Page 38 of The Unbound Bookshop
“It’s not a gift for a girlfriend or anything like that. I don’t have a girlfriend. I don’t date. I—” Heat shot up his neck.Good grief. Get it together, man. You’re babbling like a buffoon. He gathered another breath. “The boat’s for Kevin.”
“Now I really don’t understand.” Although still cautious, her tone softened at the mention of his brother’s name.
“Do you remember Kevin’s bucket list?” he asked. “The one he made our senior year?”
“Of course. His 30 Before 30 list. He’d tried to convince me to make one, too.”
“Did he ever show it to you?”
“No. He shared a few of the things he’d added, but not the whole thing. Why?”
Flynn reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. His fingers shook slightly as he flipped open the buttery leather and slid out a slip of paper. “Here.” He handed the neatly folded square to Sage, studying every inch of her expression as she slowly unfolded the sheet of monogrammed stationery and scanned the list.
At the sight of Kevin’s perfect penmanship, and the thirty even rows detailing his youthful hopes and dreams, tears filled her eyes. When she finally lifted her gaze, her eyes sparkled again, but this time, not from blissful, bookish reverie. Her eyes glistened with pain and sadness.
“You’re fulfilling Kevin’s bucket list?”
“I’ve been working on it for the last ten years. I only have the last two items left.”
She glanced down at the page and read them aloud. “Own theMarvelous Miraand become vice president of Cahill Enterprises.”
“That’s why I’m back in town,” he confessed. “My parents are announcing my promotion at the gala tomorrow night. It’s only a coincidence that I discoveredMiraon the auction brochure.”
“So all of this—” Her voice caught as her gaze swept the page again. “You’re completing everything on this list in honor of Kevin’s memory?”
“Something like that.” He turned back toward the water. Without the sun’s light, the sea darkened. Silver-tipped waves caressed the boat’s hull, creating a rhythmic sway, lulling him back to the past, to memories as murky as the ocean depths.
He could still hear his mother’s sobs from the day of his brother’s funeral—the day he’d approached his father’s study and forever changed the course of his life.
“Why him?” His mother’s bitter cry had carried through the crack in the door frame.
He should’ve walked away right then, but he’d crept closer, peering through the gap as his pulse hammered inside his eardrums.
“Please, God,” she’d pleaded, weeping against his father’s chest. Her whole body shook with the force of her sobs, despite his father’s arms wrapped tightly around her, his own tears tumbling down his face.
Witnessing his parents in so much anguish, Flynn had felt as though his already broken heart had been ripped from his body.
“Please, God,” his mother repeated, her voice breaking. “Please. Anyone but our Kevin.”
At that moment, time had stopped. All the air fled his lungs, as if they’d been punctured by an ice pick. He couldn’t move. Or breathe. Or even think straight. All he felt was the crushing pain of her words.
And all the words she didn’t say, but he already knew.
Anyone but our Kevin.
Our favorite. The son meant to carry on our legacy and esteemed Cahill name. The son who made us proud.
If he’d been given a choice that day, he would’ve traded places with his brother without hesitation.
But he hadn’t been given a choice.
Which left him with the next best option: to try as hard as possible to fill his brother’s shoes.
Burying the memory as best he could, he faced Sage once more and forced a smile. “Should we eat before the fish gets cold?”
“Sure.”
He reached for the spatula, but not before he caught the look in her eyes. The look he’d seen so many times growing up, when they’d been each other’s best friend. The look that said,I’m here for you if you need to talk.
