was okay.
I hadn’t been paying attention.
“Will my sister be okay?”
“The drugs and alcohol caused your sister to go into cardiac arrest. She has a recovery period ahead, and I can give you recommendations for rehabilitation facilities. Her road won’t be easy, but your sister can recover from this.”
“She’s okay,” Jane whispered, kissing the back of my hand.
I disagreed. Skye wasn’t okay.
Apparently, she hadn’t been okay for a while.
And I never even noticed.
Guilt wracked through me.
7
JANE
Seventeen years old
As we walked hand in hand through Glendale, I turned to Jamie for the third time and asked him where we were going.
He wore a secretive smile. “You’ll see.”
It wasn’t my birthday until June. It wasn’t his birthday until September. There didn’t seem to be anything to celebrate that required me wearing “my nicest dress.” But that’s what Jamie had asked me to wear, and when he picked me up, he did it wearing a shirt, suit pants, dress shoes, and a tailored, mid-length overcoat Skye had bought him. He’d never worn it until now.
This surprise date was killing me. I had butterflies in my belly.
Strolling through the tree-lined neighborhood a block from the McKennas’ rented Spanish Revival house, I wondered if we had much farther to walk. I’d worn heels and wasn’t used to walking in them. I threaded my arm through Jamie’s and snuggled closer. He smelled like lime and tangerine from his shower wash. “I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be.” He pressed a sweet kiss to my temple. “You’re going to love it.”
“Why the surprise? Have I missed an anniversary or something?”
Jamie’s smile tinged with sadness. “No, Doe. I just wanted to do something special for you. It’s been a rough few months.”
He could say that again.
The important factor in it all was that Skye was doing well. But after recovering from a heart attack at twenty-five years old, it didn’t take much convincing from the three of us for her to go to rehab. Jamie attempted to talk to her, to see why she’d turned to drugs and alcohol. He worried it was the pressure of taking care of him and Lorna at too young an age. Skye was adamant that wasn’t true. She said the drugs were just too readily available during a time when she felt stressed about finding stable work.
Ironically, she got dropped from her current show because she had to go into rehab. Now that she was out, the last few weeks had been difficult. Her agent was struggling to find her work. Jamie had given up his car, and Lorna had agreed to trade hers in for something cheaper.
While Skye reassured them she had savings, Jamie took over managing the household and budgeting their monthly expenses. He also got a job working on campus at a coffeehouse. His coach wasn’t too happy about it, but if he promised not to let it interfere with his training, the guy didn’t give him too much crap.
Following in Jamie’s footsteps, I’d started taking on babysitting jobs. Between looking out for Skye, being with Jamie any minute we both had free, and schoolwork and babysitting, I had less time to think about the fact that school was not a great place to be.
Lorna had frozen me out. She remained a popular girl jock, and I went back to being kind of anonymous. I kept texting Lorna, trying to get her to talk to me. Or at least to Jamie, whom she also wasn’t talking to. Jamie said I was just feeding Lorna’s need for attention, but I didn’t want my former best friend to feel like I’d taken her family from her. Still, she ignored me.
There were kids at school I was friendly with, and I still got asked out occasionally, but as a not entirely social person, things were quiet at school. Lonely, even. Most days that was fine. But there were the days when Lorna’s so-called friends liked to make snide comments about me whenever I was in the vicinity.
I didn’t tell Jamie. There was no point. He’d just get pissed at Lorna when she wasn’t the one saying anything. Whenever Jamie and I were together, I didn’t want to talk about his little sister.
“We’re getting closer.” Jamie tugged on my hand as we rounded the corner and turned left onto North Brand Boulevard. We were in the hub of it all. Restaurants, shops, nightclubs and all.
There was a lot going on here, so Jamie could be taking me anywhere. To dinner? Only fancy places required you to dress up,