“I would have come home,” he says, roughly. “I swear to you, Zalea. If I had known you were keeping her, I would’ve gotten on the first plane.”
“I know you would have.”
And that's the complicated part, because in a way I’m just as much to blame.
“You’re not undeserving,” I say firmly. “You were young, and scared, and so was I. We both made mistakes.”
He shakes his head slightly. “You carried her.”
“And you would have carried her with me,” I counter. “If I had let you.”
He goes quiet, and I see something shift inside him. An understanding that he isn’t completely to blame.
“I don’t want you hating yourself every time her name comes up,” I tell him. “She was ours, whether you were physically there or not.”
His eyes close briefly again as his lip trembles. “I don’t know how to forgive myself,” he admits.
“You can start by not punishing yourself for something you didn’t even know about,” I say gently.
I reach across the table, holding out my hand for him and he hesitates only a second before threading his fingers through mine.
“I’ll try,” he whispers.
By the timewe make it back to the beach, the sky has turned indigo and the bonfire is already roaring, flames licking high into the warm night sky.
“There you are,” Zale shouts, his arm around the curly-haired girl—who’s name I learned is Alessia— as he beams at us.
The group shifts to make space for us and someone hands me a plastic cup that smells like cheap prosecco and citrus before they jump back to their conversations. Gabriel reaches over and takes it from me.
“No drinking alcohol,” he says. “My research says it’s horrible for hormone balancing.”
I snort. “So what are you going to do with all those bottles of wine you ordered when we were in Tuscany? They’re supposed to be delivered on Monday.”
“Oh yeah,” he says. “I forgot about those.”
I raise a brow. “Do you not monitor your bank account? How do you forget about a purchase that big?”
He shrugs. “It’s not that big in comparison to my regular purchases.”
“Right,” I mutter. “One of these days, someone is going to steal your card and spend all your money,”
He laughs and bumps his shoulder against mine. “It would take them a very long time to spend all my money.”
I roll my eyes, a small smile pulling at my lips, before I look around and find Zale a few meters away, hands tangled in Alessia’s curls, kissing her like they're the only two on the beach.
I blink and Gabriel tracks my gaze, exhaling a quiet laugh.
“Didn’t you tell me my brother and Kairi were seeing each other last time you visited me in Hawaii?” I ask, watching as Zale lifts Alessia onto his lap, the kiss becoming even more intimate.
“Maybe I was wrong…maybe it’s an open thing.”
I give him a look and he chuckles. “You know how your brother is,” he says.
Unfortunately…I do, and that’s what worries me about him and Kairi. She’s too sweet of a girl to get hung up over my brother right now. He has way too much growing up to do before any girl should take him seriously.
“Well,” I mutter. “That’s going to be complicated when he gets back to Saltwater Springs.”
Gabriel pushes to his feet and offers me his hand. “We could stay and supervise to make sure it doesn’t go past kissing if you want.”
