I blinked and scrubbed my hand down my face. That was twice now my mother’s voice had slithered back into my thoughts, when usually I was able to mute her. But I was twenty-seven years old. I was not a child. And I was completely capable of being back home and not having her ruin it.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah,” I said, beaming up at Alexis. “I’m awesome. I’m excited. Happy to be back, doing shots we’ll regret with my favorite person in the whole world.”

She propped her chin in her palm. “I’m a little drunk.”

I squeezed her arm. “You’ll always be the cutest little lightweight.”

A groove formed between her eyebrows. “Hey, you didn’t tell me what happened with you and Shelby. She’s back in California still, isn’t she? Are you two doing a long-distance thing now or…?”

I twisted my water glass back and forth on the table. “Shelby and I broke up.”

Alexis cocked her head with sympathy in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Tab. What happened? You two were so sweet together.”

I dropped my elbows onto the table. My sister was always more upset over my breakups than I was. “I liked Shelby a lot. But I was upfront with her when we started hanging out. Told her I was only there for three months, max, before my next travel gig and that I wasn’t emotionally available for anything…serious.” I swallowed hard around the word. It must have been our family reminiscing yesterday that had me feeling more sensitive than usual.

My sister frowned. “I thought she was so great for you.”

“She is great,” I said. “I have no doubt she’ll end up being with a person who’s just as great. She just wanted more. More of me, more investment, more time. I didn’t have it to give. She took our breakup really hard. I haven’t said too much about it because, honestly, I feel kinda shitty.”

I chewed on the end of my thumbnail to keep from wincing. My sister and I had seen the way two people in a relationship could hurt each other. It was always my intention to avoid that outcome every time, but I’d missed the warning signs that Shelby was growing more attached than I was. Breaking up with her, seeing her anger and her hurt had shaken me more than I wanted to admit.

But now I was more concerned with the trepidation on Alexis’s face, her shoulders hunching up toward her ears.

“Hey, hey,” I said, soothing. “You’ve got your worried-big-sister face on. I promise I’m totally, totally fine. And not all of my relationships end like that. There are plenty of people I’ve dated who are into the casual thing and when I ultimately pack up and leave, we’re both fine with it.”