Page 10 of All She Ever Wanted Was a Real One
She huffed. “Fine. I guess you’re housebroken and charming enough in a tux for me to tell people we’re related.”
“Wow. How caring of you.”
She laughed. “I’m kidding.”
I stared at the invite with Lex’s government name written in fancy script font. My eyes traced each letter.
“What about her man? You like ’im?” I probed casually, trying not to reveal that I was really probing for information.
She glanced up at me while pulling her plate out of the microwave. “Who, Pat?”
“That’s his name?Pat?” I commented, not even bothering to acknowledge his place on the invitation.
“Patrick. And he’s cool, I guess. He’s a pilot, so he’s gone a lot, like you.”
I grunted. “Oh. How long they been together?”
“A little over a year. They met on one of his flights. Why? What’s got you so interested in her love life all of a sudden?”
I opened the fridge to keep myself busy. “No reason. I was just wondering, damn. I am about to pull up to their wedding. Figured I’d get caught up before her big day.”
“Mm-hmm,” she replied with a side-eye. “You’ve got that look in your eye.”
My brows furrowed as I looked over at her. “What look?”
“That look that says you wanna go into big brother, military man mode and vet him. But I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to do all that.”
“Why not?”
“Because he comes from a good family. Lex told me his mom and stepfather own a bunch of hotels around the country.”
“What that mean? They got money or somethin’?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Mmm.” I grunted. “But is she happy?”
“Yeah. I think so. She’s always had a glow about her, but I think Pat brings a little extra sparkle out of her. She couldn’t stop smiling after he proposed. And you should’ve seen her when she found her wedding dress. She tried on like seventeen differentgowns before she foundthe one. But when she did, it was like she was floating on cloud nine. I love seeing my girl happy.”
I looked back into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water as my jaw tightened. “Good for her.”
“Y’know, I think she’s always had a soft spot for you.”
My brows rose in surprise as my heart began to gallop in my chest. I masked it with a stoic look and another lazy shrug as I closed the fridge. “Why you think that?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a vibe I get. She was sad when you left for basic training. I mean, we all were. But I didn’t think she’d be as sad as the rest of us.”
I kept my expression unreadable. “I missed y’all too.”
The kitchen fell silent as I slipped into my inner thoughts. Lex had gone from the girl stealing my fries and barging into my room unannounced with Liv, when they were kids and forcing me to play with them, to being someone’s bride-to-be. And according to my sister, the nigga had her floating on cloud nine. But how could she be when she was lonely? I was done working somewhere across the ocean, only to learn that she’d given her heart to a man who was always gone.
“I wanna meet him,” I announced, the words slipping past my lips before my brain had sense enough to stop them.
My sister’s brows scrunched together. “Meet him? For what, so you can grill him?”
“That’s what brothers do, right?”
“Yeah, but you’re my brother, not hers.”
