A message notification pulled his attention from the picture.
Kenna: wow
Kenna: didn’t realize you were that down bad
Kieran cast a sidelong glance at his cousin. She was still pretending to read her magazine.
Kieran: Yeah
Kenna: woooooow
Kenna: not even trying to hide it
Kieran: There’s no point.
Kenna: your plan will work
Kenna: just gotta be a little less goofus and a little more gallant
Kieran had just finished reading her message when Kenna leaned over, holding the magazine up for him to see. She pointed at the boys on the page, raising a knowing brow. The character of Goofus was hiding from a friend, clearly upset, but unwilling to face his friend head on. Gallant, on the other hand, simply asked his friend for time to cool down before finally talking through their disagreement.
“A little on the nose, don’t you think?” Kieran mumbled. Kenna chuckled.
“I don’t know any other way to be.” She leaned close, so that their shoulders were pressed together. A comforting pressure, one that Kieran let himself lean into.
A doctor entered the room, asking to speak with Meredith. The way tension melted from her shoulders as they spoke in hushed tones by the doorway told Kieran everything he needed to know about how his father’s surgery had gone.
And even though his mother wasn’t speaking to him, even thoughhehadn’t yet found the courage to start up that conversation, even though it felt like everything Kieran wanted was still balanced precariously on a cliff’s edge… for the first time in days, Kieran felt as though it would all be okay.
All he had to do was find the right time to say everything he needed to say. To his parents, and to the woman he’d realized he wasn’t willing to let slip away from him.
Not this time.
“So.” Atticus kicked off the ground with his good foot, pushing himself into the air, his gaze locked on Sammie as he swung back and forth. “What did you make me drive all the way down here to tell me?”
Sammie thought he probably already knew. Atticus always had been able to read her a little too well. She rocked slowly in her own swing, unwilling to let her feet leave the ground yet. It was a pretty day, cool for the height of summer. A breeze pushed her hair away from her face, leaving her with nothing to hide behind. Not that she wanted to hide from Atticus. That was why she’d brought him here, why she’d asked him to come back to their old home for the weekend. He’d agreed, since he wasn’t cleared to practice with his team yet.
Hiding from her problems wasn’t going to work anymore. And even if her brother already knew what she was going to say, that didn’t make the saying it part any less important.
Or any less difficult.
Best to treat it like a bandaid, in true Sammie-fashion.
“I’m selling the house.”
The words fell between them, bricks that were heavy but crumbling. Sammie couldn’t bring herself to meet her brother’s stare. What if her instincts were wrong? What if she saw disappointment in his eyes? Sammie didn’t think she could handle that. Of all the possible scenarios she’d imagined for this conversation, that was the only one she didn’t think she could survive.
“Good.”
Atticus dropped the single word there, breaking those bricks to dust. Sammie looked up, and whatever he saw on her face had Atticus rolling his eyes.
“What did you think I was going to say?” he blurted, digging one heel into the dirt to bring his swinging to a jarring halt. “I’ve wanted you to sell the place from day one.”
Well, that was a good point. One that Sammie hadknown, but still. Fear had a funny way of making common sense fly out the window.
“You don’t mind?” Because even with his positive response, Sammie couldn’t hold back the guilt that was seeping through her, thick and unyielding.
“Sammie.” Atticus pinned her with his gaze. They looked so much alike, despite the blond that Atticus had opted to keep in their teenage years. But his eyes were a lighter blue than hers, bright and cheerful. Refreshing as a cloudless day. “It’s just a house. Letting it go doesn’t take away the memories. And holding onto it doesn’t keep the pain at bay.”
