Free Two Evils by Christina Moore Page B

Taxicab Confessions , are you?”
    The driver laughed. “Nah, hon, nothin’ like that—though I think that show’s hilarious. Just wonderin’ if you’re all right.”
    Billie offered her a tired smile. “I’m fine, thank you.”
    “That was a mighty fine man you had back there. You guys have a fight or somethin’?”
    She had to grin at her accurate assessment of the driver’s thoughts. “Something like that,” she replied. “But he’s not my man. Just someone I’m going to be working with—temporarily, thank goodness.”
    “Ooh, can I have him then? He was pretty tasty-lookin’,” the driver said with a wide smile.
    Billie laughed…and ignored the twinge of—whatever—in her chest at the thought of John with another woman.
    “He’s all yours,” she said, then turned to look out the window once more.
     
     
    They pulled up to Thomas Ryan’s Cape Cod-style house, the house she and her brothers had grown up in, about fifteen minutes later. Billie noticed right away that her father’s Impala was not alone in the driveway, and there was another car sitting in front of the house at the curb. Part of her was ecstatic, knowing who was inside the house, and part of her was more nervous than she’d been in years.
    After all, what did you say to the family that you’d basically shut out of your life?
    With a sigh, she pulled her wallet from her pocket to pay the cab fare with some of the cash she’d appropriated from John, then grabbed her bag. She stood on the curb watching the cab drive away, and didn’t move forward until it had turned the corner at the end of the block and disappeared. Drawing a breath to shore up her nerve, she expelled it slowly and started up the front walk.
    She was reaching up to knock when suddenly the door flew open and she was dragged through it into a tight bear hug. Though she dropped her bag immediately and returned the embrace with just as much emotion, it took her a moment to figure out which brother she was hugging—it was Teddy, the only brother younger than she was. Of course, given that despite his youth he was just as tall and built as the other three, and the fact that he’d moved too fast for her to catch a glimpse of his face, it was no wonder she needed a moment for recognition to sink in.
    It was the hair that did it. Teddy had always worn his hair a little too long at the neck, and it tickled her nose as she held him close.
    “All right now, Theodore, let your sister go so she can breathe,” their father said.
    Billie stepped back as Teddy slowly released her and looked into his face. His eyes were brimming with emotion, deep concern more than anything else. She smiled tentatively and nodded her head, hoping he would be reassured that she was all right. Although he had also acted the role of take-no-shit teacher in their youth, she knew he looked up to her. Because they were the youngest of the Ryan clan, theirs had been a bond unlike the one either of them shared with Tommy, Andy, or Kevin. Teddy had been her best friend, and she felt incredibly guilty that she had shut him out.
    “I would say come in, sweetheart, but your brother’s already invited you,” Thomas Ryan said then, a smile on his face, but concern for her evident in his eyes as well. “Why don’t you join us for a drink?”
    A smile sprang to Teddy’s face. “We’re even prepared—got you a bottle of watermelon margarita chilled and waiting,” he said.
    “How could you have possibly known I would be here?” she asked as Teddy picked up her bag in one hand and grabbed her hand in the other, dragging her toward the living room behind their father.
    In the living room, taking up most of the room on the couch, were her brothers Kevin and Andrew. Her brows rose questioningly at the sight of Andy, who lived seven hours away in Boston. He stood as she entered the room, taking his turn wrapping his arms around her, holding her tightly for a moment, and then standing back to gaze upon her