Cash (Sexy Bastard #2) by Eve Jagger Page A

button.
    “I would never forgive myself if
something happened to you. I walked in and saw that guy—you’re
my sister, I was ready to kill him. You have no idea how much red I
saw.”
    She swallows her taco.
    “What are you doing?” Her
voice is flat. Nothing I’ve said has even seemed to faze her.
    “I know Mom and Dad aren’t
winning parents of the year anytime soon, but I think you have to
think about the choices you’re making. You’re smarter
than this, I know it.”
    “You give me a ride, buy me a
taco, and suddenly you have parental rights? Is that how you think
this works? That we had one moment in a hospital and you do me a
solid and you can just walk back into my life like nothing’s
wrong? Fuck you.”
    “Tash, I’m worried about
you. Mom and Dad and I may not be each other’s biggest fans,
but I am always on your team.”
    “Cash, what were you thinking
when you walked out on us? Oh wait, I forgot, holier-than-thou
Cassius Ryan Gardner only leaves people he can’t stand to
morally be around. Sometimes people fuck up, but you can’t hold
that over them forever, especially when you bail first.”
    Her words have my head spinning. “What
are you even talking about?”
    “You like to pretend that you
walked out on our parents. You left me ,
Cash. You walked out the door and you didn’t look back. No
card. No email. No phone call. You just left. You think you were the
first person I called to help me out tonight? No. You were the last.
Half of my friends were too busy to come grab me, and the others were
already so smashed it wasn’t like they’d be any help
anyway. So I had to hope that the brother who told me that he would
be there for me, actually would be there.”
    “Tash…”
    She crumples the taco wrapper and
chucks it into the bag. Proving she’s sober, she hops off the
hood and walks around to the passenger side door. “Just take me
home.”
    I climb in the car and start her up.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t…I
had to do something for myself. To save myself.”
    “Well, congrats. I hope you were
worth it.”
    “I’m trying to apologize
here.”
    “Whatever.”
    “You’re right. I did leave,
and I’m sorry that I hurt you. When I left, it was because I
had to get out of a bad situation. Tasha, I guess…I guess I
didn’t think about that hurting you, too. You, aside from your
partying choices, are still my favorite little sister.”
    She gives me a look. “I’m
your only sister.”
    “Yeah, well, you beat out the
competition in utero.”
    She laughs, and I have to hope that I’m
on my way to getting her back. If there’s one thing I’ve
learned in the past few years, it’s that family is important.
I’m finally in a place where I can help Tasha. I had to go it
alone, but there’s no reason Tasha has to do all of this by
herself.
    “If you need me any time, day or
night, you call. I don’t care what you’re doing or what
you’ve done. Whether you need a ride somewhere or you just want
to hang out for the day. You call me.”
    “Promise you’ll be there
from now on?
    “Promise,” I say, slinging
an arm around her shoulders. She leans against me, and we’re
back on the road to being family again.
    “Will you get me into your club?”
    “When you’re twenty-one,
you can be on the list every night.”
    “You suck,” she groans,
but her smile says she’s joking.
    “Someone has to be responsible.
Let’s get you home.”
     
    It’s weird driving down West
Paces Ferry. I try my best to avoid this section of Atlanta at all
costs. I haven’t been back to this side of the wealth divide
since I left. While Atlanta has grown and changed around me, this
place stays eerily similar. Houses get bigger, gardens turn over new
leaves, but this neighborhood is frozen in some sort of weird
cryogenic sleep. Even the people who live here are plastic, and more
concerned with their personas and public faces than what really
matters.
    “Turn here,”
Tasha says, pointing to a