Face-Off at the Altar Read online

  “So any kids?”

  Mekena choked on her spit. “I’m only twenty! Almost twenty-one.”

  “Oh, so? My mom had me when she was fourteen.”

  Mekena’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  Brie laughed. “I’m just kidding. I was trying to distract from the fact that you look older than twenty and act it. You aren’t annoying as fuck.”

  Mekena cracked up as she nodded. “I get that a lot, but put me with Markus and my age shows. He’s a nerd.”

  “He is sweet, though. Have you see him with the kids at Vanderbilt, when he goes to visit the darling little ones fighting cancer? He loves them, which is nice.”

  “It is,” Mekena said with a grin as Brie looked down to her journal. She turned the page to a picture of a young man. With just one look, Mekena knew he had Down’s syndrome, but even with the distinctive facial features of his genetic disorder, she could see he had Brie’s eyes. “Your brother?”

  Brie looked up with a smile on her face. “Yeah, Rodney. He goes by Rod, though, ’cause he’s a man.”

  Mekena grinned. “He looks very happy.”

  “Yeah, he just won the gold in Track and Field at the Special Olympics. He’s a great runner.”

  He looked so young. “How old is he?”

  “Eighteen. We’re almost twelve years apart, Rod and me, but you can never tell when we’re together. Either I get younger, or he gets older. One of the two,” she said, running her finger down his face in the photo.

  “He is handsome.”

  “He is full of himself,” she laughed, rolling her eyes. “He’s my baby brother, though, and boy, he hates when I go on trips. I hate leaving him, but I gotta bring home the bacon.”

  “He lives with you?”

  “Nope. Since I leave so much, I have him in an assisted living group home, but I see him every day. I just can’t afford private care.”

  Mekena’s heart broke for Brie. She looked so stricken. Gone were the grin and playfulness, and they’d been replaced by worry. She loved her brother, Mekena could see that loud and clear, and she couldn’t imagine having to put her sibling in a home. Well, if she liked her sibling and cared if she had to live in a home. Which was a lie. She might not like Skylar at that moment, but she wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to the point where she would need to be under medical care. Clearing her throat, she said, “Oh, that blows.”

  “Yeah, it does. I hate it. But one day, I’ll have enough money to do it. That’s my plan anyway,” Brie said with a smile. “We’ll have a nice house, and when I leave, people will come and stay with him. It will be perfect.”

  “Can he not travel with you? If you had someone to care for him when you were working?”

  Brie shook her head sadly. “He has a heart condition. He can’t leave the state on trips, and if we do, it costs a ton because we have to bring so much stuff with us, along with a trained nurse. It’s hell, and I hate it because I want to take him to Harry Potter World. My mom never got to take him before she died, and I promised I would. But every time we try, he gets sick.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry about your mom.”

  “Yeah, cancer is a fucking bitch, but I’ll get him there.”

  “I hope y’all make it.”

  “Me too,” she said, and then she shut the book. “Do you have any siblings?”

  Mekena nodded. “An older sister, but we don’t talk.”

  Brie made a face. “That’s too bad. I couldn’t imagine not talking to Rod. Siblings fight, but in the end, they’re blood and you have to love them.”

  Mekena shrugged, and while she thought Brie was cool, she didn’t want to share her drama with her sister. Brie may be right, and in the end, it might turn out like that, but right at that moment, Mekena couldn’t even look at her sister. She had caused too much pain, not only to Markus and Mekena but to her parents too. So instead, she smiled and said, “Yeah, maybe.”

  Squinting her eyes, Brie pinched her brow before reaching down to put her book in her bag and grabbing a pill bottle. “Hate to be a drag, but I get myself so worked up about flying, I get headaches and I feel one coming on.”

  “Oh, no,” Mekena said before reaching down for her neck pillow. When she reached out to hand it to Brie, she was already popping her pills before washing them down with water. “Wanna use this?”

  “God bless you,” she said with a nod, taking it and wrapping it around her neck. “Dinner later?”

  “I’d love that.”

  “Good night,” she said, closing her eyes, and Mekena smiled before leaning back in her seat, looking out the window into the clouds.

  She wasn’t sure where they were on the map, but it didn’t matter. As she studied the heavens, her mind wandered to Skylar and if she was okay. It was the first time in a while she had worried for her sister’s well-being. Seeing how much Brie loved her brother reminded Mekena of how much, at one time, she had loved Skylar. So much had changed, so much hurt and pain. Now, Mekena hardly thought of her in a good light. Not even now as she looked out into the sky, the sun shining bright, could she muster up anything but resentment for her sister. She was still angry, still mad at what she had done.

  It was unforgivable in her opinion, but then she remembered Markus saying that one day they would need to forgive her. The problem was Mekena had no clue how. How did you forgive someone for ruining a relationship with someone you truly loved? She didn’t know. Yeah, she had Markus now and they were beyond happy, excited for their futures, but was she supposed to just let Skylar off? Was she supposed to just let go of what her sister did and be civil?

  Like she had been doing with Markus’s parents?

  That was hard enough, and she was trying. For Markus. She could tell he really had missed them and that he loved them. Boy, did they dote on him too. When Markus and Mekena had gone to church with his parents the previous Sunday, they walked around like they were the head cocks in the hen house, showing Markus off as they gushed about him being a star hockey player. He, of course, ate it up, but Mekena didn’t trust it. She felt like they were using him because of who he was and how it made them look good. She knew that was shitty of her, but she didn’t trust them, even though she was trying.

  She just prayed they didn’t hurt him again. Because she wasn’t going anywhere, and she was pretty sure they were aware of that. They even introduced her as their future daughter-in-law, which was nice. Maybe they were trying and she was just overreacting. Maybe she just didn’t trust anyone nowadays. She was living on a prayer and holding on to Markus with the hope that everything would work out.

  “Psst.”

  Mekena jumped at the noise and looked around, unsure where the sound was coming from. Brie was knocked out, so she knew it wasn’t her, but no one was looking at her. Coach was reading, the camera crew was sleeping, and the trainers were watching video on their laptops. Confused, she looked to the front of the plane, and then she heard it once more.

  “Psst, Mekena.”

  Her eyes widened before she looked between the seats, where she assumed the noise was coming from. She was met by a pair of dark caramel eyes that she knew and loved very much. “Markus?”

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “What are you doing?”

  Flabbergasted, she made a face. “Reading. What are you doing?”

  “Hanging with the boys. I don’t want to get in trouble, but I’ve got to tell you something,” he whispered, and she shook her head, in awe of the stupidity of this moment. They were adults. No, they couldn’t sit with each other, but surely they could talk.

  “Why would we get in trouble?”

  “’Cause the seat belt sign is on.”

  She looked up and glared. “Markus! Go back to your seat,” she mock-yelled and he grinned.

  “I gotta tell you something!”

  “What?” she stressed, her eyes as big as saucers, annoyance rolling off her in waves. He drove her