Page 121 of My Brother's Enemy
I sat still. I allowed her to sit with her emotions and feel them, feel whatever she needed to feel. She needed to express it, and if I moved to hug her, that might change our course.
She opened her mouth, but she was gasping for breath.
“You can take your time,” I murmured.
She hung her head, and those tears never stopped. “It hurts to talk.” She patted her chest.
“Sometimes the more important the words are, the harder it is to say them.”
Her knees fell, and she sat cross-legged. Finally, in a small voice, she said, “I went to a party and I—” Her chest heaved again.
I waited.
She sniffled. “I went to a party at a friend’s house and went to her mom’s bathroom. There were pills in there and I…” She took another deep breath. She looked up and cleared her throat. “I took them home because I wanted to—” She began crying again, giant sobs crashed through her, one after another. “I didn’t mean for my mom to find me. Not her. I didn’t?—”
Movement came from beside me as Skylar stepped out of the hallway.
Zoey paled. “Mom. I—I—I’m so sorry. I didn’t?—”
“Baby.” Skylar rushed to her, pulling her into a hug and smoothing a hand through her hair, rocking her back and forth. “Oh, baby. I’m so sorry.”
The dam broke with Zoey, and she sobbed into her mom’s arms. Her cries were loud and guttural, and they broke my heart.
Then Tyler was there, blinking back his own tears, his eyes on me.
I studied him. Was he angry with me? There was such torment on his face as he blinked and turned to his sister and niece. He moved past me, but his hand came to my knee and squeezed before he sat on the other side of Zoey. She was sandwiched between her mom and her uncle.
Skylar didn’t lift her head from where it was buried in her daughter’s neck, but she reached out with one arm to clasp onto Tyler. He reached back for her, and the three of them were together. That’s how they sat for a long while, like a family.
70
TYLER
Later that night, Rain was quiet on the way back to her hotel. I glanced over, the sound of the wipers filling the air. We hadn’t turned the radio on, and it had started to snow. Tonight had beena lot.The previous twenty-four hours had been a lot.Fuck. The whole week had been intense. Rain was quiet, withdrawn, and looking out the window I was suddenly really tired of going to a hotel in order to be with her.
“I need to get an apartment.”
“What?” She frowned at me. “You didn’t sign just for a year. They locked you in for five years, right? You should get a house. Move Skylar and Zoey in with you.”
I shot her a look. She wasn’t including herself? “Thank you for tonight,” I told her.
I hadn’t said it earlier, but I’d felt it. Zoey hugged Rain before going to bed, and then Skylar had hugged her so tightly I worried she might break my woman’s bones. As soon as Zoey’s bedroom door had shut, Skylar broke down and clung to Rain, thanking her profusely.
Rain had smiled, hugged Skylar back, and said, “I just nudged the door open. That’s it. She wanted to say it. Sometimesit’s easier to tell someone who’s not so close, someone more impartial. I think it would’ve come out soon anyway.”
Skylar had needed to hear that, and she’d thanked her for saying that too.
We hadn’t stayed much longer, as things felt a little surreal and heavy. Now the air in my truck felt just as heavy. Was that an emotional hangover from what Zoey had confessed? I gripped the steering wheel. “She’s going to get her help.”
Rain turned my way.
“We didn’t have time to get into it, but she’s going to get Zoey all the help. Not that she wasn’t before. She was just—Ski doesn’t trust a lot of people, but there was one social worker that helped us. Helped her, really. I don’t understand all that stuff, but I know you helped tonight. And you’re acting all impartial about it and chill, but it was a big fucking deal what you did. You helped Zoey, and you helped my sister, and you helped me, and I don’t get why you’re sitting there all cold?—”
“I wanted to kill myself too.”
I stopped breathing as those words echoed in the truck.
Fucking Christ.
