Page 41 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
“Yes,” Tanner says, at the same time I say, “No.”
She glances between us, and then giggles awkwardly and places our coffee down in front of us, and then proceeds to collect the burgers and place them down, too. Tanner grabs the coffee, holding my eyes, almost like a challenge, and pours a mug of it. I know what he’s doing, he’s challenging me, daring me to fight him, to make a scene. He’s as hot-headed as I am, but he forgets that I’m smart.
I look down at my food and start eating. My hand throbs, but I try to use it as normally as I possibly can. I don’t want to draw attention to it, hell, I don’t want to relive that moment today when I lost it. I’ve never broken so hard in my life, and I’ve been through a lot, but today, it just got to be too much. Everything just became far too overwhelming.
Once we’ve finished our meals, I throw some money and a tip on the table and stand, ignoring Tanner completely and walking out of the diner. I’m halfway back to the motel when I hear him behind me, his footsteps heavy, but keeping their distance. I keep my head down, my heart racing, and head toward my room.
“Wait,” Tanner says, before I reach the door. “Let me fix your hand.”
I turn to him, hand still on the doorknob, key in the other. “No, thanks, I’m fine.”
“Do you want to get an infection? Because it’s lookin’ pretty bad.”
I don’t glance at my hand, even though my automatic instinct is to look at it. He’s right, though, I know it’s not looking the greatest. It needs a good clean, probably some ice and a bandage. Still, I can get those things on my own. I think. I look toward the office but see the closed sign on the door. Dammit, I should have gone and asked for a first-aid kit before I went and had dinner.
“I have one in the car,” Tanner says, reading my mind.
“I said no thanks,” I mutter.
“Do you want to keep going on this trip? Get to face up to Chase? Or do you want to get an infection and end up in the hospital? I’ll let you decide what’s more important.”
He walks to his room, which is right next to ours, and opens the door.
Then he steps inside and closes it.
Dammit.
He’s right.
Fuck.
I exhale and walk over to the door, knocking.
Damn you, fate.
You’re playing games with me now.
I STARE, TRYING TO ignore my fluttering heart, as Tanner cleans my hand with some warm salty water. He washes off the dirt that it has caught during the day and then cleans the split in my knuckles from hitting him so many times. When he’s done that, he starts dabbing it with something that has a strong smell and stings like hell, so no doubt it’s good for me.
“She was funny,” he says suddenly, his head dipped as he continues to wipe my hand.
My heart feels like it gets stuck in my throat.
He’s talking about Celia.
He’s … telling me.
I clench my eyes shut, because a huge part of me wants to say no, I can’t talk about this, we can’t even bond over this because of what you’ve done, and the other part remembers his words, about not knowing how it was for him, for his family, and I feel like I at least deserve to hear him out for that.
So, I say nothing, I just let him talk.
“She was the light, always making things easier. When things got hard with our parents, she still made every day seem a little lighter. I remember the day she was born,” he goes on, his voice thick and husky. “I didn’t want a sister, I already had one. But when I saw her, something changed. There was this protection I’d never felt with Andrea, and in that moment, I knew that she was special.”
Oh, god.
My heart.
My poor heart.
“I continued to protect her when she was growing up. Hell, she scraped a knee and I’d be there. Someone picked on her and I’d have them on their ass in five seconds flat. Nobody hurt my sister, she had this fragile, sensitive side which made my protective side even stronger. She looked up to me. She came to me for advice. She trusted me.”
I swallow, fighting back the tears as he starts wrapping my hand with a bandage.
“Except I didn’t know she was suffering at the end. I didn’t fuckin’ know my sister was in pain. I’d spent my life protecting her, and when she needed me the most, I wasn’t there. I let her down. I was goin’ through my own shit, bad shit, and I was so focused on that, that I stopped focusing on her. She was alone, scared, and I wasn’t there.”
