Busted

Travis’s face, still lit with teasing laughter, slowly sobered.

Sighing, Trey turned away. “Don’t look like that. Okay? I started working on it a couple of years after she died. It was . . . therapy. The first idea was something I bullshitted over with her, and she told me I should try it. I decided to and my editor liked it, but the imprint doesn’t do romance, so we went with another imprint at my publishing house. It did well. I had fun with it, so we did another. And . . .”

He stopped, shrugged. “I like those cry me a river books,” he said, sliding his brother a dour look. “It’s what I’m good at. But every once in a while, I want to do something different. This is. And apparently I don’t suck at it.”

“Are you still doing it for Aliesha?” Travis studied him.

Trey glared at him.

Holding up his hands, Travis said, “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m trying to understand, trying to help. I loved her, too. I . . . I just . . .” He stopped and looked away. “But I see how you looked at Ressa. If you’re doing this for Aliesha . . . ?”

“It’s not for Aliesha. She’s part of my past, but Ressa . . .” Trey didn’t even have to think about it. His heart ached just thinking about Ressa. It ached, even as a smile seemed to fill every empty part of him. “I look at her and I hurt. I look at her and I want things I thought I’d never want again. I didn’t think I’d ever feel that way again.”

He turned away, putting the laptop on his desk as he moved to the window. Shoving the window open, he unlatched the screen and leaned out.

He needed air.

A good twenty yards away was the dark, looming presence of Nadine’s house, and as he stood there, he thought he saw one of her curtains flicker, then fall back into place. He scowled and then pointedly looked away.

Quietly, he said, “Aliesha’s gone, but I didn’t do this for her. It was for me. I needed to find a way to close the door, say good-bye . . . something. That’s what the first book was. The first chapter was the first step in letting go . . . it just took me a while to figure that out.”

Travis was quiet.

He was quiet for so long, Trey started to wonder if he’d slipped out.

But when he turned, he saw his brother standing exactly where he had been. “Can I suggest you do something else for you, then?”

Trey narrowed his eyes.

Travis shrugged. “The kid’s asleep. He’ll stay that way until you wake him up. Chances are Ressa’s little girl is sleeping, too. Why don’t you go spend some time with your woman, Trey?”

He opened his mouth, but Travis cut him off. “Both of you have kids you have to keep in mind. I can stay here with him. The two of you need to grab some time for yourself and stop dancing around each other like cats.”

Brooding, Trey went to shake his head. Not a good idea. Of course, his entire body was already hard at the thought, blood thrumming in his veins.

“Go on,” Travis said. “You should have seen your face when I told you nobody called, and don’t act like you weren’t expecting her to call. Go see her. Take some time for you.”

For a long moment, Trey stared at his brother and then, without saying another word, he headed for the door.

“By the way . . .”

Trey paused in the doorway and looked back.

“I already knew your little secret,” Travis said, gri

Trey just flipped him off.

*   *   *

Hey . . . how are you doing?

She’d picked up the phone, stared at the text about a dozen times.

And about a dozen times, she’d almost called him, because she needed to hear his voice. She wanted to see him. But if they talked, he’d hear something in her voice, she knew it.

And this wasn’t something she could go into over the phone.

They needed to have that talk before she launched into a full-on sulk about the things from her past, and how her temperamental, and troubled, cousin still tangled up everything. So Ressa remained in her bed, curled up on her side and trying to pretend she could sleep, that the past few days hadn’t happened.

She stroked the screen of her phone like a talisman, keeping her thoughts on Trey. If she thought about him, she wouldn’t have to think about the fact that this weekend, she and Mama Ang would be going to see her cousin, and she’d find out just what that sly note in Kiara’s voice meant.

She needed to talk to him, though. See if he’d mind keeping Neeci with him. There were a few others she could leave her cousin with, but nobody she was as comfortable with and nobody that Neeci would like being with.

Whose fucking fault is that? Kiara’s words rang in her ears. Groaning, she rolled onto her belly and buried her face in her pillow.

“Think about something else,” she told herself.

She shoved the phone call out of her mind, tried to think about Trey, but instead, her mind spun back.

Years back. Back to the time when everything had gone wrong.

*   *   *

“Wow.” Kiara stared around her for a long moment before looking at her cousin. “How are you affording this?”

She shrugged. “You ready to go?” On her way out the door, she grabbed her jacket but Kiara stopped her yet again, her eyes going wide at the buttery-soft leather jacket she’d pulled on.

“Oh . . . Ress. That is nice!”

“Thanks. Come on. We’re going to be late for the movie. We hardly ever go out anymore.”

“That’s because you’re always busy,” Kiara said, laughing as she gave the leather jacket one more envious stroke. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were out there following in your dad’s footsteps or something, the way you got this place fixed up, your clothes . . .”

“Very fu