Page 39 of Long Road Home

I let that drag out. She was my sister.

Based on the way her back suddenly looked like her spine turned into a metal rod, she wasn’t all that up for it.

“It’ll be good,” I whispered, hopefully low enough so Toby couldn’t hear. “Promise.”

She blinked slowly and nodded. “Okay. Dinner with the family.” She grinned down at Toby and ruffled his hair.

“Mom—”

“It’ll be fine,” she said, more to herself than me.

Still, I stepped back and opened the door. Toby walked through, and I followed Destiny, my eyes immediately falling to her ass.

“Yeah,” I said, barely fighting back a groan of pleasure watching her hips sway in that womanly way as she entered my house for the first time. “It’ll be splendid.”

Her head whipped over her shoulder and I yanked my eyes up in the nick of time. “Are you okay?”

“Never better.”

I was in hell, was more like it. The more time I spent with her, the more I remembered the feel of her. The more I wanted to feel her again. She had filled out in perfect places, more woman than girl, more beautiful than cute. And every time her smile went wide, it made me think about all the good times we had.

I needed to get involved with Destiny like I needed a kick to the groin.

“It’s good, Des,” I said when she was still looking at me. “And I swear to you, tonight will be fine. If it’s not, I’ll handle it.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” she muttered, losing that cute look on her face and sliding straight to defeated.

And that was enough. I sat there listening to her the other night spewing shit about that Paul guy being better off without her, and I was tired of listening to her beat herself down.

I hadn’t helped a damn bit in a decade in being the one to build her up, but I was over hearing her kick herself down.

Soon, we’d have a very long conversation where once and for all, we’d put the past behind us. She fucked up. She did it for too damn long. But as long as she did the right thing now, that was most important.

And for the first time in a decade, I was sitting down to dinner with the only family I had, theentirefamily I had, and we were going to fucking enjoy it if I had to force everyone.

“Come on,” I said, my voice almost a snarl. This woman frustrated the hell out of me. “Dinner. Family. Drinks if you want them. Then if you want, Toby, we can take out the golf cart and cruise around the course. It’s pretty at night all lit up with the water fountains.”

“Cool,” he said, eyeing his mom and me. He clearly had picked up on the tension simmering between us.

Which is one more reason why we had to get past this. For him, if nothing else.

“Rebecca!” I called out. “You can stop pretending to hide now!”

“I’m not hiding,” she said, walking around the corner of the kitchen. “I was being patient.”

“Like hell,” I snorted.

Next to me, Toby grinned up at me. On my other side, Destiny shot me a look that looked like she could have been pleading for her life.

I shook my head at both of them and guided them toward my sister.

“Mom saysthere’s a team where I can travel around the state playing. She says one of the coaches already talked to her to see if I was interested in it.” That came from Toby, chatting incessantly and answering every single question Cooper and Rebecca asked him.

Granted the kid had responded more quickly to Cooper, but who could blame him. His celebrity starstruck self settled after the first few minutes, but dinner was almost over, and it was still obvious Toby wasthrilledto be eating dinner with Cooper.

He slowly started opening up to Rebecca too, and I had to hand it to her, Rebecca was being nicer than I’d ever seen her. She was never the most open of the bunch, more reserved but full of pride and stubbornness. We got that from our mom. She’d done her part to include Destiny, but it was Cooper who drew her in.

Although the soft, girly look she gave him was annoying, even if he brushed it off. The man was probably used to women turning into fumbling messes around him. Hell, even I could tell Destiny was trying to act normal. Too normal. Too jittery. All through dinner she’d been a half-minute away from completely falling at Cooper’s feet.

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