Page 24 of Protecting Her

“I’ve been here. And fuck if I know where Ember is.” I glared back at her, defensive, angry, and not ready for this confrontation yet. I’d known it was coming, every night I’d drunk myself to sleep. I’d known it was coming, I’d just hoped it would take a little bit longer than this to get here.

“You can’t just leave without telling us you know?” Her hand was on her hip, a sure sign she was in a bossy mood. Emily was always in a bossy mood when it came to her brothers, though. She’d bossed all of us, even Trent, from the day she was born, in one way or another.

“Why the hell not? I’m not Dad’s slave you know? Sometimes people need time off,” I grumbled, but when she just kept up that glare, I waved my hand and walked away. I needed coffee for this.

“You have to tell us because we’re your family, Kevin. You had meetings you didn’t show up for, and Ember’s disappeared. We were all kind of worried about you…” Her words trailed off, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Are you trying to imply you thought she killed me? Are you insane?” I poured coffee into the basket and filled the back up with water. “She wouldn’t hurt me…”

But she had hurt me. That was why I was out here in this cabin, with no idea where my clothes or shoes were. And that horrible taste in my mouth, fuck, how much had I downed last night?

“I finally got Henry on the phone, and he told me where you were. He said something was wrong, but he thought you’d be alright. You stopped answering your phone, so I wanted to be sure.”

“Well,” I paused to roll a beer bottle out of my way, “as you can see, I’m fine. Now piss off.”

I probably shouldn’t have been so harsh with my sister. She only came out here because she cared, but part of me wanted to tell her to piss off again. The only reason she’d come out was because she wanted to boss me around. I could see it on her face. Then, the glare softened, and she looked me over.

“Why don’t you come home? I don’t know what’s happened, but obviously you’re at a low. Come back and let us help you.” She had changed tactics.

“I’ll be back when I’m ready. Until then, just leave me be.” I knew she was right, I needed to get out of my funk, but I couldn’t face it at the moment.

I couldn’t face a world without Ember in it. That’s why I was out in the woods, away from everything and everyone I knew. I didn’t have to hear her name out here, although I thought it a million times a day. I didn’t have to see pictures of her online, even if I couldn’t forget her face. Nobody asked me about her out here, but the sad part was, I couldn’t stop thinking about her anyway.

Maybe Emily was right.

“Fine. I’ll drive back this evening.” I headed to the shower and was surprised when I came out to find Emily was still there, typing on her phone. “What’s up?”

“I thought you might want someone to talk to.” Her eyes, so similar to mine but softer, definitely feminine, looked up at me with patience.

“About what?” I rubbed the towel through my hair and tried not to look at her.

“About Ember. What happened?”

“She’s gone. I don’t know where. Basically, she said, thanks for the memories, and fucked off. I haven’t seen her or heard from her since I came back from my trip.”

“She said that?” Emily was on the edge of her seat now.

“I’m just as confused as you are. I went to her room, and she’d left me a note on the table. No explanation, just a see ya.” I sat down on the recliner beside the couch and looked down at my hands. “I don’t know if she was just a gold digger, or if somebody spooked her, but something happened.”

“But you’re the one who offered everything to her, Kev. You can’t call her a gold digger when you barely even gave her a choice.” Emily looked a bit miffed over that, and her eyebrow lifted.

Oh no, dodgy ground. “Well, yes, you’re right. I did just kind of barrel through…”

“And did you bother to actually ask her what she wanted before you just did it most of the time? You didn’t, did you? You just plan things and then want to surprise people. She probably had no clue what was going on in her life half the time.” Emily shook her head and looked at me with disbelief.

I couldn’t say she was wrong, but I didn’t think I’d been wrong either. “Emily, she never had the opportunities we had. She didn’t grow up with privilege, how would she know what to do? I just took away the embarrassment of not knowing from her.”

“No, you took her choice away, Kevin. Dang, no wonder she left! Did you just pity her?”

“No! She taught me that what I’d been given was special; it was something I shouldn’t waste. I could have been her, playing for peanuts in a park, if I hadn’t been born into this family. But I was, and she taught me what it was like to be delighted with life again.” I sighed and sat back. “God, you should have seen her when I took her shopping. It was like a kid in a candy store.”

“But did you let her pick out what she wanted?” Emily with that raised eyebrow again.

“I pointed out some outfits for her performances, but otherwise, she chose what she wanted, yes.”

“That was a start then. So there was no fight or anything? She just left?”

“She wasn’t there when I came home. I hadn’t talked to her in about two weeks.” I felt those eyes burn into me again, but I didn’t look up. “So no, there was no fight.”