Page 18 of Always a Chance
I madeit to the diner first and chose our usual booth, ready to kick out anyone eating there if I needed to. Luckily, it was free. Callie smiled at me from where she took orders at the next table over. This was much more my speed than the Beach Club had been.
That entire night was a disaster. I remember being as scared by Gianna’s seizures as Talia looked, but I’d seen enough of them now that I could jump into action quickly. Gianna normally didn’t remember much about them, and that was a good thing.
I wasn’t sure how long Talia would be in town, but knowing her, it was only a matter of time before she went back to her big-city life.
I had no right to be jealous of whoever the guy Gianna mentioned was when we could hardly stand to be around each other, but old habits died hard, and I found my fists clenching at the thought of her dating some city man. I just had to avoid her until she left. That was all there was to it. There’d been a time I couldn’t have seen my life without my best friend in it, but those were just a child’s naïve plans.
People drifted apart, sometimes they were torn and the rift never went away, the pain never lessened.
“You look like you’re thinking too hard.” Finley slid into the booth across from me.
Tanner sat next to me, shoving my shoulder. “Yeah, Johnny, stop. It’s freaking me out.”
I sent him a scowl, knowing what he truly meant, what I was to this family. Johnny, the kid who never thought before acting, didn’t consider consequences, and courted trouble. But I hadn’t been that boy in a long time. Now, I had a career, readers who looked up to me—even if they didn’t know who I really was—and too many regrets for the carefree attitude that gave me so many problems.
Shane arrived a moment after them, his expression giving nothing away. I knew they were all annoyed at my sibling bat call today, but I so rarely needed them.
“Wait.” Tanner’s eyes darted around the diner. “Where’s Cole?”
Finley rolled her eyes. “Believe it or not, his mother wanted him back.”
Tanner’s shoulders fell. “My fiancée… always stabbing me in the back.”
It still weirded me out hearing that Tanner was getting married. It took him long enough to ask her, but he was just so… Tanner. Shane and Finley… they were always meant for domestic bliss. Words that sounded foreign to my ears. I wrote about romance, met plenty of women, and even dated quite a bit, but something had always been missing. I’d never looked at anyone the way my siblings looked at their significant others.
Not since… a long time ago.
Callie stepped up to the table. “The usuals?”
Finley nodded. “Yes, please.”
“Shakes only,” I said, then looked at my siblings. “If you’re making me pay, you’re not getting meals out of this.”
Tanner clapped me on the shoulder and shot Callie a smile. “What he means by that is, we’d love our usual shakes with a pinch of three full orders of cheese and balsamic chips. Don’t forget the side of cheeseburgers.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. Money hadn’t been an issue for me in years, but I’d never quite come to terms with the fact. I treated my siblings a lot and spoiled Cole. Even Mom and Dad accepted vacation gifts now that they knew I wasn’t selling either my body or drugs for the money.
The thought that for years my entire family actually thought that was possible still made me laugh.
Callie left to put our order in, and nobody spoke for a long minute until Tanner cleared his throat. “So, Johnny boy, did you SOS us just so we could stare at each other?”
Finley shot him a look of disapproval, her lips drawn tight. “What Tanner means to say is, are you okay?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Just be quiet.” Finley pointed one finger at him. “Johnny has never once called an SOS. All these years of me falling apart, Shane doing his Shane thing, and you being in complete denial about your feelings, he has sat in this booth and listened to us, giving us advice.” Her hard eyes went from Tanner to Shane, and I wanted to hug her for having my back. “You will put your listening ears on. Johnny might be the most successful of us, but he’s sensitive.”
And that gratitude crashed and burned.
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at the table. “I’m not sensitive.”
Finley reached across the table, her hand landing on my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to tell you now.”
Her grip on my arm tightened, her nails digging into the skin where the short sleeve of my designer Hawaiian shirt stopped.
“Ow, Finny, stop.”
