But that’s not the point.
My friend needs me so I look away and bump her shoulder. “Hey, what’s up?”
She blinks as if waking up. “What?”
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” she says quickly.
I frown. “Are you sure? You were staring pretty hard at something.”
She ducks her head and tucks her hair behind her ears. “Uh, no. I was just… thinking about something.”
“About what?” I prod. “You know, you’ve been pretty quiet these days. Is something going on, Wyn? You can tell me, you know that, right? I mean, youhaveto know that. I love you.”
She smiles at me but sadness still lingers in her eyes. “I know. It’s just I’m stressing about art school applications. It’s end of February now and I haven’t heard anything back. So I don’t know if they liked my sketches or not.”
I get her nerves. I haven’t heard back from Juilliard myself but she has to know that she’s beyond talented and hard working and she’ll get in.
“Are you crazy? You’re the best artist I know.” I grab her shoulders. “Wyn, you’re so talented. So, so, sotalented. You make me cry with your talent, okay? Cry.”
She chuckles. “But you’re pregnant. You cry at everything.”
“Ha. Ha. I’ve always cried at your sketches. Because they’re awesome. And everyone will love them. You’ll see. You’ll hear back from them, trust me.”
Salem and Poe say the same thing before hugging me goodbye and telling me yet again — Wyn joins in this time — how amazing it is that my gorgeous villain is waiting for me in his Mustang.
So my girls are definitely in love with him.
And although I wouldn’t ever say that my brothers are in love with him, they too have somewhat warmed up. Stellan doesn’t glare at him all that much and Shepard doesn’t respond to everything that Reed does with sarcasm.
Last week Conrad even gave him a short nod through the black gates when Reed came to pick me up after school.
Even Ledger isn’t always biting Reed’s head off. And vice versa.
Last weekend it was my brothers’ turn to bring groceries and Ledger brought tons.
Reed was also there because he came around to fix the gutter up on the roof. Because when it had rained a couple of days ago, the water didn’t go down smoothly, whatever that meant.
When I told him that I didn’t notice anything and that he was crazy to worry about the littlest things and that he should relax and enjoy things like rain because it’s pretty and cozy to watch from the glass house, he shot me a flat look. Then he said that I should let him handle things beyond my ken.
“Beyond my ken. That’s offensive, Reed.”
He set the ladder against the siding of the house and murmured, without glancing at me, “Yeah? I hadn’t noticed.”
I put my hands on my hips. “It’s not only offensive, it’s also misogynistic to imply that women don’t know anything about house maintenance.”
“Well, they don’t if they think rainwater clogging on the roof is cause for celebration.”
“You’re —”
“Are you bothering my sister?” Ledger asked, appearing out of nowhere.
Reed threw him an irritated look. “I’d be happy to start something with you but I’m a little busy here.”
“Yeah, with what?”
I jumped in before Reed could make matters worse. “He’s cleaning the gutters or whatever. And when I told him he shouldn’t bother because everything was fine and that he should enjoy things in life like pretty rain instead of worrying about everything, he said I didn’t know anything about house maintenance.”
