Six months from now.
I turned to him, crossing my arms over my chest. “What’s with the asinine rule?”
“Your father set it as a condition in the will.”
I let out a string of curses as I launched out of my seat and walked to the window.
“So in six months, Nathan can sell me the house and the business?” Brenna was taking this remarkably well for someone who hated surprises.
I fought the instinct to turn toward her. Would shewantthe house and the business? There were just as many bad memories for her as there were for me.
“No. The only way for you to retain ownership is if Nathan does, but you could sell to a third party in April.”
“Why?” I asked, returning to the table.
Derek pulled two envelopes out of his stack of papers. “Maybe these letters will explain. He didn’t tell me why he did any of this, but he wanted you to have these.” He handed one to Brenna and slid the other across the table to me.
Brenna slipped the envelope into her purse, but I immediately ripped mine open, needing to understand why he’d force us into a past neither of us wanted to revisit.
Inside was my father’s messy scrawl in black marker. Three lines. Fourteen words.
7
NATHAN
Eight years ago
My body sagged inrelief when I spotted Brenna behind home plate.
She turned at the sound of the fence opening, and her face broke into a bright smile. It faltered when she took in my expression. She wrapped her arms around me, resting her head on my shoulder. My hands settled in the back pocket of her jean shorts, her breath whooshing out at the contact.
Her reaction to me would never get old.
I hoped it would always remain this way.
“They’re fighting again,” I whispered. Four weeks since coming back from baseball camp, and the tension between myparents simmered. At first, they’d limited arguments to when they thought I was asleep. Tonight, they didn’t wait.
Brenna tensed but kept holding me tightly. “I’m sorry, Nate. Did you hear what they were saying?”
When the yelling started, I texted Brenna that I needed her, and she appeared without question. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the familiar, comforting scent of honey and peach. Brenna had carved a spot in my life when she became my neighbor, but now it was more than that. I had no idea why it took so long to figure out I was in love with her, but since admitting it to myself, there was no going back. Brenna owned my heart.
“I think my dad cheated on my mom.”
She pulled back to look me in the eye, sliding her hands down my arms until they clasped mine, her eyes widening with surprise. “What? Why do you think that?”
“I heard bits and pieces, and my mom kept referencing ashe. What else could that mean? They’ve been weird since I got back. Maybe he met someone over the summer? You were here, did you notice anything?”
Brenna worked at my parent’s café, and my dad coached the summer league team we usually played on together. She saw him more than anyone, because my mom was with me. A car honked loudly, and Brenna jumped, turning toward the noise. There wasn’t a sound that wouldn’t startle her.
When she turned back, her lips were drawn together. I hadn’t kissed them since this morning, after we turned off our street on the way to school. Sometimes I thought my parents knew about us, but they hadn’t said anything. Too consumed with their own shit. Ordinarily, my mom would have cornered and questioned me. She’d teased me about Brenna’s crush when we were kids, back when I thought kissing was gross.
Now, I barely thought of anything else.
Thoughts of my complicated home life left as I pulled Brenna toward me again. She rewarded me with one of those smiles that did me in. I kissed her with every emotion—gratitude, fear, amazement, love, desire—rushing through me. Her lips moved frantically against mine. She was as desperate for me as I was for her.
I would never get over the way she made me feel.
A chuckle escaped my lips as I dragged them away from hers. “And to think, how long we could have been doing that if—”
