Page 24 of Make Me Trust Again
“Fucking Becky,” I mutter under my breath, silencing the phone.
“You can take it if it’s important.”
“Hell to the no.” I shove my phone back into my pocket. “I’ve been trying to get her off my ass for the last couple of days, but she’s relentless.”
Dr. Quinn tilts his head slightly. “Sisters usually are.”
“Oh, trust me, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve dealt with Becky.” Shadow’s body brushes against my leg, so I lower my hand and give her a scratch. “She loves to put her nose where it doesn’t belong. And her favorite project at the moment is me, apparently.” My eyes narrow as something prickles my attention. The way Becky was with Rose, trying to make her feelwelcome, help her find a place to stay… Maybe it’s not me, after all. “Maybe it’sher.”
“Her?”
Blinking, I turn my focus on Dr. Quinn, who’s observing me from his chair, making me realize I voiced my thoughts.
“She wants one of her friends to move in with me.” Just saying it out loud made the muscle in my jaw tic. “Well, not with me, but into my cottage.”
“Okay.” Dr. Quinn taps his pen against his notebook. “So what’s the problem?”
I squint at him. “What do you mean, ‘what’s the problem?’”
Dr. Quinn lifts his brow. “Do you need the cottage?”
“It doesn’t matter if I need it or not.” I’m clenching my fist so hard, I can feel the bite of my nails against my skin. “I don’t want anybody on my property. Certainly not her and her kid, and I told her as much. I like my peace.”
“That makes sense.” Dr. Quinn nods, and something about his easy acceptance annoys me even more. “I’m sure she’ll find something else.”
I remember the stupid cottage. The gutter that fell.
Not my problem.
“She’s looking at another property.”
“See? Problem solved.”
“Exactly.” I nod, but that unsettling feeling still brews inside my stomach. “I’m not her savior.”
I’m nobody’s savior.
“I didn’t change my mind,” I deadpan a little while later, not trying to hide my exasperation.
I have just wrapped up my session with Dr. Quinn and was leaving his office when she called me. Again. I know I can try to continue to evade her, but that would mean risking her coming over, which I want to avoid at all costs. The last thing I need is my sister dropping by our childhood home and bugging me until I give in. And trust me, that isn’t beneath her.
“I didn’t think otherwise,” Becky sasses back, snapping me out of my thoughts. “But that’s not why I’m calling, so can you stop being an asshat for one moment and listen to me?”
Her words are accompanied by soft babbling coming from the other side of the line, signaling that she’s with her son. My baby sister is amom. I’m not sure when or how that happened. It was like one moment she was this scrawny kid, too nosy for her own good, and now she’s a grown woman with a family of her own. Not that she’s any less nosy.
“Fine.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “What do you need?”
There is a short pause that has the hair at my nape rising.
“Are you okay?”
Dammit.
“Fine.”
She doesn’t miss a beat. “You don’t sound fine.”
Fucking nosy little sisters.
