Page 135 of Pinch of Love

I pressed my lips into a frown. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Something in me had been resurrected.

The fight. Why would I just let Maya walk away? It probably just made her feel even more certain that she didn’t deserve to be loved and wasn’t worth the fight.

I glanced at my brother. Of all the people assigned to give me a pep talk, it seemed odd that Hunter was chosen.

“Big brother,” Evie’s voice rang through the air.

“What’s my younger sister doing here?”

Hunter chuckled right when Evie rounded the bend and scowled. “Why is Hunter here, and why does it reek?”

I shrugged. “My parents sent him in after me.”

She put her hands on her hips. “No. They sent me in after you because I’m more sensitive. He just overheard.”

“That makes more sense.”

She waved a hand in front of her nose and walked toward the trash. “But seriously...”

“It’s just Cash,” Hunter quipped.

“You’re just jealous because I haven’t smelled a day in my life.” I laughed. “But my trash had some chicken in it from two days ago, and I guess I just got used to it.”

“Enough said. Hunter, take this out.” Evie pointed at the trashcan, and my brother swiftly obliged.

“How do you do that?” I whispered. “He never listens to me.”

“Female power of persuasion. He listens to his mom, me, and whoever he has under him.”

I cringed at my little sister saying something like that.

She cocked her head and laughed. “Come on. It’s Hunter. We know what our brother is like, but it’s you I’m concerned about.”

“Don’t be.”

She looked at my house and back at me. “Your place is a disaster.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll clean when I get back.”

“Back from where?”

“North Carolina,” I explained. “I let Maya go, and I shouldn’t have. I should have fought for her.”

Evie nodded, lending the first sympathetic ear I’d had all day. “How so?”

“I think...” I bit my lip and shook my head. “I think Maya, for some unfounded reason, feels unworthy, and I didn’t help by letting her just declare that she’s leaving, and I waved her out the door when we’d connected on such a deep level.”

“But if you connected, why did she leave?”

“Because change is scary. Being loved means exposing a vulnerability.”

Hunter walked in with the empty can. “Oh, God. Not this vulnerability crap again.”

Evie scowled at our brother. “You could learn a thing or two from Cash.”

“Anyway, she flew to North Carolina a few days ago, and I should have stopped her, but I didn’t. I just hope it’s not too late.”