I don't remember one day that I haven't spent at the office. And now it's day two of me staying far away from it. In a row.

Sierra asked me to stay home as Athena and Cody would come over later today. I planned on going to work, but I don't have it in me to say no to her. Not sure why that is.

Honestly. I don't have a single problem when it comes to doing things I want. But then Sierra asks me for one thing, and it's like my own brain is betraying me. Like my brain erases the word "no" from it when Sierra asks a question, or a favour.

She's currently upstairs in her bedroom, together with Athena, talking all about the wedding, and probably her pregnancy, and whatever women talk about. That at least gives me some time to speak to Cody. Alone. Without Sierra getting suspicious.

I mean, she did say she wants me to bond with her brother, so I might just do that. Not that it's really necessary after fifteen years of friendship.

"I don't think I have ever seen you having so much junk food at home," Cody says as he looks through my cabinets.

I'm leaning against the kitchen counter, simply sipping away my water. "You bought most of it."

Cody's head snaps towards me. "I don't recall buying tons of ice cream and donuts."

I shrug. "It's been weeks and Sierra's still craving those sugar bombs of donuts. And, she loves ice cream. Don't you know that?"

Cody shakes his head, then says; "how would I? Whenever she came out of our room or wherever she stayed, she wasn't eating anything at all. And as she grew older, the more distance came between us. You know, with me going to college when she was thirteen. I wasn't home a lot."

"Yeah, but aren't you close?" I still think knowing one's sister loves ice cream doesn't require to be in touch twenty-four seven.

"I don't exactly ask about her favourite movie snack or whatever. We usually talk about how arrogant and asshole-like you are," he says, smirking at me disgustingly.

"How come you never told her about my existence?" I ask, anticipating an answer that most definitely won't be any good.

Cody jumps up onto my kitchen counter, sitting. Cause I don't have good six barstools by the kitchen island he could sit on instead.

"I guess, I just wanted to keep you away from her," he says. "She has always had this fear of men, I didn't want to scare her with...you."

"I wasn't even half as bad then as I am now." I raise my eyebrows at him. It's true. I might have always been a grump, but I wasn't always mad and an asshole.

Cody doesn't deny nor confirm my words. "You totally would have fallen for her in a heartbeat back then. I couldn't let that happen."

"You do know I'm five years older, right?" Just making sure. "She was, what? nine, when we met? Pretty sure I would have thought she was annoying at the age of fourteen."

I am sure I've crossed paths with her before. At their house, I mean. I roughly remember a little blonde girl with deep, and the most mesmerising green eyes I've ever seen, sitting on the kitchen floor, playing with a bunch of Barbies.

Our eyes met briefly. She smiled at me, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. It was solely a forced, awkward smile of hello. And the very first smile that ever shook me.

She ran away a second later, not giving me a chance to speak to her at all. I've never seen her again after that.

I was only fourteen, having had no idea who this girl was at all. I assumed she was Cody's cousin, the one he said lived with his family. But surely, I wasn't pinning after her ever since. She brought a bit of a fresh breeze to me, just for a moment. Evoking an emotion I haven't felt in years. But it couldn't have meant anything.

"Probably." Cody takes one of Sierra's donuts from the box, even though I've warned him before not to do it. "Or you would've thought she was the sweetest girl there is and would've been happy to wait a couple of years for her."

Now that I think about it, that little girl might have been stuck in my head for a while longer than she should have.

"Doesn't even matter. I still got her pregnant."

I don't even have the time to react before Cody throws his half-eaten donut at me, covering my white shirt with pink-coloured chocolate.

"The cousin you've always told me about," I begin, "she's Sierra, isn't she?" Cody nods. "Where was she at when I was over?"

He shrugs. "I suppose in my mother's bedroom. Maybe the backyard, but I doubt it. I know Sierra loved the kitchen. She started baking pretty early. And she loved watching our mother cook. Found her playing on the floor between the stove and island quite a lot. But never when you were over."

So that answers the question who I've "met" that day.

"How come you don't want to tell her we've known each other for a while? She couldn't possibly be taking it too badly." Or maybe she would? I have no idea, which is why I have to ask.

"I don't want to freak her out. God knows, she might think I asked you to get her pregnant or whatever." Cody takes another donut out of Sierra's box. If I were him, I would've stopped doing that right before he took the first one.

"Or, you explain to her how I had no idea she is your sister and that it was just bad luck it happened?" I want to cross my arms, but then I'm reminded of the pink stain. So instead, I take off the shirt completely.

Cody smirks. "Bad luck?" he repeats to me. "You still think it's bad luck?"

I don't. If anything, I might start to believe Sierra was supposed to be in my life, but it was just never the right time before. I mean, what are the odds?

I spent almost every day over at Cody's, back when we were younger, and according to him, Sierra was always at home. Yet I never met her, apart from that time in the kitchen. Though I'm not sure that can be counted as "we met". From what I know, Sierra had some big issues when it came to men, she still does but it's less now. Or so it appears.

It's been fifteen years, and I never crossed paths with her again. Not on one of Cody's birthdays, not any other day either. It took her to work for me, and a weekend in Vancouver, for us to...connect.

Surely that couldn't have been a coincidence.

Maybe Sierra needed a push to be able to get closer to me, which is why she ended up pregnant with my child. I mean, come on, I've been inside her without a condom for good a second.

I have to change the topic. Talking about Sierra and me is weird. "You know, at least I'm not that crazy and follow my wife to Canada because she's on a work trip."

"Nah, because you would do that, too," he says. "Tell me, when you're married to Sierra, would you let her out of your sight for longer than two hours?" And we're back.

I shake my head no. "I wouldn't follow her to Canada, I'd be the reason she's there."

Cody laughs. "Yeah, with you." He takes a bite of his donut. "Seriously though, would you keep her locked up?"

Why the hell would I? "No? She's plenty capable of going outside on her own."

His eyebrows rise. "Atlas, you wouldn't let her out of your sight, we both know that. It's a miracle you're not already running upstairs into her room to check if she's okay."

Alright, so I shouldn't tell him I have been thinking about doing just that non-stop. What the hell?

"No need to do that," an only too familiar voice speaks from the stairs.

I turn my head, locking my eyes with Sierra's. She smiles at me warmly, scrunching her nose up just a tiny bit as she does.

Now that I know she was in fact that little girl, the resemblance is immaculate. It's the same smile, but it reaches her eyes this time.

"I see, you're bonding," she laughs sweetly, making her way over to us. Or over to Cody. As she stands right in front of him, she says, "dare to touch one more of my donuts, and I will have to send my boss to beat you up."

I can't tell if she's being serious or joking, either way, it doesn't matter. I would totally beat up my best friend of this woman.

Sierra grabs the box from the counter, turning on her heel to get as far away from Cody as possible. Well, or get her precious donuts as far away as it possibly gets.

"C'mere, sweetheart." I hold my hand out to her, waiting until hers lies in it. Cody snorts a laugh, but all I have to do is glare at him and he stops.

I pull Sierra close to me, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Then I lift her up by her waist, sitting her down onto the island top so it's easier for me to look at her.

My hands stay on her body, and today, it doesn't seem like it bothers her much. Usually she's all tensed up, but she's not right now.

Sierra traces a finger over my upper body, only to end up resting her arms on my shoulders, slightly hugging me but not really.

"Where's Athena?" I hear Cody ask, but I also don't really pay much attention to him anymore, so he might as well have asked something completely different.

"She's still upstairs. I gave her the paper with the sex of the baby on it. I suppose she's freaking out right now," Sierra says with a huge smile on her face.

As much as I thought seeing her smile daily was annoying, it's really not. Sierra has such a beautiful and genuine smile, I might actually love it.

"Anyway, how well did bonding go? I see you allowed him to call you by your first name," Sierra says, looking directly at me.

I sigh. "Actually," I begin. Sierra really should know the truth. The longer it takes for her to find out, the madder she'll be in the end.

Cody clears his throat, cutting me off before I could even really begin to speak. "Bonding is going just great. Though, he's a total asshole, like you keep saying."

I watch as Sierra's smile falls and her eyes find mine, fear lingering inside of them. I'm not sure why, but perhaps she assumes I'd be mad at her for calling me an asshole. I couldn't, even if I wanted to because she is right.

"Cody, stop it," I say, almost groaning. "Sierra, I've known your brother for fifteen years. We've been best friends right from the start."

Sierra's green eyes widen in shock, her mouth standing just a tad opened.

"Well not anymore," Cody growls. "I asked you not to tell her."

Her gaze snaps over to Cody, her eyebrows drawn together. "Why the hell wouldn't you want me to know?"

"He believes you'd make up your own story about how you got pregnant, or more like why," I tell her, needing to be honest with her. She's hands down the only person I've felt the need to be honest with.

"So he's the one who told you?" Sierra asks, pulling her hands away from my shoulders. She doesn't push me away, so I hope she's not too mad.

"I have no clue what you mean exactly, but I will deny ever having told him anything," Cody speaks from behind of me.

"He didn't tell me anything really, sweetheart. I kind of just used the little information I had to figure it out myself."

She doesn't believe me. "You knew the exact date, Atlas. How else would you know it?" She doesn't give me a chance to answer before her attention is on Cody. "You promised, Cody! You promised it would stay between us until I was ready to talk about it!"

I lay my hands onto her jawline, forcing Sierra to look at me. "Sweetheart, he didn't tell me anything. That day, that's my birthday, Cody and I wanted to celebrate it. But he obviously stood me up for you. All he's told me was that something bad happened to his cousin. I didn't even know he has a sister up until that day we met at target."

Sierra slowly bobs her head as she processes my words. Her eyes wandering somewhere behind me, looking at Cody.

She slaps her palms to her forehead a couple of times while she groans. "God, of course," she says then locks her eyes with mine. "That makes so much more sense. Why you didn't protest when I told you about the wedding, why you weren't even surprised about it. And also, it's so much more logical that Cody wants you as his best man."

That doesn't sound like she's mad, does it? I'd say Sierra is a bit irritated, but not upset. Or so I hope.

"How do you put up with him anyway?" she asks, not looking at anyone in particular. Her eyes are focused on our intertwined hands between our bodies. When she looks up, meeting my eyes, she smiles, the same smile I'm starting to enjoy, the one I'm starting to look forward to seeing.

"He's really not—"

"I'm not talking to you, Cody. I'm mad at you. I know why you didn't mention Atlas way back then, or even up until I started working for him, but you should have mentioned it half a year ago. Especially after all the things I said about him," she says.

I cock my head to the side, trying to imagine what bad things she possibly said about me. They were bad things, I know it. I haven't really been nice to her or anyone at all. Then the pregnancy happened, I can just imagine she had a lot to say.

Cody is saying something, but I'm not listening. All I'm focusing on is Sierra, and the fact that she's wrapping her legs around my hips, pulling me in a bit closer. Her hands slowly discovering my abs, making it way harder to breathe.