“I'm so glad you are here!” I say burying my face into her shoulder.
“I’d never miss an opportunity to be the first to hear about how you spent the night at Noah’s,” she says, smirking.
My family has always been Noah’s biggest fan, and I know the fight put a damper on all of them, especially Cole. Knowing that he is somewhere upstairs waiting for my return to hear if he can be friends with Noah again, makes me grateful that Pen intercepted me at the door. I'm definitely not ready to tell my brother about last night, especially the fact that we slept together.
“Pen…it was…” I start, not sure where to begin or how to describe how I’m feeling. “Everything,” I finish, dropping my arms from her, shoulders starting to slouch. There is a bone chilling gust of wind causing me to shiver, making me wish I had elected for a warmer jacket when I realize I’m still wearing Noah’s jacket from this morning.
My face blanches as Pen smiles and says, “Come on, let’s get inside.”
Pen is the only person who knows everything that happened on that dreaded night in Oklahoma. She knows how broken I was and was ready to fly back to Milwaukee to pick up the pieces, after making a pit stop in Oklahoma to see Noah. It took a three-hour FaceTime call, with Pen, Jonathan, Mason, and Caroline, a bottle of wine, and lots of laughter to convince her to stay in Georgia.
Liam pulls his train set out and is driving it along the downstairs bonus room floor, so Penelope grabs my arm and pulls me over to the couches. The dark gray fabric couches have been in this room for as long as I can remember. And while they are about as worn as the cheetah print attitude shirt with a monkey on it that I wore in middle school, I would be devastated if my parents ever decided to replace them. Our entire childhoods are in these couches from the fights to the tears to the holidays.
Once we sit, Penelope says,“Tell me everything, Olivia.”
And so I do.
Chapter 12
Olivia
“Thatbastard,”Coleexclaimsas he runs down the stairs to me crying while explaining the night before. “I'm going to kill him,” he adds.
“Easy there, killer, he didn’t do anything wrong and did not hurt her,” Pen says, putting her hand up and motioning for him to come over and sit on the other side of me. After finishing the story, explaining how I feel and everything else, we arrive at one conclusion. I have to tell Noah two things and follow the one rule we set in place for the remainder of this trip.
1. Tell Noah how I feel
2. Tell Noah we cannot continue
3. Do not have sex with Noah (again)
“These rules seem easy enough,” I say, letting out a ragged sigh, wiping the tear stains on my flush freshly cried cheeks away.
My siblings look at each other and scoff a slight laugh before turning to me and saying, “Sure” and “Easier said than done, Liv.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“Olivia, honey, you and Noah are like two magnets that are constantly drawn to each other no matter how far apart you are placed. It was like that when you were kids, I can’t say it is going to be any different now. You can’t deny the magnetic field, Liv. You’re a doctor, you know that’s not how science works,” Penelope replies.
“It wasn’t always like that, he hated me when I first met him,” I retort, but before I can even finish the part about us defying it for the last ten years, Cole bursts out into the deepest laugh I have heard from him in a long while.
“You think he hated you?” Cole gets out between laughs, and Penelope swats him on the arm.
“Yeah? He was the one to always say no, when I tried to hangout with you,” I say, confused.
“Oh, Liv, Noah only said no because you’re my sister and he thought it was weird to be attracted to his best friend’s sister. He just tried to keep the distance to help himself,” Cole says, and my mouth basically drops to the floor.
“Wait, what?” I ask glaringly.
“Yes, Olivia. Who was the first one there for you when you fell and scraped your knee? Or when Matthew was a dickhead to you? Or when you and Penelope had a big fight? I can assure you, it wasn’t Carter or me, although we were a close second,” Cole shares again.
I am so confused… Why would he not tell me that? I always thought he hated me until I was in high school. Did Cole give him the okay? I think back to that day during my final cranberry harvest, how did that day even happen?
I guess there were signs that I just didn’t see. Maybe I ignored them.
“Did everyone realize this but me?” I ask quietly, feeling a mix of guilt and sadness that I didn’t put the two together before then.
Penelope and Cole just shake their heads in disbelief.
