Page 119 of The Plan

His jaw drops a bit. “No.” He sounds defensive. “That you have Isabelle for the weekend. I was expecting you to come in here doing backflips.” I roll my eyes at his exaggeration, but he’s right, I do love watching her.

“You’re the only one who gets excited enough to do backflips.” He opens his mouth to object but then closes it again because he knows I’m right. “I am excited about having her for the next few days, though. Jackson never lets her sleep out of the house, so I’m kind of honored.” I smile proudly.

“I’m not surprised that you're the only person that gets nights with his daughter. You’re trustworthy and have known her for, like, her whole life,” he says as he takes his last braid down. I nod, agreeing.

“I made a year sober,” I blurt, not being able to hold it in any longer. His head snaps to mine, and then he jumps out of his seat and stares at me.

“Really?!” I break into a laugh at his excitement, and when I start to nod my head, he literally jumps up and down. My laugh grows as he shakes my shoulders before pulling me in for a hug.

“Congratulations!” I thank him, and when he pulls away, he looks so damn proud of me. I feel my smile fade a bit, and he quickly notices. “What?” I shrug my shoulders, but before I change my mind, I just spit it out.

“I wanted to drink earlier, on the drive here, actually.” His smile doesn’t falter. For some reason, he still looks like he’s proud of me, and that’s somehow all I needed.

“But you didn’t.” I shake my head. “Okay? That’s all that matters.” I give him a smile, and he pulls me in for another hug. I wrap both arms around him, and I can literally feel him buzzing with excitement because I never hug him like this.

I give him one last squeeze, mainly because I also need it. I pull away and lean against the desk he was sitting on. When I look back over at him, he's smiling so hard I’m sure his cheeks hurt.

“Vid and I talked last night.”

He sits back in his chair as he begins to detangle his curls. “About?”

“Everything…” I wait for his reaction, and once he registers what everything means, his eyes widen so much I’m surprised his eyeballs don’t fall out.

“Shit.” He puts the brush down, giving me his full attention. “How’d that go?”

“Honestly,” I start, “a lot better than I was expecting.”

He looks taken back but smiles. “So, ya are finally back together?” He sounds so excited, you’d think it was his relationship that was just fixed.

“No,” I say, and my voice comes out more discouraged than I intended. Even August looks a bit disappointed. “I wish it was that easy, but we have some shit to work through.” He nods in understanding as he picks his brush back up.

I feel like Vid doesn’t fully trust me, but I think there’s still something else stopping her from letting us be together. I just can’t figure it out, and she needs to talk to me if this is going to work. I let out a sigh and turn back to my brother.

“But I’m glad we talked through everything. I needed to… make amends with her.” He nods again but keeps his focus on his reflection as he works the brush through his hair.

“That’s actually why I came here.” I watch as a small crease grows between his brows. I take a quick, deep breath, building a bit of courage as I go on. “I’m so sorry, August.” He freezes and slowly turns to me.

“It’s okay...” He sounds uncertain, then adds, “What did you do, though?” I shake my head with a small smile at how quick he is to forgive me. He honestly shouldn’t.

“Everything I put you through. I shouldn’t have asked you to take that drug test for me. In college and in high school.” He puts the brush back down and sort of shrugs.

“You needed me.”

I shake my head. “You shouldn’t have needed to do something like that.”

“You already apologized.” He shrugs again. I think about both of the bullshit apologies I gave him, and with the way he looks at me, I know he’s thinking the same as I am.

“Those weren’t good enough apologies.” This time, he doesn’t say anything. “Saying you’re dead to me if you didn’t take the drug test was wrong on so many levels, and I know I can’t takemy words back, and sorry isn’t going to change what I said, but I didn’t mean it.”

He nods a few times, but before he can say he forgives me because he’s too good to me and will, I go on.

“In high school…” I take in a deep breath. “The day after you took the drug test for me, I disappeared.” He looks away, and I feel a knot form in my throat but force it down.

Our parents were fighting about the damn test for days. Mom said she trusted me and didn’t want to test me; Dad said I needed to earn his trust, which was fair. I lied to them a lot when I was abusing drugs.

To get them both off my back, I said I’d take the test, but really, I had August take it for me… then I was gone for two days.

“I got into an argument with—” I shake my head, not even wanting to say my birth mother’s name. I hate even calling her that. August nods in understanding, and I go on. “I went looking for Lisette, and since… my surrogate was next door, she saw me.” I shake my head at the memory.

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