The day prior, Brie had come into my family’s bookstore to sell some old bodice rippers. I was the only one in. Without anyone around, I was able to just be myself. It was the best interaction we’d had, maybe ever, even if it was a little awkward. I gave her a good deal, and she gave me a tentative smile.
But Dad walked in from the back entrance just in time to see her leave out the front. He gave me more than a hard time that night for not just doing business with a Casey but giving her more than she deserved.
I was still stewing the next morning when Brie walkedin not dressed like a ghoul for Halloween, but looking even prettier than normal. If I let myself soak in the memory, I can still feel the bitter rage take hold of me.
I couldneverhave Brie, even though she was rightthere.
Looking back, it’s lucky all I did was knock over some pencils. I don’t know if I meant for Brie to be the target. I still don’t know if I wanted to see her suffer, like I was suffering, or if she was just collateral damage.
But Brie was always clumsy, susceptible to accidents anyway. That day, she didn’t stand a chance. It happened in slow motion. There was nothing I could do but watch, slack jawed, as her arms windmilled out as she skidded along the floor.
Everyone in the class roared with laughter, some cheering for me.
“I landed on my ass, right on my tailbone,” she adds, still ignoring me. “For six months I couldn’t sit without the reminder.”
I wince. I didn’t know that.
“But it was an accident,” Harvest says helpfully. “Right, Sawyer?” She winks at me, and I want to throw up.
Brie looks at me with all the contempt I deserve. “Just like prom was anaccident? Or heckling me at every presentation? Or, let’s go to a classic, laughing the loudest when I tripped in first grade and knocked out my top two baby teeth?”
“I was in first grade,” I grit out. “I saw someone fall, I laughed. The second I saw blood, I ran to you. I took you to the nurse’s office!”
She leans in, doubling down on her indignation. “You did not! Dev did!” she all but spits.
“It wasme,” I say.
My dad was so angry that evening, at his son for taking ahurt kid to the nurse’s office just because of who her father was. No matter what I said, he believed I was secretly friends with Brie, deliberately disobeying his orders to stay away from her.
Brie and I are nose-to-nose. She’s ready to gouge me.
All I want is to kiss sense into her.
Out of the corner of my eye, Dev holds his finger up, about to speak, but Doug’s hesitant voice cuts through instead. “Can I get you all anything else?”
Still glaring at me, Brie says, “Check, please.”
CHAPTER 15
BRIE
When I get backto Gia’s, a light glows below my sister’s door. Without thinking, I knock.
“Come in.”
Gia is sitting up in bed. She takes her reading glasses off and lays a book down on her bedside table. It’s a different pastel-colored illustrated cover than she was reading earlier.
“How was your date?” she asks.
I make a face.
She pulls down the duvet and pats the bed next to her.
For a moment, all I can do is stand there. I don’t have aget in bed and cuddlerelationship with anyone, including my sisters.
But now that she’s offered, I reallyreallywant to. Gia found me my first day in Blue Ridge and practically ordered me back to her home. She’s folded me into her little family as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. I’ve tried to do my share and help out around the house, but she’s never even insinuated she wants anything back while she feeds me and asks what I want to watch on TV.
It’s not until this moment that I realize how bad I want to cuddle with someone who loves me.
