Page 67 of Fragile Sanctuary

Keely kept right on staring as though deciding if I was telling the truth or not. “Well, you better have another one when I can come.”

I chuckled. “Fair enough. How about I make it up to you with waffles?”

“With Nutella,” Lolli called from the kitchen.

“Yes!” Keely cheered and ran in that direction.

“Shoot,” Lolli muttered. “I forgot the sprinkles in my car.”

“We don’t need sprinkles,” Nora insisted.

“Of course, we do! They’re unicorns,” Lolli argued as she bustled by me and then Trace.

Kye stretched as he stood from the couch, intricate ink peeking out from his tee. “You need a better couch, Rho. It’s lumpy as shit.”

“Language,” Nora called.

“I think I’ll keep my lumpy couch to deter sleepover guests,” I shot back.

Kye just grinned at me. “Good thing I’ve slept on way worse.”

“I bet,” Fallon grumbled.

To say Kye had a bit of a rebellious streak in high school was an understatement. Nora said he’d given her more gray hair than all her other kids combined.

Kye glanced at Fallon, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

She bit her bottom lip. “You didn’t answer your phone. You always answer. I was worried.”

He always answered forher, was what Fallon meant. Because they had a bond that none of the rest of us had ever managed with Kye. He cared in his own way, but a way that enabled him to keep us at arm’s length. But that wasn’t the case with Fallon. He always let her in.

Kye winced. “Sorry. I forgot I had it on silent.”

She stared at him for a long moment, something that lookeda lot like hurt passing over her face before she turned back to help Nora with the waffles.

A hand landed on my shoulder, and I glanced up into Trace’s green eyes.

“You holding up okay?” he asked.

“Other than some internal bleeding courtesy of sharing a bed with Fallon, I’m good.”

Trace chuckled, the faint lines around his eyes deepening. “She’s tiny and quiet but secretly violent.”

“Truer words have never been spoken.” I studied him for a moment, trying to choose what I said next carefully. “Is there anything new?”

The amusement slid from his face. “Too soon. We need to run a bunch of tests, and that’s not exactly a quick process. But I called in a favor at the lab, and I’m hoping they push you to the front of the line.”

“You didn’t have to do that?—”

Trace squeezed my shoulder. “Rho. You matter. You mattered when you were just Fallon’s annoying sidekick. But you’re my sister in all the ways that count. I’d do anything for you.”

My throat constricted, and I threw my arms around his waist in a hard hug. “If you make me cry before breakfast, I’m gonna be really mad.”

Trace choked on a laugh. “God forbid we have a hangry situation on our hands.”

“Someone feed her. Quick,” Shep called as he handed a plate to Keely and then Arden. “I don’t want to lose an eye.”

“Shut up,” I yelled.

---