Page 107 of Revival

“It’s none of your business.” I busy myself with rearranging some jars on the white counter.

“I’m your family. What you do is my business.”

“No, it’s not!” I hiss, throwing up my hands. I throw another treat to the girl to keep her busy. “You’re my oldest brother, and yeah, you’re pretty much my best friend, but you don’t get to dictate my relationships.”

“Your… relationships?” His head tilts in angry confusion. “Care to elaborate on what you mean by that?”

Ah, hell. My hands shake, and my heart pounds so hard it feels like it’s going to bust straight out of my chest. What choice do I have now that the words slipped out?

Spencer doesn’t deserve to be my dirty little secret. He sure as hell doesn’t deserve this shit Lee is heaping on him with a twenty-year-old rusty shovel.

Spencer has shown more than enough remorse for the mistake he made when we were kids.

I straighten my shoulders and lift my chin. “I’m dating him.”

“No. No, you’re not.” Lee shakes his head in obvious denial.

“Yes, I am.”

“This isn’t funny.” He wipes his palm across his mouth. “This isn’t fucking funny.”

I ball my hands into fists at my sides. “I’m not trying to be funny.”

“I’d rather you go back to Sebastian.”

The air leaves me as if I were punched. I suck in a startled breath. “You don’t have to be cruel.”

“I’m not being cruel. Cruel is convincing you to give yourself to him, and when you finally do, he leaves you the following morning without so much as a goodbye. Cruel is taking off without even telling his family he was going so that you all sat around for days worried sick and waiting for him to walk in the front door. Cruel is not even giving you a phone call so you could stop putting your life on hold when he knew he wasn’t coming back.”

“I know what he did, Lee, and he’s apologized,” I reply.

“Did his apology include a good reason for ditching you so that you had to call me to come and pick you up from the motel so Mom wouldn’t find out?”

“Yes! We were dumb kids.”

“Dumb kids is whipping shitties in an empty parking lot and smoking weed beneath the bleachers at a football game. The way he shattered you took calculated manipulation.”

“I’m fine.”

His voice is quieter now. “Because you have a family who loves you and helped hold the pieces together until you were strong enough to do it yourself. For god’s sake, Jack and Jude would take turns going to get your favorite foods because you stopped eating.”

“You’re exaggerating.” He isn’t. The weeks that followed Spencer’s disappearance weren’t pretty. This feels like a battle I’m destined to lose. “It was so long ago.”

“And what promises did he give you that he won’t do it again?”

Weariness floods my veins. The reasons for not telling my family are staring me right in the face. “He doesn’t have to promise anything.”

“You trust he’s going to just stick around? Leaving is in his blood. The guy’s practically a nomad.”

“He’s not his father. You can’t be a nomad when you’ve been in the same place for the past twenty years.” I swallow hard as Lee takes aim at my insecurities.

“You know that for certain?”

A steely confidence infuses my answer. “I do.”

Lee runs his teeth over his bottom lip. “I don’t trust him.”

“Thankfully, you’re not the one dating him.”

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