“Would you like coffee while you wait for your sister?”

I grinned up at Dolores, who’d been running this diner for as long as I could remember, and said, “Yes, ma’am. Jasmine just texted that she’s almost here, so you can go ahead and pour her a cup as well.”

“You got it.”

“Thanks, Dolores.”

Once she walked away, I went back to checking my schedule in my phone. A few seconds later, Jasmine slid into the booth across from me.

I took in her blue power suit, noted her hair pulled back into a sleek tail.

“You look nice,” I said, ignoring the sugar and putting milk in my coffee.

“Thanks, bro, you look pretty snazzy yourself.”

“What, this old thing?” I asked with a grin, smoothing the lapel of my suit.

“You all ready for Boise?” I asked, getting down to business.

Jasmine waved her hand and said, “Yeah, it’s all set … What I wanted to meet with you about was Laurel. More specifically, you taking Laurel to Chicago.”

I sat back in my seat and took in my sister’s face.

She didn’t look upset, or worried that I had designs on her best friend; instead, she looked hopeful. Determined. Usually a determined Jazzy meant trouble, at least for me.

“What about it? Are you going to warn me off her, ‘cause you know you have nothing to worry about…?”

“Nah,” she said, waving her hand dismissively again. “I know that. No, quite the opposite actually.”

“The opposite? You want me to make a play?” I asked, sure I was hearing her wrong.

“God, no,” Jasmine said, scrunching up her nose. “What I want is for you to treat her like a princess this weekend. After everything she’s been through, she deserves a getaway with a man who knows her worth, and knows how to treat a woman, to prove to her that what she’s been through isn’t all that’s out there. I want her to feel precious, and to gain hope, for her future.”

“What happened in Houston?” I asked, needing to know what everyone in my family seemed to know, except me.

“That creep, Travis, happened,” Jasmine began with a sneer. “They met while she was in college, and he seemed nice enough at first, at least, that’s what Laurel told me when we spoke. Then, after they moved to Houston, I went to visit, and finally met the man for myself.”

“And,” I prompted.

Jasmine’s face filled with anger, not an unusual look for my red-haired twin, but I’d never seen that loathing in her eyes before.

“And, I wasn’t there five minutes before he berated her for not picking him up more toothpaste. Toothpaste … he made it sound as if she’d committed a felony, and the look on her face, God, I wanted to punch him. Sorry piece of shit, as if he was incapable of buying his own toiletries. Anyway, it only got worse over the weekend that I stayed with them. He constantly made remarks about the way she looked, things she said, and I even overheard him tell her he was tired of her always fucking things up, when she put more salt than he liked in his eggs. I swear, Dillon, I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hated that guy after five minutes in his presence.”

“Sounds like a real prince,” I said sarcastically. Yes, Laurel had always been a pest and got under my skin with her childhood pranks, but she’d always been a sweet kid. Shy, unless she was with Jazzy, with sorrow in her eyes.

I may have spent the better part of our formative years wanting to ring her neck, but I hated the thought of some guy making her feel worthless, just like her parents always had.

Jasmine scoffed. “Yeah, a true gem. Anyway, I tried to talk to her about it, but she wouldn’t hear it. Said he’d had a bad week at work and was totally sweet to her when they were alone. My feelings about Travis, and his about me, started to drive a wedge between Laurel and me. The only time I got to see her was on her rare trips home.”

“So, what was the final straw?” I asked, knowing something had to happen to cause Laurel to leave this guy.

“He was stealing from her,” Jasmine said through clenched teeth, then morphed into a grin when Dolores approached. “Morning, Dot.”

“Morning,” Dolores said cheerfully. “You’re looking beautiful today.”

“Thanks, hon, so are you.”

“You two ready to order?” she asked.

“I’ll have the biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and bacon.”

Jasmine just laughed, used to my healthy appetite, and said, “I’ll have the French toast with strawberries.”

“You got it,” Dolores said, then went off to put in our order.

“Stealing from her?” I prompted, pissed at the notion that a man would steal from his own woman.

“Yup,” Jasmine said, popping the p. “Everything she’d been saving away to start her party planning business in Houston, he’d slowly been taking right back out of the account.”

“Obviously she found out, did she get the money back?”

Jasmine shook her head with a frown.

“He’d gambled it all away. That was the final straw. The bastard actually had the gall to try and turn it around on her like it was Laurel’s fault he’s a total ass and a shit gambler. She packed up her stuff and left that night. Then, when she got here, her parents tried to talk her in to going back to Houston, back to Travis.”

“They always were assholes,” I said with disgust, starting to feel a new respect for Laurel, and what she’d been through. What she’d overcome.

“That’s why I want you to make this weekend special. Give Laurel a trip unlike any other. Show her how she deserves to be treated.”