Join the Club - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,30

she said. “I told him to go take a flying leap off the closest building, because he wouldn’t be able to see Asa ever. Over my dead body.”

Her words made me shiver.

Over her ‘dead body’ made me slightly ill.

Just thinking about her no longer being on this Earth, even if she didn’t talk to me at all, made my heart hammer inside of my chest.

“Why does he want to see Asa?” I asked.

She snorted. “He’s probably running for office. I heard through the grapevine that he retired this year and that was why he’d decided to be done with his career. He’d always wanted to run for office. He has to be important. That’s his life’s goal. To be something. First it was the son of a prime minister. Then it was the distinguished soldier. The Army general. The five star. Now it’s as a public official, I’m sure.”

“Meaning, he can’t have anyone thinking that he has an estranged family?” I guessed.

“One and the same,” she said. “Dillan doesn’t know any of this, so please don’t tell her.”

“I won’t.” I paused. “But why keep this from her?”

She fiddled with her bracelet and hesitated before saying, “I just don’t want her to know. I’ve already had to rely on her for years when it came to her talking to our father. Did you know that she shared her inheritance with me? She funded my business? She helped me go to school. God, she’s done so much when it comes to my life. I’m honestly tired of having to lean on her for support. I feel like a leech. Not to mention… I just don’t want to involve her in it anymore. I don’t want her to worry. It’s time for her to focus on her, not on me.”

She wasn’t a leech.

When you did what was best for your kid, that didn’t make you anything but a mama bear. Willing to do anything and everything, use anyone, to get what was best for your child, was everything that a mother should be.

I lay there in silence for so long that I thought she was asleep. My mind working a thousand miles an hour. Thinking of possibilities. Things that we could do to circumvent what her father would throw our way. And yes, I was thinking our way, not just hers.

Because I was stupid.

I was a stupid motherfucker, and I was going about this all the wrong damn way.

What Delanie said about Dillan was right. But kind of opposite when it came to me. I needed to stop living for my brother. I needed to stop thinking about what would be best for the group, and instead focus on me.

And what I wanted to focus on was Delanie.

I wanted Delanie. Sitting here fighting it seemed stupid, mostly because we both wanted each other. It wasn’t like we were young and dumb anymore. We were adults. We needed to stop living for everyone else and find out what would work best for us.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Delanie was best for me.

That week that we’d snuck around with each other? It’d been the best of my life.

“Why did you fight so hard for Booth and Dillan, but you won’t fight for something that we could have?” Delanie whispered.

It was then I realized she thought I was asleep. She was whispering because she didn’t want me to hear.

But I did hear, and I realized very quickly that I might very well have broken what we had before we even really had it.

***

The next morning, I could tell she was nervous. And by nervous, I meant she was practically about to crawl right out the door if I gave her enough time to do so.

“You okay?” I asked curiously.

I knew that she wasn’t.

Also, I knew that she wouldn’t tell me whether she was okay or not.

I was glad that I’d come with her. Especially with how ill she looked right now.

Originally, it’d been because she didn’t like driving a trailer full of dogs through high-traffic areas. But at the last minute, the governor’s secretary had called to tell her that they would no longer be allowing the dogs on-site, and to have videos instead.

And when she’d said that she didn’t need me anymore, I’d been practical and told her that there really was no reason to drive two vehicles all the way down there. Which she’d reluctantly agreed with.

“So tell me more about why the governor is calling you to meet with