5. Linc

5

LINC

“ L inc! Are you home?”

I open the sliding glass door, coming back in from the backyard when I hear my sister’s voice bellowing throughout my house.

“There you are.” She throws her hands up as she tosses her handbag on my couch. She’s dressed up for her job at our dad’s investment firm in Kansas City.

“What are you doing here? It’s a workday.”

Manhattan is a good two and a half hours from Kansas City. “I called, but I guess you didn’t have your phone on you.”

Nope. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. I just took off early today and thought I’d catch up with my brother.”

I eye her from across the room, knowing she’s full of it. She’s here to check up on me. “Right. You want something to eat?”

“No thanks.” I notice her looking around. “Penelope here?”

“No.”

“Where is she?”

Things with P have been rocky, and Lola knows that. But she has no idea how bad things have gotten. To my family, she’s still the shy, sweet girl they all first met. “She’s studying on campus.”

Lola is too much like our mother. Her eyes narrow in my direction as she takes a couple of steps toward me. “Studying? Penelope hates to study.”

I shrug, hoping she’ll drop it. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Tell me the truth, Linc. Last time I saw Penelope she looked like death. She doesn’t call. She doesn’t text.”

I groan as I flop down on the couch, propping my feet up on the coffee table. “Fine, Lola. She’s more than likely fucking some random guy on campus. Probably drunk, but who knows? Maybe even high so she doesn’t have to feel.” I look up at my sister. “That make you feel any better?”

Penelope moved in with me in the fall, and with it now nearing the summer, I’m getting tired of keeping her secrets. My sister sits in one of the chairs, her posture still perfect as she keeps her back straight and crosses her ankles. “Is that true?”

I swallow tightly and run my hands through my hair. Penelope was a foster kid from the wrong side of the tracks. She had it rough, and my family knew that, but they still held her high. They thought she was like Colt.

And maybe she was once.

“Lola . . .” My eyes meet my sister’s, and I don’t really wish her any harm. I don’t want to shatter her perfect perception of Penelope. “We’re fine. You don’t need to drive all this way to check up on us.”

Her eyes meet mine as her neck tightens. “Is it true, Linc?”

“I don’t know what she’s doing, Lola. I don’t get into her fucking business.” I climb up from the couch. “I don’t know why you all act like I’m supposed to be her fucking keeper.” I point to my chest. “That’s not my job.”

Lola stands up. “Of course it is.” Her eyes meet mine as she points at me, her fingernails perfectly polished. Lola makes our mom proud, being the perfect princess, like Colt was the perfect prince. “You were the closest to her through the years. And him .”

I hear the sob catch in her throat, and I swallow the thick lump in my own. “You can’t say his name?”

Watery tears fill her eyes, and she shakes her head. “You have to look after Penelope. She needs you. And you’re the only one who can.”

Please take care of her Linc. Watch over her. He would want you to.

My mother’s words echo in my head, and I feel the anger rise. “What do you want me to do, Lola? Lock her in her room? She’s a grown woman. She’s not fucking married.”

“But you know she would have been or at least engaged.” Her gaze locks on mine. “If she’s really, . . .” Lola pauses as if it’s too horrible to imagine Penelope fucking random guys. “If she’s acting out, it’s because she’s hurting, Lincoln. She needs you.”

“I’m right fucking here.”

She shakes her head. “You’re not though.” She walks to me and places a hand on my shoulder. “You’re hurting too.”

I’m not doing this.

I shrug out of her touch and walk to the glass doors, looking out over the backyard and the lake.

She joins me. “I don’t know how you can live here. The view of the lake is eerie for me now.”

I can’t take my eyes off the water. “I like it.”

My sister places her hand on my shoulder again, and I don’t pull away. “Don’t hurt her.”

I swallow, letting the lump in my throat bob. “She’s not my responsibility. I let her move in like you and Mom begged me to do, but I’m not keeping her on a leash.”

The truth is a part of me hates Penelope. It’s painful to be near her, and that pain always comes out in anger. I can’t help but hurt her.

“I think you can heal each other.”

“There’s no healing in either of our futures.” I turn directly to her. “The sooner you get that, the better.”

“He wouldn’t want this.”

“Don’t.”

It’s a warning, one not meant to hurt, but I can’t talk about him, and she knows that. I’ve made it clear.

“It’s his birthday tomorrow.”

I look out the glass, focusing on the water, placing my hand on the door frame and fighting the urge to scream.

“Please go.”

She sniffles. I know I’ve caused her to cry, but I can’t look at her.

“I love you, Lincoln. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

I nod but don’t look at her as she leaves my house. I hear the door click shut, but I can’t move.

Colt’s birthday.

It’s not a date I’ll ever forget, along with a few others.

I hear the door open. I know, by the brashness and clanking of the keys dropping on the floor, the sheer sloppiness of the entrance, it’s Penelope. She’s drunk, for sure, and angry.

Because it’s a date she’ll never forget either, one that at one time held happy memories.

I turn to face her, seeing I was right. Her eyes are red and bloodshot, her hair is a fucking mess as she sways near the door and places her hand on the table in the hall to steady herself. “Was that Lola’s car?”

I nod. “Yeah. You didn’t stop to say ‘hey’?” It’s sarcastic because I know there’s no way in hell she would ever want Lola to see her like this.

She rolls her eyes and lifts her black shirt off and over her head, tossing it to the floor.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I’m no fucking gentleman, and she damn well knows it. My eyes slide over her black bra that barely contains her full tits and the curve of her hips as she starts down the hall. “I need a shower.”

I watch as she unclasps the bra and continues down the hall and out of sight. I should have known she was going to be a real pain in the ass this time of year.

Believe it or not, there was a time that girl was annoyingly happy.