Page 90 of The Edge of Summer
I scratch the back of my neck, feeling awkward that this has to be done. “Do you want to tell her?” I ask Parker. He keeps his head down, and then slowly, he shakes it. I nod and then meet Delilah’s worried gaze. “I found your brother and his friends spray painting the side of the building.”
She gasps. “What?” She whirls on him, crossing her arms. “Seriously, what is going on? This isn’t you, Parker.”
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think,” he snips. Then he stands abruptly and heads for the door. She calls out to him, but he doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even turn back.
Delilah swipes at her cheeks, ridding them of tears that haven’t yet fallen. “I’m sorry,” she says, “for the damage he caused. He’ll clean it up.”
“Shutter—” She seems to flinch at the nickname, so I backtrack. “Delilah, that’s not why I called you. I don’t care about the paint. I’m worried about him, and I just want to help.”
Because now I have a sneaking suspicion that what happened to Delilah’s car a couple months back was not a coincidence.
She nods as her jaw locks. “I appreciate your concern, but I have it handled. He’ll clean up the paint because that’s the consequence our parents would have given. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find my brother and then get back to work.”
Delilah leaves my office in a hurry, not unlike how she left my house a week ago. I run a hand through my hair as I let out a frustrated breath.
Fuck.
I’ve been avoiding my family.
It’s no easy feat when I work with my brother, my sister runs the restaurant where I eat a lot of my meals, and my parents have a knack for showing up at unexpected times. It’s not easy, but I’ve managed. Until now.
Clara comes to stand behind the bar opposite my stool and Gabe slides into the seat directly beside me. I expectMom and Dad to arrive next, but it seems it’s only my siblings ambushing me at Dockside today.
I raise a brow. “Can I help you?”
“No,” Clara replies, tugging the glass out of my hands. “But we can help you.”
I snort. “And what exactly do you think I need help with?”
Both Clara and Gabe share a look. They’ve always done that—it’s a twin thing, they say. It has never annoyed me as much as it does in this moment. I hate the fact that they’ve clearly been talking about me. Wondering why I’ve gone radio silent, no doubt. They’ll be disappointed to know that I don’t have an answer.
“Delilah told me you guys broke up,” Clara says gently.
I try to take my glass back, but my sister has a strong grip. “Hard to break up when we weren’t together.”
Clara waves me off. “Tomato,tomahto. Point is, she said that you’re no longer seeing each other. We wanna know why.”
I can’t explain it, but the next thing I know, I’m telling them everything that happened. From Delilah confessing that she wanted more to me not wanting her to leave. I even tell them what happened today. I haven’t been this open with my family in a long time. Not because they didn’t want me to be—I decided I was better off pushing them away.
“You’re an idiot,” Gabe says when I’m finished.
I glower, already rethinking my choice to share. “Thanks, brother.”
He shrugs. “Just thought you should know.”
“Our parents didn’t raise hypocrites, so unless you’ve gotsomething to say about you and Hallie, I don’t want to fucking hear it.”
Gabe’s jaw tightens. He stands, nodding at our sister. “See you later, Clara.”
He leaves without a backward glance, and Clara takes his place on the stool beside me. She shakes her head. “You really had to drop the H word, huh? Low blow.”
“He started it,” I say, well aware that I sound every bit the petulant child.
Clara rolls her eyes. “You’rebothidiots. There. Are you happy now?” When I don’t answer, she does it for me. “No, you’re not. Because you’re letting what happened with Kristina fuck up what you could have with Delilah.”
“I can’t have Delilah.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
