Page 120 of Crash & Burn

I hear him sigh, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Mateo, he didn’t tell me anything. I just noticed you’ve been busy. I was just trying to make conversation, catch up, see what was new with you.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to blow up. I just—”He sighs again. “I’m just feeling a little stressed with the tour starting soon, and work is really busy, and I um. . .I am seeing someone, but it’s still new. I told Eddie about it, and I know you guys hang out a lot, so I thought maybe he told you.”

A lot to unpack here, starting with my brother seeing someone, and how I am so happy for him. Also, I can’t ignore that he knows Eddie and I are getting closer, but it seems like the possibility of us getting together isn’t on the forefront of his mind anymore. He obviously just sees us as friends.

The last thing I want to do is stress Mateo out any more, so now would not be a good time to unpack any of these things with him, and I don’t want him to be worried about me or his best friend.

I can’t tell him.

Maybe after the tour starts.

But for now, no. I’m not going to stress him out more.

“I get it. No worries,” I say. I take my phone out to check the notification I just got, a text from Eddie, and my stomach drops, for more reasons than one.

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“So… What’s her name?” I ask, trying to ease the tension.

“Camila. Don’t.”

“Fine, fine. Don’t be mad at me.”

“Don’t piss me off,” he says, but I can hear the smile in his voice.

We end our conversation, and I let him know that I am here for him if he needs anything, hoping the stress of tour, work, and his new girlfriend isn’t too much. And I tell myself that there will be no stressing him out any more than he already is, not if I can help it.

Chapter 40

Eddie

Mia is on her way over to meet Daisy, and I am so excited to have my two favorite girls together.

It has been a few weeks since our rendezvous after Cityscape, and Annie and Luke teased me the whole way to my truck about how I look like a love-sick teenager whenever Mia is in the vicinity, so I’m hoping Mia also has an update on when we can tell Mateo about us, so we can stop all this hiding.

I also have something to talk to her about.

Mia texts me that she is here, and I let her know the door is open. Mateo is gone now and won’t be back later tonight, so it is just me and Daisy. I take the few minutes I have before Mia is here to prepare Daisy for who she is about to meet.

Daisy is lying in her bed that sits on the floor next to mine. She is already bigger than when I got her back in July, growing a good amount in just about a month.

“Okay, Dais. You’re about to meet my girl. Her name is Mia, but I call her sunshine.”

Daisy’s tail wags, but she keeps her head down on her bed, her eyes looking up at me from where I’m standing.

“Why do I call her ‘sunshine’? I’m glad you asked. You’ll see why when you meet her. She lights up every room she walks into. She’s the sun on my rainy day, and I think I love her, Dais.”

There is a knock on the door, and then I hear it open and close.

I bend down next to Daisy. “She’s here,” I whisper to her, kissing her on the top of the head.

“Hello?” I hear from the entryway. Our apartment is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, with a kitchen and a living room, big enough for Mateo and I to have our own space.

“In here,” I yell back to her.

“Hey, raindrop,” she says from the doorway of my bedroom. She has been to this place dozens of times but never has she been in my bedroom.

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