his radiant presence, I unintentionally swung my gaze across the table, and some of that joy cooled with an ugly dose of reality. Parker narrowed his eyes at me, and for some reason, his glower reminded me of all the lies and secrets I was keeping from Alec.

My sweet, innocent brother would probably never forgive me if he knew what I was hiding. But I had to protect him. I couldn’t just tell him everything. Not yet.

Bowing my face shamefully, I swallowed thickly and picked up my fork to concentrate on my meal as supper continued around me.

7

HOPE

Iprobably would’ve remained quiet and withdrawn for the rest of the night, but the new ladies brought me around again by asking for embarrassing stories about their guys.

With the way girlfriends came and went through this group, never staying long enough for me to form any kind of attachments—aside from Nova, of course—I hadn’t intended to get to know them at all. But the damn women were starting to charm me.

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