I slicked my tongue over my teeth as I finally dragged my gaze back to hers. With the way she was staring up at me, something inside me softened. Unwillingly, too, which made it even worse.
I didn’t want to soften for her. For anyone.
“It’s a long story.”
“Tough shit. Try shortening it.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
I didn’t laugh very often, but this particular one cracked something open inside me that had been pressed closed for a long time.
Remi’s brows furrowed briefly, then she seemed to soften too. Her arms dropped from where they’d been tightly crossed over her stomach, and the hard line of her mouth curled in a smile.
“Why is that funny?” she asked.
“Because I get the feeling you always get your way in the end, don’t you?” I asked, fondness creeping into my tone before I could stop it.
“Oh, buddy, if that were true, I’d have a functioning dishwasher and someone to put away the laundry for me.”
“Maybe you just always get your way with me, then,” I added. Her gaze snapped to mine, and for a breathless moment, nothing else happened. Pretty pink flushed the tops of her cheekbones before she broke the eye contact and stared down at the ground. I blew out a hard breath. “Okay. It’s not a very exciting story.”
“I don’t mind.”
As I scrubbed a hand over the line of my jaw, I checked the house, but neither Gavin nor my sister seemed to be paying us any attention. “We went out for dinner. I try to take her out at least twice a week during the offseason. She wasn’t supposed to be out that night—he was upset about a test. Her tutors report to him, and he felt like she needed to study more than she already had. But he was gone at an event. She took her car out because she needed a breather, even though she hates driving.”
I yanked my hat off, just for something to do, and she watched quietly, waiting for me to continue at my own pace. “We met at the restaurant. It should’ve been easy for her to get back home before him.”
“It’s that bad with your dad?”
I nodded. “She stays at my house sometimes too. I try to give her a break when I can. They don’t ... they don’t get along.”
“Analise told me that,” Remi said. Our eyes met and held. “Before you got here.”
“What’d she say?”
“That they’re like oil and water.”
I let out a dry laugh. “Something like that.”
“Butyouget along with him?”
A simple question with a complicated answer, and again, I struggled to find the words. “I know how to handle him,” I answered carefully.“I’ve had ten more years of experience than she does. And when I was her age, I was far more pliable.”
Far easier to manipulate. And I’d developed a protective shell that my sister hadn’t managed yet. God, I hoped she never needed to. Thinking about Analise being anything like me ... it fucking hurt. My biggest problem was that I didn’t know when it was time to put that shell off to the side, and that armor bled into everything.
“Why did you cover for her? I still don’t understand that part, especially if she wasn’t drinking.”
It took a moment to release the tension in my jaw. “My father expects perfection, excellence, in everything. Less than perfection is failure. There’s no shades of gray in his house.” Her eyes were sad, her sweet mouth turning into a tiny frown. “I don’t want Analise to lose the parts of herself that he’ll crush, given the chance. The shit he crushed in me when I was too young to know what was happening. Anything sweet and kind in that girl is in spite of him, and I don’t give afuckwhat happens to me if I can help her keep that side of herself intact.”
Remi’s eyes were glossy, like she was trying not to cry. “And the accident ...?”
I smiled wryly. “I already told you.”
Her brow furrowed. “You did not tell me this.”
“The animal we saw—Bandit,” I said pointedly, and her eyes fell shut for a moment. “The wet streets from the rain. I’d had a few beers at dinner, so she said she’d drive me home.” I laughed under my breath. “That’s the fucking irony, Remi. She offered to drive me home because neither one of us wanted the risk of me getting behind the wheel. I was going to get my truck the next morning. She’d be home before my dad. No harm done.”
Remi covered her cheeks with her hands, shaking her head slightly. “Archer, you have to tell someone.”