Page 60 of With You Here
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Time. He’d promised her that. As much as she needed. And he’d stand by his word.
Now he just needed to figure out how to function when the organ that sustained his life was being carried around by a little sassy Southern sweetheart.
Until then, there was another troublemaker with whom he needed to have words. He stalked toward the back of the house and yanked open the door. Nineteen wasn’t too old to take over the knee, was it? A temper tantrum like Kayla had thrown deserved no less.
Slow to anger.The unbidden reminder caused him to stumble, his feet shuffling to right himself. Muscles along his shoulders had corded into hard knots, and he stretched his neck to release some of the tension.
Storming onto the scene, guns blazing, would have his sister reaching for her own weapon—heaven knew she had plenty in her arsenal—and leave them both with more wounds than they’d started with.
He glanced up into the night sky, the lights from the city overpowering the natural ones that dotted the vaulted ceiling of space above him. But just because he couldn’t see the stars, didn’t mean they weren’t there. Like Someone else.
Give me discernment, Father God, because you know I’m liable to make a royal mess of this whole thing.
Not eloquent, but God could fill in the blanks.
Pebbles crunched under his feet as he followed the path in the garden. Soft light from streetlamps cast a faint yellow glow, shadows from bushes and plants making shaded patterns. In the center, sitting on a cement garden bench and staring at a blossom in her lap, was his sister.
He stopped and studied her. If she was aware that he had invaded her solitude, she didn’t show it. Her shoulders drooped, every hard angle that he’d become accustomed to in the last few years rounded in on itself. The aggressive, aloof rebel had taken off her mask, leaving behind the sister he’d so desperately missed.
She reached to the side and plucked another bloom from a bush, the shadows shifting across her face with her movement. She looked young. Vulnerable. And so utterly and completely alone.
“Go away.” Her tone dripped with disdain.
So she did know he’d been standing there. “I can’t do that.” He finished walking the path and sat down beside her.
She shifted away from him. Since when had she started doing that? They used to be like Orhan and Yara, hand-in-hand, facing the world together. What had changed?
She threw the blossom to the ground and jumped to her feet. “If you can’t, then I will.”
She moved to storm past him, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist. Her gaze snapped to his before turning daggers to look where he detained her.
“Let. Go.”
“Like I said, I can’t do that.”
Her nostrils flared. “Neanderthal.”
“Fine. I’m a caveman.” He sighed and pulled her back down to sit on the bench beside him. “You, talk. Me, listen.”
Her lips thinned until they were no longer visible.
He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. “Fine.” He ground out the word. “Then I’ll talk, and you listen.”
She glared at him while he sifted through things he wanted to say and how to say them. He wouldn’t have worried about delivery so much before, but now he prayed that God coated his words with a layer of grace. And maybe a smidgen of tact, which he wasn’t known for.
“Well?” she huffed.
He clenched his teeth and then released his jaw. “What is going on with you, Kayla? You used to be sweet and creative and carefree. Now you’re jagged and hard and closed off. We used to be the best of friends. Now you can barely stand to look at me without animosity. What happened? I thought we were in the fight together. You and me against the whole world, remember?”
She jumped to her feet, but she didn’t try to escape. Instead, she started pacing in front of him. “Well that’s just a load of codswallop now, isn’t it? Me, the one who’s changed? Have you looked in a mirror recently, you big dumbhead? If it isn’t the world falling at your feet that’s gone to your knocker, then it’s this new-found religious thing you’ve got going on. When was the last time it was Seth and Kayla anything? Not since the Premier League, I can tell you that.”
His head reared back. “You’re upset because I went pro? That decision changed our lives, Kay. It got us out of the slums. Made it so we didn’t have to worry about where our next meal was coming from or whether Mum would be able to pay rent that month.”
“Yeah, it changed our lives. It took my brother away from me. You went off to the club to train every waking minute of every day. My life became like a spinning top, and the one person I could always count on to be my rock had left me to seek out fortune and fame.”
“I wasn’t looking for fortune and fame, I was looking for stability. To be able to provide for and protect my family.”
“A protector has to be around to fight off the danger, Seth.” She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself. Shielding herself.
