a little guilty about the direction of my thoughts. “I promised you I would be.” It was as simple as that. “I’m not in the habit of making promises I don’t keep.”
“Not everyone takes promises seriously.” Cork’s brow creased, deepening the scar between his eyes.
“Meaning your mother returning to Thailand?” I asked softly.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I don’t really remember all that, but Lotus does. I’m surprised she told you about it. She doesn’t talk much about it anymore.”
Did Lotus tell me . . . Journey . . . about it? Or did she tell Storm? I thought back, replaying our recent conversations. I wasn’t sure.
“My dad being gone hurts her more.”
“She cared about him deeply.” I put enough question in my tone that I wouldn’t get trapped into knowing something Journey couldn’t know.
“They were close. She loves growing things like he did. Plus, she’s Lotus, open and caring like our dad was.” Cork’s eyes narrowed, searching mine.
“I know she is. It’s not only how pretty she is that intrigues me,” I said, not shying away from his gaze.
His eyes brightened. “She’s beautiful like our mom, but with a heart like our dad’s. A lot of guys are into her. She doesn’t usually notice, but she’s noticed you.”
“There’s something between us, Cork. It’s difficult to explain.” I couldn’t tell him about LA, but he probably already suspected something, based on the animosity between Saber and me. “She steers wherever anything goes between us. I’m not taking from her anything she doesn’t want to give.”
“Too often she overconnects with people.”
“How so?” I leaned forward, my hands tight on the rails of my board. Lotus had finished her ride and collapsed backward into the waiting embrace of the sea.
Oh, to be the sea right now.
But I shifted my attention from her to concentrate on her brother. Any truths Cork was willing to share about his sister, I wanted to know.
“She gives away too much of what’s inside her heart, what she thinks, how she feels.”
I could see that. She was the opposite of me. I’d noted it when we were kids. Though her tendency to overshare seemed accelerated now.
“She doesn’t say so.” Cork’s blue-green gaze took on a thoughtful glow. “But I think she feels like she has to make up for some shortcoming she doesn’t have. Maybe it all goes back to our mom leaving.”
I stilled, my muscles as solid as my polyurethane board. That was an insightful observation coming from anyone, especially a boy his age. But then again, Cork had been through a lot at a young age like me. In many ways, he reminded me of myself.
I’d been isolated in my own family, never really fitting in, then isolated by choice while out in the world on my own. Cork was isolated because of his accident and only close to his sister. Consequently, he knew her well. Better than Saber, for sure. As well as I did, once upon a time.
“I think abandonment stuff like that affects girls more than boys.” Though after I spoke, I felt a check inside myself.
My father’s rejection had affected me deeply. My mother had tried to make up the difference, lavishing me with her affection when she thought he didn’t notice, but he noticed and it hadn’t helped. In fact, I think her extra attention had made my old man hate me more, and made both my siblings resent me. I was shocked Saber remembered me fondly. But maybe my perception had misconstrued reality.
“Yeah, Lotus more than most girls, probably because of the way her heart is wired.” Cork studied me a long beat while the ocean roared steadily around us. “Just promise me that if you start something with her, and she agrees to it, that you won’t leave her feeling like less than she was before that start.”
“I promise,” I said, agreeing without hesitation. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Lotus.
Cork nodded approvingly. “I believe you.”
“Why?” I asked, my mind zipping off in another direction. “Why believe me at all?”
“I like you. You shoot straight. I can tell that my sister has you tied up in knots. For what it’s worth, you have her tied up in knots too.” Studying me, Cork tilted his head to the side, and water dripped from the ends of his hair to his shoulders. “I get the idea that you’re a lot like me. We sit back. We watch. We consider. When there aren’t a lot of people in your life, you