I sighed. Sophia was lousy with money. We both got the same monthly amount from our trust funds, but she always managed to burn through hers in the first three weeks. We’d just gotten our money for the month last week, though. This was early for her.

“Did you ask Mom and Dad?” I asked, knowing full well that she hadn’t. They were trying to teach her fiscal responsibility, which meant they refused to give her any more than her normal monthly amount.

“You know I can’t,” she said. “Come on, just a little to help me through to next month?”

“That’s what you always say, Sophia. Besides, don’t you still owe me like two grand from last month?” It was true, but I didn’t really care. I was just messing with her.

“Ian,” she whined.

Damn, I hated when she whined. “Fine. I’ll loan you the money. When do you need it?”

“Is now a bad time?”

I looked back through the door to Chris’s office where he sat waiting for me to finish the call. If I left now, I wouldn’t have to hear him talking about MacKenzie anymore.

“I’ll be over in five.” I hung up and popped back into the office. “Chris, I have to run. My sister’s in one of her financial holes, and I need to go dig her out.”

Chris laughed. “Sure. We can talk about the plane tickets and stuff later. Call me.”

The gym wasn’t too far from my place, which was on the way to Sophia’s. I stopped off and grabbed my checkbook, which read like the story of how often Sophia had to be bailed out. Not that I cared. I had enough to go around, but it had been getting noticeably worse lately.

I flipped through my checkbook as I rode the elevator up to her place. Shit. Maybe our parents were right to cut her off. Of course, that was easy for them to do since they were off sailing in the Mediterranean. Call it big-brother obligation, but I found it harder to just turn my cheek when she needed me.

When I got to the door, it took her over a minute to answer. I was beginning to wonder if I needed to go home and grab my spare key to her place, but she finally opened up and stepped out into the hallway, barring me from coming in.

“Sorry, the place is a mess,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to see it.”

“Whatever.” I shrugged. This was definitely the last check I gave her. For a while, anyway. “How much do you need?”

“Five,” she said.

“I hope you mean five hundred, because if you need five thousand, you’re going to have to go to a bank. I can’t keep on giving you huge chunks of money.”

“This is the last time, I promise. I just had car trouble and I don’t have enough room on my card, so…”

I swear, she always had car trouble. For a fancy foreign car, it was in the shop an awful lot. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually seen her driving it.

I opened the checkbook and started writing. “This is the last one, Sophia.”

“Yeah, you already said that.”

“I mean it, though. You’re sweet and smart and a great sister, but you are also the stupidest person I know when it comes to money.” I signed the check and handed it to her.

“Fine, whatever,” she said as she took the check. “Is the lecture done? Because I have a date.”

“The lecture is done. Is your date paying tonight, or am I?” I smiled at her. She might be a little snot, but she was also my sister. It was hard to stay mad at her.

“He is, of course. Now let me go so I can get ready.”

Nineteen

Ian

One of the best things about being injured was that I could drink again. Sure, I was working out, but my arm needed to get a little better before I could go back into full training mode. So training-mode rules didn’t apply.

Since I couldn’t spar with Cade, we had taken to going to the bar on Fridays instead. This Friday we were out at Buddie’s, a dive over in his part of town. They had a great selection of microbrews, and we were working on trying out as many as we could and still stand.

Our waitress came over to the booth and dropped off round number four, smiling at us before making her way back to the bar. It was a slow night at Buddie’s.

As soon as she left, the look on Cade’s face changed. I’d seen something in his expression earlier. It was that look he got when he wanted to have one of his pussy-ass “girl talks”; that was what I called it when he wanted to get all emotional with me. The look meant he had something on his mind, and when we were drunk enough, we’d hash it out.

I pounded half my pint of beer and braced myself. “Out with it, Cade.”

He took another pull from his beer, taking his time with it, then finally put the glass down on the table. “What’s going on with you and MacKenzie?”

“Fuck, dude.” I looked around the half-empty bar, hoping to find an easy way to get out of having this conversation. “Nothing.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.”

“Fuck that. I haven’t slept with her. Hell, I haven’t even kissed her since that night.”

I was getting worked up. Cade had been the one to warn me that Kenzie had a tough upbringing, growing up in foster care, and she’d been through enough. She didn’t need me dicking her over. After that, he’d launched into a speech about how she was his girl’s best friend…blah, blah, blah. I’d backed off, so why I was getting a fucking lecture now, I had no clue.