Page 9 of Summer with a Brother's Best Friend
Hell, I shouldn’t want to rekindle things with her, but damn, it was tempting.
She’d always been tempting.
And I almost gave in last week in the storeroom, because boy, did I want to, and if we hadn’t been interrupted, there’sno telling what would have happened. It had started innocently enough. She’d tweaked something in her back trying to get one of the boxes off the top shelf instead of waiting two minutes for me to help her.
She’d gotten it, but I’d come in just in time to see her grimace as she twisted back and forth trying to find some relief. I hadn’t even thought about the consequences of offering to help alleviate the pain—I’d just wanted to help.
But the second my hands touched her body, I’d been transported back to the days that she’d been mine. My fingers kneaded and caressed her, and I’d been out of my mind with only that simple act. Marigold had been a blessing and a curse barging into the storeroom like she had because I wouldn’t be able to resist my ex-girlfriend a second time.
And I didn’t want to.
As the song winds down, Vienna escapes to the back to restock glasses or otherwise make herself scarce for the next twenty minutes. I don’t know if she knows everything about my history with Reece, but she always seems to give us time alone when she can.
I should probably give her a raise.
“Hey Reece?”
“What’s up?” she asks as she pauses slicing lemons to look at me.
“I was just wondering if you’d heard anything about the job at the high school.”
“I haven’t been able to get ahold of Mr. Gomes, but it was just an interview. I don’t have any plans of moving back here.”
It’s a swift reminder of how fragile our relationship is here. I want her, and she’s standing with one foot already out the door. We could joke and laugh about the past, and even if I know how good it would feel to get lost in her, I won’t survive losing her again.
Hell, the hole in my heart never healed from the first time we said goodbye.
Reece’s eyes plead with me to understand and I do.
Truly.
But I can’t help wondering what our life would have been like if I’d gone with her—if I’d said to hell with Love Beach and taken a chance on us instead of running back home with a mangled heart.
The bell above the door chimes, and the moment’s gone, just like my hope of making it through this summer with her here.
7
REECE
7 YEARS AGO
Ilet my eyes fall shut and will the tears not to fall as Maddox goes on and on about what comes next when the three of us return to Love Beach after finishing our associates degrees. He’s excited. Animated. And he should be. He’s getting to live his dream of following in our father’s footsteps—becoming a firefighter and serving in our hometown.
“Isn’t that great? And Mom is so excited about you getting into her alma mater for nursing school. It’s crazy we’re just like them, right? And it will be us in Love Beach again, like, this is it—what we’ve always wanted!” Maddox whoops, completely oblivious to the shell of myself I’ve become in the last two years.
“I’m not going,” I whisper, the declaration like a record scratch in the room.
“What? Of course you are. It’s just like we talked about, like you’ve always wanted,” Maddox says, emphasizing the words even as confusion mars his face.
“It’s what Mom wants—whatyouwant—but no one ever asked me what I want!” Maddox freezes as he stares at me, his gaze bouncing between me and Isaac who is uncharacteristicallyquiet. I can’t look at my boyfriend; I can’t bear to see the hurt on his face.
“What are you saying?” my brother asks quietly.
“I’m saying that I got into the nursing program, but I also found a teaching program a few hours away that’s incredible that I applied to.” Steeling myself for the inevitable, I add, “And I was accepted.”
“And you’re…” Isaac’s voice is pained like he can’t get out the words, because he knows without me even saying it. It’s over.We’re over.Because I won’t make him choose me over my brother.
Maddox would see it as a betrayal from Isaac if he followed me and I can’t do that—to either of them.
