“Do you mind me asking what changed?” The legs of his chair scraped across the wood deck. I glanced over as he scooted his lounger closer to mine. He moved the table out of the way, pushing our seats together. Probably a good idea, because these things weren’t made for a guy my size, much less for me and someone to cuddle with. “I mean, I know the stuff about your dad, or at least what your grandpa talked about sometimes. But you were pretty young then. When did your life stop working?”
The day Grady told me he was moving in with Jen.Until then, I’d allowed myself to believe things between us would never change. We understood one another. Hell, it was because of him that I’d believed it was possible to feel a connection to someone without a commitment. I hadn’t been ready for him to walk away and shut me out. While he got used to his life with Jen, I hid in my apartment and licked my wounds. But eventually I’d resigned myself to the fact we were through, and that’s when I started hitting the clubs. That was more than I was ready to admit to Brook, lest he think I’d been trying to hide the needy, clingy side of my personality.
“It’s been a gradual shift.” The lie left a sour taste in my mouth, so I decided to give him bits of the truth. In time, if we remained friends, maybe I’d tell him the rest. “You see your friends settling down, getting married, having kids, and suddenly you realize you’re the Peter Pan of your social circle. I never had many friends, especially after my dad was arrested. Funny, parents didn’t want their babies hanging out with the con’s son. But there was one guy… I didn’t meet him until after…. He didn’t judge me for what they claimed my dad did, which proves the type of man he is because his parents were some of the victims of the scheme.
“Anyway, Grady’s a good egg. He and I hung out a lot, and eventually—” I cut myself off, realizing how easily Brook could get me to shareeverythingwith him. “We were a lot alike for a long time. But eventually he met this awesome woman—possibly the only person who’d put up with him—and they moved in together. They got married last year and had their first kid, a little boy, a few months ago.”
“And seeing his life made you want to change your own?”
“Yeah, something like that.” I was grateful Brook didn’t pry about our relationship. Grady and I were hard to explain, and most people judged us, thinking we were depraved for sleeping with each other but also being free to sleep with others. Which was bullshit because we’d always given wide berth to anything that sounded like promises to one another. It was casual hookups without the awkward moments before and after.
“And you think Sunset Beach is the place to start your transformation?” Brook reached out, taking my hand in his. He was offering me a lifeline, perhaps a silent wish for me to say yes.
“You have to admit, everything’s falling into place to make that possible,” I told him, lifting his fingers to my mouth.
