Mad About Moon (The Whiskeys: Dark Knights at Peaceful Harbor #5)(2)
Who was she kidding? After a decade of feeling forgotten by Sarah and their older brother, Scott—Scotty—she’d been nothing short of bitchy.
But that was before she knew what Sarah had gone through. Before Bones had given her the pamphlet, an address, and said to stop by anytime.
“Are you going?” Josie asked. “You should go if you want to. I don’t mind. But maybe I should wait. I’m not sure Christmas is the best time to show up out of the blue.”
“Christmas is the perfect time to make amends. The invitation was casual. ‘Come by and see the kids on Christmas.’ I don’t think they have big plans, but I’m not really in the mood to pretend I’m happy,” Tracey admitted. “But you should definitely go see her, try to break the ice. If I had family I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Josie stole a glance at Hail, remembering last summer, when Scotty, Sarah, and Sarah’s two children were in a horrendous car accident. Josie would never forget Sarah’s panicked voice when she’d called the bar where Josie was working and told her they were in the hospital. The news had come on the heels of Josie and Hail being evicted from the home she’d lived in since running away from Florida and coming to Maryland with Brian. She’d been holding on to her sanity by a quickly fraying thread. They were barely scraping by, living above the seedy bar in an awful efficiency apartment. On top of everything else, Hail had been sick, and a neighbor’s teenage daughter had been watching him. The girl had already called to complain about Hail throwing up, but Josie had needed to finish the shift in order to have money to pay their rent. Josie hadn’t been anywhere near ready to see her family again, not when her entire life was spiraling out of control. But despite it all, she’d taken off after Sarah’s call and had gone to the hospital, thinking she could muster the courage to handle seeing her siblings again.
But she’d been wrong.
Seeing Sarah’s bruises and the fear in her eyes and hearing the terrifying news of Scott’s and the kids’ injuries had sent Josie reeling back to those horrible years with their parents—and into the throes of a panic attack. She’d practically run from the hospital, unable to breathe…
Just thinking about that night made her chest constrict. She whispered, “I was awful to Sarah…”
“Because your life was in shambles.” Tracey set her book down and moved beside Josie on the couch. “Trust me, after all she’s gone through, she’ll understand. Besides, don’t all siblings fight and say things they don’t mean?”
“We were never like that. We couldn’t be. It was always me and them against the world.” Josie had no idea why her father hadn’t abused her like he had Sarah and Scott, but Scott had taken such relentless beatings, he’d run away at seventeen, and Josie hadn’t seen him since. Sarah had taken off shortly after, and Josie never thought she would see either of them again. She’d been shocked to learn that for the past several months he and Sarah had been living together in Peaceful Harbor, Maryland, less than an hour away.
Tracey pulled her feet up and wrapped her arms around her knees. She had an adorable pixie cut. Her brown hair made her pale skin appear even paler and her hazel eyes seem even bigger. Though she was almost twenty-four, the same age as Josie, in her red flannel shirt, jeans, and sneakers, she could pass for a teenager.
“Sarah has been where you are right now,” Tracey reminded her. “Starting over, trying to find her footing.”
“But her life was so much worse than mine,” she whispered. Though Scott and Sarah had called her at the bar a number of times, she hadn’t seen Scott in person, and she’d seen Sarah only twice—once at the hospital and again outside the shelter on the night Josie had no other choice but to take Hail there. “When she saw me outside the shelter, I told her to go back to her perfect life and I stormed away. I feel so guilty. I had no idea…” She fidgeted with the pamphlet.
Tracey covered Josie’s hand with her own. “I know Sarah. If anyone understands how easily someone can misjudge another person, it’s her. She loves you, Josie. She’ll understand.”
She watched Hail driving his trucks around his makeshift construction site. He’d been through so much since Brian died. He could use more family, but she knew reuniting with her siblings wouldn’t be easy. “What if I get there and fall apart? I don’t want Hail to see that.”
“Want me to stay here with him?”
“No. I hate leaving him behind, especially with how much our lives have been upended lately.”
“Then I’ll go with you,” Tracey suggested. “I can distract him if things get uncomfortable. It’ll be fine.”
Josie’s heart was beating so fast she didn’t know if she could face Sarah and Scott, but she wanted to. She tucked her strawberry-blond hair behind her ear, a nervous habit she’d picked up as a kid, and said, “You really don’t mind?”
“Well, I am in my ball gown and all…” She pushed to her feet with an impish grin and said, “Come on. I’m excited for you. Do you need directions?”
Josie stood up, hoping she could really go through with it this time. “Thank you, and no. I got directions online and memorized them when Dr. Whisk—I mean Bones—gave me Sarah’s address.” What she didn’t tell Tracey was that she’d also driven in the direction of her sister’s house a handful of times since and had chickened out each and every time.