Page 26 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

Me: Idiot.

My thumbs hovered over the screen. It was more that I didn’t know how I felt rather than me not wanting to tell them.

Trace: Whatever happens in the text chain, stays in the text chain.

Dex: True dat!

Xander: Idiot.

Dex: You know, I’m feeling really underappreciated here, guys.

Fuck it!

Me: I like her. But I found her after her ex beat the crap out of her, and I won’t be the guy that pushes her into something she isn’t ready for. I’m not that creep. So I’m sitting in my chair, drinking beer, and being miserable because everything I want is sitting in my cottage, and I can’t have it.

I pressed send before I could second guess myself and just delete the word vomit I’d spilled into my phone.

Damn, talk about emotional revelation.

I had another longing look out the window until I felt my phone vibrate in my hand. I looked down, dreading what I was going to see, knowing it would be them telling me that everything I was worried about was true. I was a complete ass for even thinking about her that way.

Trace: How do you know she isn’t ready for it?

Me: Because she just went through a trauma.

Trace: And it’s up to her how she wants to deal with that.

Xander: You need to talk to her, Booker.

Dex: Better yet, take her on a date. You gotta woo the lady.

Xander: For once Dex makes a good point.

Dex: Hey! I make good points all the time. I wouldn’t put up with this if I didn’t know you all really loved me, you know.

Me: What if she says no?

Trace: Then you know it’s too soon, and you’ll be her friend.

Dex: Damn, Trace got all wise when he got all loved up.

Me: How do I do that?

Now I just sounded like an idiot, but I might as well get what I could out of this, and then, hopefully, we’d never speak of it again.

Dex: Well, I think you have to fall in love with someone.

Xander: He means how does he talk to her, idiot.

Dex: Words hurt guys. I’m just saying.

I laughed at their bickering. Damn, I’d missed this so much.

But that happiness came with a sting because we were still missing a brother, and we needed to get him back.

The only way that was happening, though, was for one of us to talk with our father, and I knew without a doubt that was how I was going to repay them for this. I’d throw myself into the firing line of our parents’ crap. Not that Trace was talking to either of them, and rightly so. Xander hadn’t been back to Willowbrook for years because of them, and I didn’t want to risk losing him for another two years.

That only left me.

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