Page 10 of Falling With You

But I wasn’t going to think about that. Not when I was already hurting and surrounded by my brothers who wanted to make sure I was okay. Thinking about the fact that Allison was dead would not help my mood.

“If you’re okay, then I won’t go get you another pain pill. Promise,” Dillon said quickly, filling the awkward silence.

“I am fine. And I’m taking the prescribed dose. But I’m not going to take any soon because I don’t really need it. I know our family comes from a line of addicts, I’m not going to become one of those.”

“I know you won’t. But it also means that you may end up more in pain than you need to be and heal slower because you’re afraid of becoming that.”

“I’d flip you off, but my favorite middle finger is currently bandaged right now.”

Brendon grinned at that and shook his head before taking a seat on the recliner next to my couch.

“You’re a laugh riot, brother.”

“I try.” I paused. “So, have you heard anything about Sienna? Is she doing okay?” I tried to make my voice sound casual, probably too casual, and I likely wasn’t fooling anyone in the room. Even the kid knew it was weird.

“We haven’t really heard too much about her.”

“I talked to Violet earlier, and she said Sienna’s fine. Her bruises are healing up, and everything is doing good. She’s even working. You haven’t talked to her?” Cameron asked, his voice deceptively calm.

“Not really. I don’t really talk to Sienna every day. Unless I see her at the bar.” Not quite true, but we tended to fight with each other more than anything. We just had personalities that clashed sometimes, and that meant we yelled at each other when we needed to get things done. It had even been like that when we were younger in school surrounded by all our friends, we had always been the ones to yell at each other.

That was just life.

Sienna was my short stack, the dork that I enjoyed hanging out with, even if she got under my skin sometimes.

And the fact that I kept thinking about her with those bruises on her body made me want to fight and hurt someone.

“The girls said that she’s doing fine. We should see her at the bar tomorrow or so. She’s just busy, trying to deal with the cops and figuring out who could have done it. But I don’t know if they’re going to actually figure that out.” Brendon shrugged, but I could see the tension in his shoulders.

It seemed that none of us were actually truly okay with what had happened. Sienna had been hurt, could have died, could have had something even more horrible happen to her, and I hadn’t been there for her.

It was all my fault.

And people saying that it wasn’t, wasn’t going to make me feel any better. So, I didn’t say anything.

Because I didn’t like the idea of Sienna hurt. Didn’t like the idea of any of my friends getting hurt.

But, Sienna? The one person I got to talk to about stupid shit?

For some reason, the thought of her getting hurt made my gut clench, made my one non-injured hand that I had left fist at my side.

“Have you even called her?” Dillon asked.

“I texted her,” I said shortly. “She didn’t text back. I figured she was busy. Or didn’t want to talk to me.”

My brothers gave each other looks, and I ignored them. I really didn’t want to get into this. I just wanted to make sure that she was okay, but that didn’t mean I needed to learn anything else.

“Well, we should be able to see her tomorrow. And that means you can go back to the kitchen tomorrow, right?” Dillon said quickly. “Because I’m going to be right by your side. I’ll be your hands. I mean, not as good as you, but I think I’m doing pretty well with a knife.”

That made me smile. Even with all the shit going on, that did make me smile.

“Yeah, you’re pretty damn good. But you need a lot more training. So, yeah, you’ll be my hands. But getting back in that kitchen? That’s something I really need to fucking do.”

“Then you will.”

We started talking about the business and the fact that the guys were going right back there a little bit later. Beckham was working on the opening, but we still had more to do. And all the while we were talking, I couldn’t help but think about Sienna.

Just because her bruises were healing didn’t mean everything else was. Because I didn’t know if she was really fine.