Free Pivotal Moments (In Time #1) by Trinity Hanrahan Page B

just wanted to crawl under a rock and die. That public humiliation hadn’t been the end of it. Nope, she just kept it up, bullying and intimidating with a singular focus. Not to say she didn’t spread the bullying around. Tracey was good at multi-tasking.
    Needless to say, I’d needed my big brother and he wasn’t around, emotionally or physically. He’d left for college and I never heard from him anymore. In some ways, it felt like he’d abandoned me.
    “Why?” I whispered. “What did I do, Connor?”
    Something cold nuzzled my cheek, and I startled. Zver gave a soft whine before settling down next to me, placing his head in my lap. I buried my fingers in his thick fur, and then wiped a tear off my cheek with my shoulder. Zver must’ve known I needed some snuggles as he edged more of his mass onto my lap. I tried to smile at his antics—it came out more as a sob.
    “It’s not like that, you know?” Teagan said.
    I shrieked, desperately kicking out from under Zver’s bulk. When he let me up with a reluctant groan, I was able to roll over and get up on my knees. Really? Could this day get any worse?
    “What are you talking about?” I muttered. Apparently fate had decided I needed to be humiliated further.
    Teagan stood silently for a moment, then walked over to where I balanced on my knees and lowered himself to sit beside me. I hesitantly sat back down, and Zver immediately dropped his head back into my lap. Teagan’s lips quirked up at the gesture, then turned his attention back to me.
    “Aislinn,” he began, then sighed. “Connor knows what he’s done is wrong, okay? But you have to understand…you’re his little sister.”
    I snorted. Teagan gazed at me, his eyes deep and full of an emotion that was almost hidden. Not sure how to react, I stared at the grass and cleared my throat. “I know that. But it doesn’t explain why he just…stopped being my friend.” I couldn’t keep the hurt from creeping into my voice. And by the look on Teagan’s face, he heard it too. Wonderful. Little sister and whiny brat. At least I wasn’t blushing.
    He reached down and picked up a blade of grass, fiddling with it in silence for a minute before he heaved a deep breath. “It’s hard, you know? When you’re suddenly responsible for someone, no warning given. You make choices that seem right at the time, not really seeing the future results.”
    I tilted my head, rolling his words around in my head. Nope, didn’t make sense. Teagan tossed the blade of grass back down and gave me a lopsided grin. The flip-flop stomach thing was back.
    “Look, Aislinn, what I’m trying to say is, Connor took on the whole man of the house thing before he even really knew what it meant. He probably figured he couldn’t watch out for you if he was being your friend.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not that he doesn’t like you. You’re his little sister, you know? I think he’s just trying too hard to protect you.”
    I snorted. Yeah, that’s a laugh. But if I admitted he might be right, I wouldn’t have an excuse to be angry.
    Teagan gave me a slight smirk. “I never said he was doing it the right way, okay? I just said that’s what he probably thinks he’s doing.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, and then turned to fully face me. “I did the same thing, you know?”
    No, I didn’t know. At his wry smile, I raised an eyebrow.
    He shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah…I pushed my little sisters too hard into the protective brother cubby. It backfired. And I had to take a year off from college to clean up the fallout.”
    Not gonna lie; I was so damn curious I should’ve been meowing. What had happened? What fallout? Why did he lose a year of school? Wait, hold up. A year of school?
    “You mean you’re a year behind?”
    “Yeah.” He raised an arm, bicep bulging, to run a hand through his hair. “I was going to the University of Washington. It’s not far from where my dad lives. I figured