Page 23 of If This is Love

“Not great,” he said through a listless sigh as we made our way to the porch and up the steps. “My father had a stroke on Friday, so Riley practically insisted that I come to this. I probably won’t hang out long, though.”

“Yeah, me neither.” I knocked with the back of my hand and then shoved my hands in the pockets of my jacket. “Sorry about your dad. That sucks. How’s he doing?”

He shook his head, flapping his eyelashes indignantly as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Not good. At all.” He hitched both shoulders and cocked one eyebrow flippantly. “But, oh well, right?”

That was the damn sad truth of life.

“Right. Still sucks though,” I agreed just as someone pulled the door open.

And just as I guessed, there was alotof chaos happening behind the door.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Skye was shouting above a cacophony of voices belonging to Connor, Brennan, Liza, and Sabrina, who were all standing at random places around the living room. She threw her hands into the air and waved them wildly. “The best thing to do in a situation like this is for everyone to say how they feel, and everyone elselistens,and then everyone takes turnsresponding.”

Oh hell no, I’m getting the fuck out of here.

But Carson was now standing directly in front of the doorway as he stared wide-eyed at the trap we’d just walked into, and the only other way out was all the way through the kitchen—where everybodyelseassuredly was—and out the backyard. I also really didn’t want to give up on my need to check on Ruth and wasn’t going to do it without Liza’s help, and she appeared to be extremely involved in whatever was going on here.

“So, Brina,” Skye continued, clasping her hands under her chin like she was pleading for everyone to get along, “would you like to go first?”

“Actually,yes.” Sabrina took two steps forward from where she was standing on the edge of the rug—partially blocking my potential escape through the doorway to the kitchen,damn it—and gestured with an open hand at Brennan and Liza, who were across the rug from her. “First of all, Iunderstandthat you four have a veryuniquefriendship, butyou two,” she said, now pointing at Connor and Skye, “did not see what I just walked in on.”

“Brina,” Liza said with a small, exasperated huff, dropping her arms at her sides, “phrasing it that way makes it sound like basically the opposite of what was going on.”

“Okay, that’s a good start,” Skye hastily cut in, holding her palms up in front of her as if trying to physically hold back anyone else who might try to throw in their two cents. “Now, Brina, tell us all what you saw that made you feel uncomfortable.”

My eyes were flicking from person to person to person all over the room, and now I couldn’t even leave if I did decide to abandon my plan to check on Ruth. I’d never admit it to anyone, but even I wasn’t immune to being curious about the neighborhood gossip sometimes, and the couple of sentences I just heard were like a car accident I couldn’t stop staring at.

Sabrina huffed long and loudly. “He wasthis closeto kissing her!”

Brennan lifted his finger, clearing his throat. “I was notthis closeto kissing her.”

Sabrina scoffed. “Could’ve fooledliterallyanyone.”

“Were his lips actually anywhere on her that wasn’t like her cheek or the back of her hand or something?” Connor piped up in a tone that sounded extremely bored for a conversation in which his sister was accusing his best friend of kissing his wife.

“No, but he was touching her face, like…” Sabrina pantomimed framing someone’s face between her hands. “Like… like he was going in for a kiss like they do in the movies.”

Brennan lifted his finger and cleared his throat again. “She was crying, and I was wiping her tears.”

Sabrina scoffed again and stomped one of her black ankle boots on the rug. “In what world is itappropriatefor amarried manto wipe hisbest friend’s wife’stears like that?” She threw her hand in the direction of one wall. “While they arealonein the house next door?”

Brennan drew his brows together, looking bewildered like it was the first time such a thing had ever occurred to him. “Any gentleman would help a teary woman in his midst like that.” He caught sight of Carson and gestured at him. “Right, Carson? What were we always told is the real reason to carry a handkerchief?”

Carson was still staring blankly at the group as Brennan crossed the room toward him and me. “Oh, um…” Carson blinked rapidly, darting his gaze around and lightly scratching his temple. “Yes, it’s so you can offer it to a woman who…” He cleared his throat. “Needs it.”

“And I have no handkerchief on me, so I used my thumb,” Brennan said with an easy smile as he wrapped his arm around Carson’s shoulders, squeezing him a bit. “How are you doing, brother? It’s good to see you.”

Out of nowhere, Sabrina started coughing uncontrollably like she just choked on the air in the room, and I glanced at her. She hastily turned and marched toward one of the couches, and Liza immediately went to her, patting her back and asking if she was okay.

“Mostly just making sure my mother’s okay,” Carson said to Brennan with an odd tone, eyeing Sabrina while Liza patted her back. “Good to see you, too. Thanks for the invite.”

“I’m so glad you came.” Brennan craned his neck around Carson’s head to nod at me. “Gabe. Good to see you, too, as always. You look sharp.” He reached his hand across to pat my chest, basically forcing the three of us into a group hug. “Did you change your hair?”

I gave him a slow blink. “Just dried weird, I guess.”

He patted my chest again and retreated into Carson’s personal space. “It driedperfectly. It looks good, brother.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, slowly inching away from them while I mentally calculated my next best move.

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