“Lis?” I croaked looking at her in confusion. She’d crumbled almost as soon as Grace left, her shoulders drooping like she was exhausted, her eyes shimmering like she might cry. “Lis why did you do that? You didn’t have to fire her for me.”
“And what? Let her keep walking all over you?” She whipped around to face me. “No way. I’ve seen enough, and I think you have too. You don’t have to be nice to everyone you know? Some people don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. Some people should just be taken at face value and dealt with accordingly.”
“I know that. B-but you...” My voice cracked on the word and I sniffled. “You’ve been so mad at me, but you stood up for me anyway? You hate confrontation and you stood up for me?”
She blinked at me like I was crazy and then she moved toward me, her hands grabbing onto my shoulders a moment later. “Al, of course I stood up for you. You’re mysister.”
I felt my throat catch. “Lis.”
“I’m always going to look out for you. I’m always going to take your side. And I know you’re going through… something lately, and I’ve been trying to give you space for now. But with this, I just couldn’t.” She shook her head. “Ox insisted we let you figure it out for yourself but I just couldn’t anymore.”
“He knew too?”
“Of course he knew,” she huffed in a watery laugh. “But you know him. Everything’s a learning experience. He wanted you to toughen up and stand up for yourself.”
I huffed in disbelief.
Melissa leaned further into me. “But he has no idea you’ve been standing up for me for years. This is the very least I could do, Al.And I don’t really understand what all that was just now, but I have your back. I’ll have your back forever, no matter what. I just want to—I just want to hang out every once in a while, okay?”
“Okay,” I nodded, falling into the cradle of her arms. “Thanks, Lissy. I really needed you today.”
She hugged me back tight. “You have no idea how much I need you. No more being a stranger.”
“Kay,” I breathed out heavily, feeling lighter even in the wake of the looming anxiety sitting on my chest.
Cutting right through our vulnerable moment, the heavy office door shut with a snap causing Lis and I both to jump. Still hugging my big sister, I squeezed even tighter, suddenly afraid of what was to come. Lis huffed her own nervous laughter, knowing just the kind of punishment I was in for. A mad Ox.
The voice that cut through the room was nothing but ice cold anger. “Alta… I’m trying to understand. Please, help me understand.”
Well, shoot.
He was so mad. I could hear it in the calm of his voice. It was easy to forget that even though he took my side in front of outsiders, he would still rip me apart for all the unacceptable actions I’d taken in the past fifteen minutes alone.
I needed to explain, but… I wasn’t really sure myself.
Turning to him, I’m sure my knees knocked together like a crazy cartoon character’s as his tremorous expression speared me. Reading me like a book, he cursed. “You don’thavean explanation, do you?”
“Ox,” I whispered. Pleaded. I just needed a little time to think.
His fingers found the bridge of his nose and he pointed at one of the seats I’d conveniently evacuated the Harper’s from.
“Family meeting.Now,” my brother growled.
Back and forth. That was the motion of my brother’s steps as he paced the length of his office. He didn’t pace like this unless he was really agitated. And the last time I’d seen him this way, with all of us strewn about this room was back when our abuelo died.
Our group had grown since that last time, with the Fergusons, and I wished that at the very least we could shed the extra members. If this was meant to be my crucifixion, I wanted as few witnesses as possible.
“Are you ever going to explain?” Ox asked, finally done with his pacing as he stood in line with me, an incredulous look on his face.
I started to. I opened my mouth to speak and everything, but my voice stalled out on the memory of Ursula saying Harper’s daughter was dead, and everything after that again became a blur of instinct and intuition.
Peeking up at his expectant face, at all the expectant looks waiting for me to explain, I cracked.
“I don’t know, okay!” I wailed, my hands slapping against my thighs in a helpless motion.
Ox stiffened.
“You…” His eye twitched, and I leaned into my sister beside me. He was being scary. “You don’t know?”
