Read Diamonds and Dust (Lonesome Point, Texas) for Free Online Page B

A part of him wanted to tell Mia to mind her own business, but he’d already hurt her feelings enough for one night. He and Mia didn’t talk on the phone every week or send birthday cards, but that didn’t mean they weren’t close. There had never been any bullshit between him and his sister. Whenever they were together, they picked up where they’d left off, as close as if they hadn’t spent months apart. He considered her a friend, not simply a family member, and if it had been anything else bothering him, he would have told her the truth.
    But Mia couldn’t be trusted with the truth about him and Tulsi. He’d kept the secret too long. Spilling it now would drive a wedge between him and his sister and maybe even Mia and Tulsi and he didn’t want to do that. Mia and Tulsi had been best friends since they were in kindergarten. He still remembered the day Mia had come home from the first day of school, bragging that she’d “saved a short girl’s life.” She’d had Tulsi under her wing ever since and was practically helping to raise Tulsi’s daughter. Pike didn’t have any sympathy for his ex, but he didn’t want to risk damaging one of Mia’s most precious relationships or hurting an innocent little girl.
    Which meant it was time to lie. He had to. If he didn’t give Mia something, she’d stay after him like a stubborn little bulldog until she got to the truth.
    “My girlfriend and I broke up last week,” he said, casting his eyes down to the gravel, grateful for the shadows that hid his face. He was a lousy liar, and Mia was usually able to catch him when he tried, but, hopefully, the darkness would be on his side. “Bella said it wasn’t working and went back to L.A.”
    “Oh, no.” Mia made a soft, sympathetic sound. “I’m so sorry. Now I feel terrible for making that crack about you not being able to find a date.”
    “It’s okay.” It really was. Bella had been more of a fuck-buddy than a girlfriend and things had ended amicably between them, but Mia didn’t know that. “I’ve known it wasn’t going to last for a while, but the breakup took me by surprise. On top of everything else, I guess it just…has me a little down.”
    Mia reached for him, pulling him into an unexpected hug that made him feel awful for lying, no matter how noble his reasons. “Well, we’re going to do our best to cheer you up while you’re here, okay?” she said. “I love you so much, Pike. And I’m glad you’re home, grouchy or not.”
    Pike patted her red curls. “I love you, too,” he said, his throat tight all over again.
    He’d let the tension with his dad and his history with Tulsi come between him and the people he loved for too long. His mom and Mia deserved better than one or two rushed visits a year, and now that Mia was getting married, there would be even more reasons for him to return to Lonesome Point. Mia hadn’t said anything about starting a family, but Pike knew she wanted kids someday, and he wanted to be a bigger part of his nieces’ or nephews’ lives than some distant uncle who spoiled them at Christmas. He might never have a family of his own, but he was crazy about kids, and he was going to be even crazier about Mia’s kids because they were hers. She was his goofy, funny, strong, secretly sweet baby sister and he didn’t want to miss out on any more of her life.
    It was time to make a change, to stop running away from his past and face it, head on. And if that meant burying the hatchet with Dad and finding it in his heart to forgive Tulsi, then…that’s what he would do. He was old enough to be the mature party in his and Dad’s relationship and seven damned years had passed since Tulsi betrayed him. It was past time to put his anger to bed. The only thing more pathetic than the fool he’d been back then was the fool he was now.
    The longer he held on to his bitterness, the more of his life he let Tulsi taint, and he was sick of living in the shadow of that one stupid