Page 44 of Thorn Kiss
“I’ll be there in fifteen.”
“And not a minute after, or there will be hell.”
I hung up and pressed my hands to my eyes. Avery let out a soft curse and pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tight.
“It’s too much,” she whispered. “You’re doing way too much.”
“What other choice do I have? She doesn’t deserve this.”
Avery nodded in agreement. I squared my shoulders and met my friend’s gaze.
“Thank you for being here,” I said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you and Evie. You’re my family.”
“I love you,” she said. “We’ll get through this. I’ll try not to break your brother’s nose.”
Fifteen minutes turned into an hour. By the time my brother finally graced us with his presence, Avery, Evie, and I were all holding each other back for various reasons.
I met him in the waiting room. His expression had already fallen, his eyes refusing to meet mine. I knew I looked pissed off right now, and I was.
“We’re going to get this sorted,” I told him. “And then we need to figure out what the fuck we’re doing.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head. “What even happened?”
“We were at my shop and she was using some scissors, and they slipped.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What was she working on?”
“Ribbons.” A chip in my armor. This was my fault. I felt it, he certainly seemed to think it now, and the guilt was going to consume me. “She wanted to do something.”
Ethan grimaced. “Well. Don’t let her do anything like that again. I can’t afford this.”
“You aren’t the one affording it,” I snapped. “And Laura is old enough to start helping out when she wants to. It was fun for her.”
“Coming to the hospital is fun for her? Really?”
My jaw stiffened. I felt a few eyes on us. People were curious about what the Moore siblings were arguing about.
Part of me was tempted to give them a full show, but I didn’t want to end up in a jail cell after the whirlwind of today.
So instead, I forced myself to breathe. “We can argue later,” I said. “Right now, we need to take care of Laura. Okay?”
Ethan nodded, giving into the momentary truce. “All right.”
“But for the love of god, please go give her a hug after this. She needs you.”
“I will. But can you still have her over tonight?”
“Yeah.” My voice was barely a whisper. “Of course.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dallas
I started off my morning with a run.
It didn’t help.
Then I did a round of weight lifting.
