Page 66 of To the Grave

She slipped her bare feet into her slides and started for the door.

“Ruth, wait!” I didn’t have a chance of catching her by getting out of the Jacuzzi now.

She sighed and turned around. “What?”

“I just… Iamyour sister,” I said. “That will never change. And… I’m always here. I mean, you can count on me, you can call on me — anytime, anyplace — and I’ll be there.”

“Whatever, Daisy.”

I watched her leave and sank back into the Jacuzzi with a sigh.

Shit.

Chapter 44

Ruth

My hair dripped down my back as I left the spa and headed for my car. Now I was even more annoyed. I hated walking around with wet hair, especially when it was cold.

I fumed as I threw my bag in the passenger seat of my Audi and sat back in the driver’s seat with a sigh. My best friend Bailey swore the car smelled “delicious” — new car smell, she called it — but I couldn’t smell it and I wondered if it was because my dad’s cars had always been new.

The Mustang, left to Daisy by my mom, didn’t smell new, but it didn’t smell old either. It just smelled like the Mustang, and honestly, I tried not to ride in it too much because it made me think of my mom.

I wished I remembered her better. Maybe it would help me understand Daisy. My dad always said she was just like our mom, something that made me feel weirdly jealous even though it felt good when my dad said I was like him.

Daisy had always been the odd one out: a daisy picker, my dad had called her. I’d been too young to remember the detailsof Blake’s life as a teenager, but I knew he’d played baseball and swum on the swim team. He’d taken AP classes, applied to Harvard and Princeton and NYU.

I’d followed in his footsteps. I played lacrosse and ran track. I was in the AP program at the community college even though I was only a junior, and I was already planning my college applications to several Ivys.

But Daisy had been different. Annoyingly different. She’d never wanted to talk about college or extracurriculars. She didn’t join clubs or even apply to a four-year college. Instead she’d gone to the community college for two years (like that would do anything for her résumé) and then taken the pathetic job at Cantwell.

Part-time, no less.

She acted like she knew it all — like she was my mom or something — when she obviously didn’t have a clue what to do with her life, which was why it was super annoying to have her boss me around or act all concerned, like I was some kind of baby.

My phone buzzed and I dug through my bag to find it. I smiled when I saw the text from McSexy, my code name for the hot older guy I was seeing. I’d decided to use it after watchingGrey’s Anatomywith Bailey (we’d already worked our way through every season ofFriends)because my new crush wasn’t dreamy as much as he was sexy as fuck.

Hey, beautiful. Been thinking about you.

Yeah?I typed.Thinking…?

Three dots appeared at the bottom of the screen while he typed.

Thinking it’s past time for me to get you alone.

I smiled, staring at the last line. We’d been alone. Sort of.

Alone at the park in town. Alone in his car and mine.

But notalonealone. Not alone in private where we could do all the things we both wanted to do.

And I did want to do those things. I mean, who wouldn’t?

This weekend?he typed.

Can’t. Lacrosse finals.

Damn. That sucks.

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