Prologue
Carter
Six Years Ago
Pulling up to the school, I sat back in my seat and stretched my back. I loved what I did, but my body paid the price for it. Damn. That was a long rotation.
The bell had just rung, and I sat there in the car rider line as dozens among dozens of kids exited the door.
I had texted my little sister, Talia, that I was picking her up.
Every time I came home from a rotation, I took her out to get an ice cream. It didn’t matter that she was turning eighteen soon and I had just turned thirty-one.
Out of my other four siblings, she was the one I was closest to. The age gap between us didn’t matter. Even though our parents were done after they had me, Ethan, Garrick, and Alec. Talia was a surprise baby who had shown up ten years later.
I didn’t know which one got the operation done, but we all knew that they had made sure that no more kids could be possible.
I smiled at thinking about how that conversation more than likely played out.
And I had an inkling of how it did.
Mom had said how things were going to go, and that was that.
I felt a smile form on my lips; at the same time, I saw Talia walk out of the school with her arm woven with someone else’s arm.
I felt my eyes narrow; that better not be a boy.
No. No fucking way.
As my eyes scanned along the arm, that was too slender to be a boy’s, I felt my body relax... however... my body suddenly grew tight.
Because the face atop a body, I refused to let my mind take in... it felt as though the entire world shifted into slow motion.
A breeze flew by, picking up a few of her blonde strands. I’d never been more grateful for my windows being down, as she threw her head back and laughed, than I was right then in that very moment.
Her laughter sounded like Christmas bells. Soft. Melodic.
And I wouldn’t know it, not until three months later, but sitting in that cab in my truck in front of the school, my forever had been right in front of me ever since she was five years old.
Three Months Later
I had pushed my truck to the max to get here on time.
Tonight was Talia’s prom.
And it just so happened to be someone else’s prom as well.
Therefore, I wanted to be there to give whatever punk was taking her a good talking to.
Same as my brothers.
Our mother had thought we were bat shit crazy when we told her of our plan, but we all heard her murmur, “I raised them right.”
I had just walked into my parents’ house, fist bumped with my brothers, hugged my dad, and then my mom, and heard it.
Heels clicking down the hallway, and now, well, I’ve got to really take her in.
Because last week, we had helped celebrate her eighteenth birthday.
