“Well, I was a teenager, and I didn’t deal with it very well.”
“You weren’t hurt though, right?”
“No,” Cecilia said.
“Yes, she was,” I said at the same time. I ignored how Cecilia glared at me. “She had a graze, right here on her shoulder.”
“It barely bled,” Cecilia said. “It was more like a burn, really.”
“It scarred,” I countered. “It’s why she has that tattoo on her arm.”
“That’s not why.” Cecilia widened her eyes at me in the universal sign to shut my mouth.
“It’s there,” I said stubbornly, looking at Charlie. “You just can’t really see it anymore unless you’re looking.”
“This is all beside the point,” Cecilia said stubbornly to Charlie. “After all that happened, I didn’t react well. I was…mean. I was mean and hateful—that’s why they don’t like me.”
“That’s stupid,” Charlie said flatly. “That all happened before I was even born.”
“And after you were born, too,” Cecilia corrected.
“Still,” Charlie said, waving her hand in dismissal. “You’ve lived in California for-freaking-ever. They need to get over it.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” I agreed, shooting Charlie a small smile. Leave it to a kid to get to the bottom of shit and tell it like it is.
“I think if you give enough reason for a person to dislike you, or distrust you, or whatever,” Cecilia said gently to Charlie, “it’s really hard to come back from that, no matter how long it’s been.”
“Bullshit,” Charlie said firmly. She shook her head. “We’re family.”
Cecilia smiled at her little sister, inhaling shakily. “Fair enough,” she said. “But remember what I said. It’s hard to come back from that—so don’t be an asshole.”
“Too late,” Charlie replied, rolling her eyes again. “I can’t help it—it’s in my genes.” She stood up and stretched. “I’m going to go find Molly—we’re all staying at her house tonight so the ’rents can be at the hospital with Leo. I bet she’d take Olive, too, if you asked.”
“Thanks, toots,” Cecilia replied. “I think I’ll keep her with me, though. She’s too little to be away from me that long.”
As soon as Charlie left the room, Cecilia groaned and laid a now sleeping Olive back on the floor so she could fix her shirt.
“Fuck, my back hurts,” she complained.
“I bet it does,” I said unsympathetically. “What the fuck were you thinkin’?”
“Can we not do this now?” she pleaded. “You can yell at me for as long as you want later. I promise I’ll just sit there and let you tear me a new one—but the day isn’t over, and we need to go to the hospital.”
“You need to lay down and rest,” I argued.
“I need to be at the hospital,” she said, getting to her feet. She took a step toward me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “I need to be there for my sister.”
“You sure?” I asked, running my hands up the back of her thighs.
“I know she might not want me there,” she said quietly. “But, if I don’t go, then I’m making the decision not to support her. You know?”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said with a sigh, wishing I didn’t. She needed Lily to know that she was there—even if it went over like a lead balloon.
We stayed like that for a minute, each of us getting our bearings. It had been a hell of a day, and she was right. It wasn’t over yet.
“You sure you don’t want to rest for a little while?” I asked, gripping her hips. “They’re gonna be up there all night.”
“I’m sure,” she said, bending a little to kiss me. It was closed mouthed, and simple, but she lingered there before pulling away. “I’m going to crash the minute I lay down. We need to go before the adrenalin wears off.”
“Baby,” I said as she stepped back, “I’ll be surprised if you don’t pass out on the way there.”
“Maybe Forrest has some uppers,” she joked, stripping out of her dirty pants and reaching for a clean pair. “I’ll grab her bag. Can you put the car seat on the bed?”
“Sure,” I said, going for the seat in the corner. “When did you bring this in?”
“My mom must’ve,” she replied, crouching by the diaper bag with a small groan of pain. “She was probably going to take Olive with her before she decided to leave her with Charlie.”
“Charlie’s kinda young, don’t you think?” I asked tentatively. It wasn’t really my place to say anything, but I wasn’t super comfortable leaving a newborn with Cecilia’s kid sister.
“I was babysitting at her age,” Cec