“I’m going to go,” Remi said again. She wasn’t sure how many more direct hits she could absorb before she reacted.

“When we were growing up, everything in our lives organized itself around you. Your asthma. Your synesthesia. You getting grounded. There was no other option for me except to be the good one.”

“You about finished?”

Kimber let out a breath. “Yeah. I think I am.”

“Feel better?”

Kimber put down the cigarette and picked up her drink. “Yeah. I think I do. I should have a fucking meltdown more often.”

“Listen up. I never asked to be protected. I left because I was suffocating here, surrounded by people who were never going to accept that I’d grown up. Who’d never stop seeing me as the flighty screw-up who needed saving. I never asked to have fucking asthma.”

“But you also never gave managing it a second thought. Because someone was always going to be around to bring you an inhaler or carry your ass to the doctor.”

“I was a kid, Kimber. Hell, I was still a kid at twenty-five. The only thing I felt as if I had control over was my own fucking body. So I made choices. Bad ones just because no one else could make them for me. And no one noticed when I fucking grew out of it.”

“You still haven’t grown out of it! Brick had to ride to your rescue yet again.”

“Oh, fuck off. I didn’t ask him to do that.”

“Maybe not this time, but what about every other time? The man is your real-life guardian angel.”

“I DON’T NEED GUARDING!”

“YES. YOU DO! And now that you’re an adult, your decisions can hurt others.”

It was a direct hit. The one that broke through her resolve to stay calm. “I know that. And that’s my problem to deal with. You know what your problem is?”

“Gee, I can’t wait to hear this,” Kimber scoffed.

“Your problem is you. Your husband checked out on you? Who let him? Who made that an option? Who didn’t throw down an ultimatum? Either check back in or get the fuck out. It wasn’t me. Who’s fault is it that you don’t have a job to give you back a piece of your identity? Who’s fault is it that you’re unsatisfied?”

“Fuck you, Remi!”

“Fuck you right back, Kimber. You don’t get to lay the blame on me and my dumb ass for your current problems. I take full responsibility for the shit you had to deal with when we were growing up. I am aware that I sucked up all the attention, and not all of it was unintentional. I know that I’m hard to love, that I’m too fucking much. But in case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t lived here in years.”

“What in the hell is going on here?” The flashlight blinded her, and she held up a hand to block the light.

“Gee. Look who shows up to save the day,” Kimber scoffed as Brick kicked the gate shut behind him and stomped toward them in the snow.