Page 98 of The Voice We Find

“August,” I warn, but he barrels full steam ahead.

“Tyler doesn’t get a say in your future. You are still a minor under my care.”

Despite her aids and her concentration, I can tell by the way she’s angling her head she’s struggling to keep up.

“Slow down,” I hiss. “You’re speaking too fast.”

He repeats his statement, and I cringe when he doesn’t take the opportunity to soften or revise a single word of it. I wish I could intercept them before they made impact.

Gabby’s entire body goes rigid, her voice lethal. “Tyler would never ask me to change just so he could be more comfortable in my presence.”

“That’s not what’s happening here, Gabby, and you know it. I’m offering you the chance tohearagain—forever. Don’t you think if Tyler was offered that same chance, he’d take it?”

“Hewasoffered that chance!” she fires back. “His parents gave him the choice to get a cochlear implant when he was younger, and he didn’t want one. If Mom and Dad were here, they would have given me the same choice. Theylistened to me,theyasked me questions,theytrusted me to know my own mind and heart. But how would you know any of that when you don’t even let me talk to you about them!”

“That’s not true,” he says in a way that reveals just the opposite. “We talk about them plenty.”

Gabby’s openly crying as she pulls her phone from her pocket and begins furiously texting. I don’t have to wonder who the recipient is.

“We talk about them plenty,” August repeats in a far more frustrated tone, but her eyes are not on him, and whatever discussion is happening on her phone is of far more interest to her than what her brother is saying.

I gasp when August rips the phone out of her hand and watch in horror as he begins to skim through the text exchange between her and Tyler. Gabby tries to swipe it back from him, but August is too fast and too tall, and she has no chance.

“No way,” he grounds out while reading the messages. “You are not going anywhere with him tonight.”

“Wait a second, August,” I cut in. I’m done pretending to be a neutral party when I grip his arm and force him to see me. “She already had plans to go to his house tonight for his dad’s birthday dinner. It’s why she’s dressed up. Honestly, I think taking some space apart is a good idea for both of you tonight.”

But August doesn’t choose to hear me. Instead, he continues to glower at his sister. “Do you understand me? You are not to leave anywhere with him tonight. You’re grounded. And this—” he tucks her phone in his back pocket—“is mine now.”

“Oh, yeah?” She rips the aids out of her ears and tosses them on the chair. “Then you can take these, too.”

Due to our proximity to the front door, I hear the hum of Tyler’s engine as he rolls into the driveway. My eyes flick to the window foronly a second, but it’s enough for Gabby to realize that something has changed. In this case, her knight in shining armor has arrived.

She darts to the door and throws it open as August barks for her to come back, threatening her with heftier punishments if she so much as thinks of getting inside his car. But of course, Gabby hears none of these threats because her hearing aids are in the living room and the rumble of Tyler’s engine drowns out whatever residual hearing she has left. She doesn’t spare a backward glance in her brother’s direction.

When August starts for the open door, I’m determined to block his path. The last thing he needs is a confrontation with Tyler. There is no scenario in any world where two heated men who love the same woman are going to see eye to eye.

I slam the door closed, lock it, and brace my body like a shield against the wooden frame.

“Open the door, Sophie.”

“No. You need time to cool off before you talk to her again.”

“What Ineed,” he grinds out, “is to get my sister away from that punk.” He tries to unlock the door around me, but I bat his hand away. He looks startled by the physical contact.Good.

“Listen to me, August. You are going to lose her if you go after her like this.”

“Would you rather me call the police after they leave? Because that’s well within my rights. He’s about to take a minor in my care off my property.”

I shake my head. “Do you even hear yourself right now? Look at me.” I reach out and place my palm over his pounding heart. “Look at me, August. If you call the cops on her boyfriend, you might get her back physically, but you will lose her heart forever.” My voice is strained but firm. “And we both know that’s a much higher cost than you’re willing to pay.”

His chest rises and falls three times before I hear Tyler pull out of the driveway and down the street. I have every desire to sag against the door with relief, but then I take in August’s stormy expression and know this night is far from over.

25

August

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the red flash of Tyler’s brake lights at the four-way stop at the end of our street. It takes every ounce of self-control I possess not to bolt through Sophie’s blockade and charge after him. Whatever this raging instinct is, it’s all-consuming. Pulsing and physical. And it’s pushed me too close to the edge.

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