>>18808746Colby frowns.
>"What can you do to scare her off that's worse than what Nika did? I don't like it."Colby's eyes drift to the glass.
>"She doesn't really want this. Like you say, she's stubborn and she'll fight back just for the sake of fighting back. I just need to get her home before she starts to grow roots, and then Dad'll fix this. She got accepted into some decent colleges outta high school. He just needs to pay for her school. Or, heck, maybe I will. I'm not to the point where I can shake twenty grand out of the pockets of an old pair of pants yet, but I'm making some money now. By next fall I could work something out."She looks at the glass again.
>"I don't know that she'll be at the Dojo anyway. She wasn't when I went to see her."Colby puts her hand on Amy's hand, but not to move to move it off the glass. She holds it in place, then squeezes it.
>"And I don't want my little sister seeing you as the 'bad guy' either. It'd be nice if she liked you. You could do stuff together, toss axes in the back yard together with the guys while me and Mom are in the kitchen, talk about what a jerk I am behind my back. That sorta thing."Colby realizes implications of the verbal picture she's painting, and pauses. Her thoughts had certainly ended up in a different place than they'd started just now.
After a few seconds, she squeezes Amy's hand again and smiles, a ray of sunshine peeking through her otherwise cloudy disposition this morning.
