When she let go, her eyes flashed to her mother. The full weight of their bathroom conversation was still raw between them.“Thank you for speaking with me today,” Brooke offered, aware that it was kinder than her mother deserved.
Sybil nodded.“I should like to speak with you again sometime.” She turned her gaze to Anna.“And you, Anna. As I said, I would like another opportunity in which I might get to know you better.” Sybil gave them both uncomfortable side hugs, but it was more than Brooke had expected and she was proud of herself and of her mother for getting to this place.
Once they were in the safety of Nate’s car, Mel spun around.“I have exactly five million questions.”
Anna had gone back to playing with Brooke's palm, but Brooke shrugged, urging Mel to continue.
“You broke Sybil.”
“That’s not a question, and she’s not broken,” Brooke said, smirking.
“No, like a wild horse style breaking. Like she was full blown out of control and now she’s almost civil? What the fuck?”
Brooke hummed in thought.“I think Father was correct last night when he said her behavior was a matter of her pride. I…” Brooke's gaze fell to her hand under Anna’s.“I yelled at her a bit.”
“I know,” Anna whispered.“I could hear it. I’m so proud of you.”
“I didn’t accept her apology. She intentionally phrased it so that I wouldn’t have to, but I didn’t. And I wouldn’t have.” Brooke didn’t know if that was something that made her proud of herself or sad for the sake of her family.“But I was able to appreciate that she did in fact apologize. And I told her that I would notify them the next time we come to visit.” The words were out before she could stop them. She had lumped Anna into her travels, her family style vacations, without even consulting her. She knew that given that they were really girlfriends now, it might be expected, but still the action of doing it made her eyes widen and her gaze shift to Anna.
Anna was just staring at her like she had personally hung the moon.
“I’m impressed,” Mel said, leaning back into her seat.
“That was hardly five million questions,” Brooke said playfully.
“Oh, well most of the rest of them revolve around the insane amount of hickeys on your neck right now,” Mel said, turning back around to watch Brooke's face turn red.
Anna threw her head back in a laugh.“Okay, admittedly, that’s my bad. I got a bit carried away this morning.”
Nate stuck one of his fingers in his ear, keeping the other safely on the steering wheel.“La-la-la-la-la that’s my big sister. Brooke, I suddenly see your point.”
“Told you,” Brooke said.
They all laughed at the situation.“I’m going to miss you, two,” Mel said from the front seat.“How soon is too soon for us to plan a trip to come see you?”
Brooke pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at her calendar.“I mean, technically, as early as next weekend, I’d be available.”
Mel grinned.“We’ll still be honey-mooning. But what if we plan to come for your birthday?”
Brooke's heart warmed. She hadn’t had a birthday with family in so long. And even when she was with her family they hadn’t done anything special for her. The thought made her emotional. She nodded quickly.“Yes, I would love that.”
“Sorted,” Nate said, grinning at Brooke in the rearview mirror.
Brooke pulled Anna’s hand up to her lips to kiss the back of her knuckles, feeling happier than she ever had in her entire life.
“I love you,” Anna whispered.
“Really?” Brooke whispered, teasing.
Anna nodded.“Yeah, I really do."
Epilogue: Two Nights Later
Anna squealed and threw her arms around Brooke. It had been less than twenty-four hours since they had last seen each other, but this was going to be their first sleepover since returning home from England. More importantly, this was going to be the first time Brooke got to spend any significant time with Nick. She had met him, of course, when she dropped Anna off after their trip, but they had agreed on the plane ride home that Anna deserved a night with the man who was basically her brother, to get to gush.
It was precisely that reason, that Brooke was blushing from head to toe. She had told Anna that she could share whatever information she usually would, that she didn’t want to get in the way of Anna’s relationship with Nick at all. And she meant it. But that meant that he probably kneweverything. And while that wasn’t a bad thing, it was a new thing. Brooke was definitely still used to being the dirty little secret, the girlfriend that no one knew about.
“Well, well, well,” a deep voice with a subtle European accent said. Nick was tall, blond, fit, in general classically handsome, and most importantly one of her girlfriend’s favorite people in the whole world.
