Page 123 of More Than Pen Pals

Then I catch the bus home, hoping I’ll arrive before my brother does.

I don’t. He’s standing outside the door with his backpack when I approach the building from the bus stop. The second I spot him, he looks up, and I run to him. He spreads his arms wide, and I drop my briefcase and hurl myself into them. He squeezes me tight and then cups my shoulders and sets me far enough away that he can look me in the eye.

“Why are you crying?” He brushes a tear from my cheek.

“I’m so happy to see you.” I swipe more tears away. “I love you so much.” I hug him again.

“Love you, too. Now can we go inside? This wind is brutal.”

“Wait until tomorrow,” I say as I lead him inside. “A cold front’s moving in.”

Shannon takes my briefcase from me and carries it upstairs. “What are we doing tonight?”

“Going to dinner with my friend Wendy. Then we’ll see what else we feel like doing. Maybe go dancing, or if we don’t feel like it, we might go back to her place to watch a movie. She has a couch.”

“Oooh, fancy.”

I shoot him a grin as I unlock my door. “I know. We’ll get to experience how the other half lives.”

“This isn’t a set-up with me and your friend, is it?” He sets his backpack and my briefcase on the floor and then dives onto my bed.

“You have a problem with that?”

“Not if she’s gorgeous.” He smirks at me.

“She’s a redhead.” I head to my closet to pick out something to wear for dinner.

He sighs dramatically. “It’ll be instant love then.”

I laugh. “She’s great, and I honestly don’t know if it’s a set-up or not. I know you’ll like her, but she has a thing for Ash’s brother.”

He holds up his fists. “Could I beat him in a fight?”

“Nope. He has several inches and a good thirty pounds on your puny little butt.”

“Hey, I have an excellent butt, thank you very much.”

“Ugh. Stop. I don’t want to think about your butt.” I pull a shirt and pair of jeans out of the closet.

“You brought it up.”

I head into the bathroom to change but leave the door cracked so we can still hear each other. “What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“Is it too late to get Cubs tickets?” he says. “Or we could try to buy some off the street.”

“We won’t have time to go to the game, get back here, change clothes, and get to dinner on time.”

Ash is planning to meet Shannon at a restaurant near enough to the apartment that he can walk there, while Randall will pick me up and drive me to Evanston to meet his mom.

I haven’t yet told my brother about Diego Sanchez, and I’m about to when he says, “I still think it’s weird that I’m going to dinner with Ash while you go to dinner with his brother and mom. Why are we doing this again?”

I stick my head out the crack in the door. “You’re the one who demanded to meet Ash. You don’t get to complain about the situation.” I disappear back into the bathroom.

“Still. It’s weird.”

I finish changing and then make myself as comfortable as I can in the easy chair, since my brother is sprawled across my bed.

“Yes, it’s weird. But it’s what we need to do for now, okay? This whole thing has been a little strange, but we’re muddling through as best we can. Go with it, please.”

---