When I get back to the main house, Grandma is stirring the sauce I’d left behind on the stove. Hope is evident on her face, too.
Hope. Such a dangerous thing. I know that by now.
I shake my head, and her face falls.
“He’s gone.” My voice is jagged. I blink back my tears, taking over for my grandma at the stove. I stare into the sauce, my wooden spoon cutting a path through the thickening cream. I’m saving my tears for later, for when I’m in the shower and I can scream silently.
Grandma leaves the kitchen, sensing my desire to be alone. When there’s a knock at the front door, nobody but me is around to get it. I dump my noodles into the boiling water, droplets sailing over the side and sizzling on the cook top. I rush out of the kitchen, smoothing my hair and wiping beneath my eyes.
“I’m coming,” I yell, before Brady can lose his nerve and leave.
Here it is again.Hope.
I pull open the door, my lips poised to proclaimIt’s not what you think.
“Hi,” I say awkwardly, rearranging the shape of my mouth.
Warren smiles nervously, and I see it on his face too.Hope.
26
Brady
My phone lights up.Addison’s name flashes across the screen.
“Are you ever going to answer it, Brady?” Lennon gives me a look that tells me just what she thinks I should do.
The pad of my thumb swipes over my lower lip as I study her name, then the screen goes dark. “At some point, yes. Just not yet.” I need to hear Addison out, but the truth is that I’m afraid of what she’ll have to say.
Lennon turns back to her book, and I know she’s swallowing her opinion.
I tossed and turned all night, thinking about what I saw in the market yesterday, and I think I’ve figured it out.
I’ve gotten myself into another situation where nothing is fair. It wasn’t fair to Lennon that both her best friends were in love with her, and it’s not fair to Addison that her comatose ex-fiancé woke up and came for her right after she fell in love with me.
It stuns me how unfair life can be. How it trucks along, wreaking havoc, unapologetic about its wrath. I thought Addison and I had a good thing, two broken hearts coming together and mending one another, but no. It appears there’s just more heartache for me. Life is starting to feel like a pie-eating contest, where the only prize is more pie.
I blow out an irritated breath and stand. “I’m going to the lobby to grab a newspaper.”
Lennon looks up at me. Her legs are curled beneath her on the couch. “Grab me one of those cookies they keep near the coffee?”
I nod, a small smile turning my lips upward. Lennon’s never been shy about her appetite, but she has been eating like a linebacker since they arrived.
I slip out the door and take the elevator down. I was lucky yesterday when the hotel where Finn and Lennon are staying had a room available on their floor.
The lobby has three newspapers, and I choose one and sit down. Finn went out to get lunch for the three of us, and Lennon’s reading her book. I might as well sit down here and page through this newspaper.
Plus, I’m sulking.
I take my paper to the far corner of the lobby, to a place where there are three chairs and zero people. I start with the sports section, move on to world news, and then the front page stories. People have been coming and going through the lobby, but as far as I can tell nobody pays me any mind. It takes a full half hour for anybody to sit down in one of the nearby chairs.
I finish my article, glancing up as I turn the page. My gaze stills, locked on the guy reading a different paper. He glances over; he must’ve felt me staring.
He dips his chin, his gaze returning to his paper. It’s an acknowledgment and also a polite instruction not to talk to him. Normally I’m all for leaving strangers alone, especially ones who are reading.
But this guy happens to be the guy I saw kissing my girlfriend yesterday.
Tossing the paper aside, I lean forward and extend a hand. A false show of civility. When he reluctantly places his hand in mine, it’s all I can do to keep from tightening my grip.
