“Oh my God.” Mortification flamed through Ro as she buried her face in her hands. “I swear to Christ, I should have muzzled you freshman year when you told Mitch Hopper I was masturbating to his yearbook picture and you heard me moaning his name through my bedroom door.” She looked up to see Erica’s grinning face and pushed to her feet. She threw herself at her sister in a full body hug. “I missed you so much.”
“Missed you, too, big sis. And you really should have thanked me for that. After all, the hottest guy in school ended up asking you to the senior prom, and I’m pretty sure you lost your v-card that night.”
Ro slapped her hand over Erica’s mouth. “Seriously, no more.”
But they could all hear Erica’s garbled, “So what gives? Ro not putting out?”
Ro chanced a glance at Graham and straightened when she met his penetrating stare. Ro expected him to ignore Erica’s question like he had so many others. But he didn’t.
“You want to know what happened? Your sister dropped into our world like a stun grenade. Looks harmless and then, bam, it detonates, and you’re fucking blinded to anything but the flash. That’s why they call it a flash bang. Then she walked out before we could find our bearings. Took my goddamn heart with her.”
Ro stumbled back from the intensity of his words. Zach caught her and wrapped an arm around her. Erica’s mouth had dropped into an O, but she didn’t respond. Ro was too shocked to appreciate that Graham had finally figured out how to shut up her lovable, mouthy sister. But hell, Ro was speechless. What did you say to something like that? I’m sorry seemed so trite. And how did you sincerely apologize for hurting someone when you knew you’d make the same choice again?
Ro took the coward’s way out. She shoved away from Zach, disentangling herself from his arms. “I … I have to go. I need a shower.” And then she ran.
What a fucking mess, Graham thought. He wanted to punch through the wall of the clinic. With the way he was feeling, he’d probably break his goddamn hand. I’m a fucking moron, he castigated himself. The first time in his entire adult life he’d tried to tell a woman how he felt about her and he completely fucked it up. He scrubbed both hands over his face.
“Are you in love with my sister?” Erica twisted to look at Zach, and then added, “Both of you?”
Zach laughed, though it sounded forced. “You really go for the balls with every question, don’t you?”
“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here.” She stared Zach down with narrowed eyes. “Because that,” she pointed in the direction of the bathhouse, “is not normal Rowan Callahan behavior.”
“What’s your point?” Graham asked, wanting to go shoot something until he no longer felt like the world’s most pathetic asshole.
“My point is that you just verbally bitch slapped her and then alluded to the fact that you might be in love with her. That’s bad form, my friend. Bad form.” She tapped a finger against her lips and mumbled, “Especially if she feels the same way.”
“You don’t know that,” Graham said, crushing the surge of optimism at her words.
“Maybe not. But what I do know is that nothing could have stopped her from coming home after the shit hit the fan. Not 200 miles. And sure as hell not love. But if she’s in love with you—both of you—then walking away was probably one of the hardest things she’s ever done. My sister,” Erica pointed toward the bathhouse again, “fights tooth and nail for what she wants and doesn’t give up. Not unless there’s a pretty fucking compelling reason. You know, like her family waiting on her to bug out and survive the apocalypse.”
Graham’s earlier thought about Ro being backed into a corner resurfaced. Fuck. He’d really fucked up.