Page 28 of Top Shelf

She laughs and covers her face. I look at her and smile, and it’s the first chance I’ve had to soak her in. Man, she looks amazing.

But then, she always does.

And it’s funny because, being that we were friends for so long before we were…whatever we were…I have had the distinct pleasure of seeing her bare many times. And I don’t just mean naked—although, every single instance from that one weekend will be etched into my memory until the end of time—I meanbare.I mean, fresh out of the shower, right from the gym, sweaty after a dance party, first thing in the morning after a party that we all crashed at. She never felt the need to hide any part of herself from me, and because of that, I fell in love with every single one of them.

But that was then.

This is now.

This is pretend.

It has to be.

“I just can’t believe you ran to get in the car to go spend the next few hours with my sister.”

She laughs.

“Hey, I’m choosing Demi over Debbieanyday,” she says.

“You say that now,” I say with a devious smile. And out of the corner of my eye, I see her gulp.

A few minutes later, we’re pulling into my dad’s driveway. My dad owns a contracting firm, so our house was his dream. I loved growing up here, and I love that it’s still in the family. I wish he could find someone again, though. I hate that he’s all alone. But he says after losing two loves of his life, he doesn’t know if he could handle it a third time. And I get it.

I didn’t think I’d survive after Sadie left.

And up until she walked into that bar last week, I always thought there was still a chance I might not.

She gets out of the truck and looks up at the house.

“Just as perfect as always,” she says, smiling up at it. I stand next to her and look up at it too.

“Lots of good times in this house,” I say. She turns to me and smiles.

“When I look back on my teenage years,” she says, “the happiest nights of my life were right here. With you all.”

My heart breaks a little.

I always hated how miserable her own home and family made her. It was something I was fortunate enough not to be able to conceive of. But so many times, she spent the night at our house in Demi’s room simply because she didn’t want to go back to hers. I take her hand.

“Let’s do this, Blackwell.”

We walk up the steps, and I open the door just as little feet come rushing down the steps, practically flying across the foyer and into my arms.

“My girl!” I say, catching Harper and spinning her around, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

“Uncle Ty!” she says, then I feel her little body go tense. “Who are you?”

I laugh. Kids really do say what everyone else is thinking sometimes.

“This is Sadie,” I say, holding my hand out for her to take. She smiles as she looks down at Harper.

“Hi, Harper,” she says. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Harper doesn’t say anything at first. She just looks Sadie up and down for a moment and then seemingly makes her decision.

“I like you. Your hair is pretty.”

We laugh as I set her down, and then she runs away, shouting about our arrival through the whole house.

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