doesn’t mean I don’t see it. There’s still something today, you’re not completely back yet, but it’s a huge difference.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say. I didn’t know what to think or say about there being that much of a difference when I’d thought I’d been hiding everything from her. She’d spent so much time protecting me from our bastard father when we were little that I’d been trying to protect her from any and everything ever since we’d been adopted from him. Including my own struggles. Amy had known about Cassidy, but she hadn’t known how hard it had been for me after—or apparently she had.
And I didn’t know what to do about the fact that everything she was seeing had everything to do with the girl next door.
The girl I couldn’t feel this way about.
The girl whose god-awful singing, as she blasted the Christmas music she loved so much, had Amy and me cracking up just half an hour ago.
The same girl who, just last night, might have gotten engaged to that fucking creep who did nothing but degrade her.
My phone went off in my pocket, pulling me out of the memories that were sure to piss me off all over again. Grabbing it, my eyes widened when I saw her name, and I hurried to open the text.
Maci Price: All things considered, it’s not your place to tell me who I should and shouldn’t be with . . . or to give an opinion on my life at all. Watch yourself, Detective. We wouldn’t want people thinking you’re jealous or give a shit.
I gripped my phone in my hand and started storming out of my apartment, grabbing my keys on the way.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back,” I answered, and avoided looking where she was changing Ben.
As soon as my door was open, I kicked the box of oatmeal bath packets sitting there out of my way and went next door. When Maci’s door didn’t immediately open, I unlocked it and let myself in to walk through the apartment as I called her name. Nothing. Pulling up her contact in my phone, I pressed on her name and ground my jaw when it went straight to voice mail.
“It’s Connor. We’re talking about this when you get home.”
I locked her door behind me and walked back into my apartment. Amy was standing there holding her son, a confused look on her face that slowly started changing.
“I’m sorry, I just had to—”
“What is going on between you and Maci Price?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Nothing, she’s just driving me insane right now.”
She hitched Ben higher up on her hip and pursed her lips at me. Ah fuck. She was in mom mode. “I know you’re lying to me, and why do I have a feeling she has something to do with the difference I’m seeing in you?”
I sucked at lying to my sister. Especially when she went into mom mode. Throwing my hands out to the side, I let my keys fall to the floor before bringing my hands back to grip my hair. “She’s a Price , Amy. They would fu”—I glanced at Ben and tried to filter myself—“freaking murder me.”
Amy gasped and a massive smile crossed her face as she dropped to the couch. “How long has this been going on?”
“That’s just it,” I laughed humorlessly. “It hasn’t been. Nothing’s happened between us.”
“Connor.”
“I’m being honest. Nothing has happened, and nothing will. She’s my best friends’ sister, I can’t touch her.”
And apparently I’d done something to fuck up anything that could have happened between us . . . and I had no idea what exactly that was.
Maci
A FTER HOURS OF shopping, then decorating Amber’s apartment and my own, we were finally done. I had a smile on my face that only this time of year could put there, but there was still something missing. Christmas was my favorite holiday, and I loved decorating day more than anything, but I still hadn’t gotten Connor or his words out of my mind.
Amber flopped down next to me on the couch and admired our work. “We did good.”
“That we did.”
“Hey”—she
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