Page 26 of Captivating Anika
I snap my eyes open and dig my phone from my pocket. Almost quarter to eight. I open Maps and look for rental car places. Less than a handful and the only ones open at this time are at the airport south of town. Maybe I should leave it for tomorrow morning, it’s probably smarter to first check my insurance to see what, if any, coverage I have. They’ll likely need a copy of the police report, which I should call Bill about.
My head starts to throb with all the things I should be thinking about, when my door is suddenly pulled open and Bodhi leans his body inside.
“What the fuck, Anika?”
I ward him off with a hand.
“Don’t start, Bodhi, it’s none of your business.”
“Are you kidding? This is the second time I have to hear from someone else about an incident involving my sister instead of hearing it from her.”
“Seriously? This literally just happened, and it’s not like I invite this stuff.”
“Be that as it may, you can’t blame me for wondering what the hell is going on. It’s not like I haven’t noticed you withdrawing lately. You miss more family dinners than you attend, and I don’t think we’ve exchanged more than a few words since Christmas.”
“I’ve been busy, Bodhi. I’m still working on my house and I also have a business to run, you know?”
It’s a lame excuse and I know it, but I feel cornered and defensive, which unfortunately turns me into a whiny teenager.
What is it about siblings, no matter how old they are, they seem to revert to bickering like adolescents at the slightest provocation? It’s like an ingrained behavior we never quite outgrow.
“Yeah. Except evidently, you’re not too busy for Hog,” Bodhi fires back.
“Hey,” Hog, who moves in behind my brother, intervenes. “That’s enough. Leave her be, I told you, she’s not the one who called me.”
Bodhi swings around on his friend, poking a finger in his chest. “Yeah, I know, Bill Evans called you. Apparently, he knows more than I do about you two.”
For a moment I wonder if I’m going to have to hold my idiot brother back if he decides to take a swing at his very large friend. Thankfully, he opts to push by Hog and marches toward his truck, only to stop and swing around in the middle of the road.
“You know what pisses me more than anything? When my family and my friends keep shit from me.”
With that he continues to his vehicle, hops inside, and pulls away from the house. He’s good and pissed—which is pretty rare—and he doesn’t even know my biggest secret yet.
Bickering is one thing, having the big brother I adore seriously angry at me is another. With my resistance already low, the tears come.
“Come on,” Hog says quietly. “Let me take you home.”
Then he tucks my legs back in the truck and closes the door, before getting in on the driver’s side. When we drive off, he reaches over and puts a hand on my knee.
“Give him some time, he got hit with it all at once. He needs a chance to process, but you know he won’t stay mad for long.”
No, he probably won’t, it’s not in his nature, but it still doesn’t feel good to have him angry at me.
Hog
By the time we get to Anika’s place, her tears have dried up but she looks drained.
“Thanks for the ride,” she says in a flat voice when I pull into her driveway.
As if I’m going to just drop her off and leave. Not even if all I had were friendly feelings for her.
“Any time,” I tell her, getting out from behind the wheel.
She’s already halfway out of the truck by the time I get to her door.
“I’m gonna see you inside,” I tell her firmly, when it looks like she might try to protest.
She doesn’t say anything, lets me lead her to the door, and doesn’t even object when I take the keys from her hand to unlock it. While she drops her purse on the bench in the hallway and kicks off her shoes, I walk past her, straight to the kitchen.