“You’ve benched your sister enough with this stuff.”

“She’s not old—”

“She’s here. She’s living with her boyfriend—”

“I’d think you’d want to ingratiate yourself with me on this one?”

“She’s taking a serious job and trying to figure her shit out. She’s not going to college. She’s not taking the extra four years to ‘find herself’ and figure out what theories and philosophers she thinks can blow smoke up someone’s ass. She’s in the work field. She’s figuring it out, and she’s doing that alone. Her job, people you sent her way, and yeah, only Bren thinks that that was all a coincidence, but a dumbass could see your move from a mile away—these people are icing her out. I don’t know why, but I know it’s affecting her. Staffing a bowling alley is decent work if that’s what she signed up for. She didn’t sign up for that, and that’s what they have her doing. You were updated from our end about Sweets. We’ve told you about Harper—”

“Not that you beat the shit out of him. Yeah,” he bit into the phone, his voice savage. “You didn’t loop me in on that little detail.”

Fine. I nodded, not that he could see me. “Just so you know, that was your sister’s handiwork. She worked him over because she’s the one who could stop before it went too far. The rest of us, fuck no.”

“That kid—”

“That kid admitted that he knew Tabatha was touching him against her will. He knew the whole time. He did nothing about it except take advantage of the situation.”

I waited, my pulse picking up. Even thinking about Harper, hearing his admission, and I was gripping the phone so tight I was surprised it hadn’t shattered.

“He did?”

“He did. She went dark for us. She didn’t want to, but she did. So have her back.”

“I’m not—”

“I know, but we’re not kids anymore. Your sister’s certainly not. She’s not been a kid in forever, and last semester when you took care of the cop and Drake, she chose that. She wanted you to handle that, so she didn’t have to. She let you in, but she’s at a point in her life where she needs to be looped in. It’s what keeps her from going dark, man.”

Quiet again.

Another beat, and then Channing sighed. It was long and drawn-out. “Having our dad back is going to mess her up. I was worried. I didn’t think she was ready to deal with him.”