Page 62 of The Back Forty
“Hey, sis,” Dani says. Her voice sounds scratchy and high pitched like she's getting over a cold, and I can tell its nerves that are coursing through her now.
She runs a shaky hand through her hair and tries to summon some version of calm, but it’s no use. The air’s already turned ice cold and the flush on Dani’s chest plus the way that she’s dressed screamsjust been fuckedto even the least observant person.
Catalina doesn’t respond right away. Just gives her a long, unreadable look before blinking like she’s trying to wake herself up from a bad dream. Then I notice a car in the driveway. Isla’s behind the wheel, offering a nervous little wave out the window and mouthingsorryin our direction.
“Hey, Lawson!” she calls out cheerfully. “Catalina just wanted to say goodbye to Dani before I take her to the airport.”
“You’re headed back to California already?” Dani asks, stepping out from behind me, even though she looks like she’d rather crawl back into the floorboards.
Catalina nods. “Yeah. Just a few days early.” There’s a clipped edge to it. No explanation. No apology.
Dani moves in for a hug, but the thing that happens between them is not a hug. It’s two magnets trying to touch the same pole. They’re stiff and awkward, more space than connection. I’ve seen warmer greetings between two strangers in town, and it makes me wonder if that's how they've been their whole lives.
When they separate, Catalina’s gaze swings back to me.
“So, this…” she says, gesturing vaguely between the two of us.
Dani starts to respond, fast and flustered. “It’s not what it looks like.”
But itiswhat it looks like. Dani’s lips are swollen, her shirt’s rumpled, and I probably still smell like her pussy. Fuck, I hope I do.
I want to step in and say exactly that. Say it was the best fucking morning I’ve had in years, actually ever, because I got to wake up and taste her sister, and that if Catalina had shown up two minutes earlier, she’d have caught Dani gasping my name with my mouth buried between her legs eating the sweetest pussy I can't wait to be inside.
But I don’t. Because Dani looks like she might bolt if I breathe wrong and that guts me because that means we're nowhere close to being on the same page about what just happened upstairs.
And then Catalina hits her with another blow. “What about Elijah? Did you learnnothing?” she hisses.
Dani stiffens like she’s been slapped. Her shoulders draw in and her chin trembles. I have no fucking clue who Elijah is to Dani or what he did, but I can tell by the way her body reacts that he’s a wound and her sister just jammed a thumb in it and twisted mercilessly.
So, I say the only thing that feels halfway helpful, even if I don’t really know why. “Don’t worry. I’m nothing like Elijah.”
Catalina’s eyes narrow and her brows jump as she turns to me. “She told you about Elijah?”
Dani’s face whips toward mine, panic flaring across it like a wildfire.
Shit.
I just threw gasoline on something I don’t understand. But I can’t walk it back now, so I lean in harder, wrap my arm around Dani's waist, pull her flush to my side like she belongs there. Like wearesomething, even if it seems like she doesn't want to admit it.
“Of course she did,” I lie smoothly. “We tell each other everything.”
I’m hoping it’ll help her. Hoping she’ll see I’m trying to have her back and defend her honor, even if I just put her on blast. And for a second, it seems to work. Her eyes soften when she looks at me. Her fingers curl around my wrist, but it only lasts a beat.
“It’s not the same, sis,” Dani says, her voice quieter now. Pleading.
Catalina’s expression doesn’t budge. “Well, when you end up in the ER again from a heart attack, don’t fly out to California and expect me to help because I’ll be sayingI told you so. You survive the first one? That’s lucky. Second time? You’re just being stupid and reckless.” Her voice sharpens, low and mean. “Just remember that.”
And then she turns and stalks back toward the car. Isla throws us a helpless wave and shrug before pulling away down the long, dirt road that stretches toward the edge of the property. Finally,both of them disappear behind a cloud of red dust and pine shadows.
The silence that follows feels nuclear as we both watch the empty road. I release my hold on her hip slowly and turn to face her, heart thumping with questions I don’t even know how to ask.
“So…?”
But she doesn’t meet my gaze. Just puts up a hand, warding me off. “Please,” she whispers. “I can’t do this right now.”
“Dani, come on. What the hell just happened? Who the fuck is Elijah? What was Catalina talking about, a heart attack?” I tug at the back of my neck as she puts even more space between us. She turns away from me like the questions physically hurt to hear.
“I can’t do this right now,” she says again, and then she’s walking away—no,runningaway—toward the stairs. She disappears into the hallway, and a second later, the slam of her bedroom door echoes down the hall like a gunshot.
