SAGE
“So how’d it go?” I asked Nick while wedanced. It was officially Valentine’s Day, and Mortimer had reserved the music hall for their date party. In truth, the streamers and balloons weren’t the most elegant (the guys had decorated the place themselves), but they looked chaotically beautiful with the lights dimmed, and you could always count on Ed Sheeran to set the mood. Anyway, I didn’t really care…I was dancing with my boyfriend.He looks so adorable, I thought, gently running a hand through Nick’s flaming hair as he focused super hard on not stepping on my feet.He’s handsome in the daytime and adorable at night.
I couldn’t stop smiling.
Nick pretended to groan. “Do we have to talk about Charlie?”
I stretched up to kiss him. “Yes.”
He nodded, because he knew we did. This afternoon, he’d dragged his heartbroken twin out of Daggett for dinner at Humpty Dumplings. For the past couple of weeks, Charlie had been acting like we’d banished him from the kingdom, now eating with the hockey guys and locking himself in his room at night. “What happened?” the girls had asked, but when Luke and I stayed quiet,they’d dropped it. The one time I’d seen Charlie today was this morning, when he’d been heading into Knowles for French. He was wearing his headphones, which said it all. Charlie almost never shut Bexley out.
We will hold that umbrella for you, I kept thinking.You won’t brave the storm alone.
Nick sighed heavily. “Not the best. He didn’t eat anything until I basically forced him, and he barely spoke. Pretty much catatonic. And then we got that email for the…”
“The superlative nominations,” I finished for him. Today theAnnualeditors had emailed the senior class a list of fifty yearbook superlatives, with five nominees for each one.
“Right,” Nick said. “So that didn’t exactly help the cause.”
“Best Bromance,” I whispered, hardly feeling him stomp on my foot. CHARLIECARMICHAEL& LUKEMORRISSEYwere the first two names in the category.
“He needs to go home,” Nick said after apologizing and hugging me closer, my back humming with his hand resting on it. “I told him I would buy the train ticket…”
“And?” I said when he trailed off.
But Nick didn’t answer, his eyes now wide. I twisted around to see Charlie stalking across the dance floor. “Holy crap,” I breathed.
He stuck out like a sore thumb thanks to tonight’s semiformal attire: red-gold hair extremely sleep-rumpled, L.L.Bean moccasins on his feet, and still wearing the Adidas sweatshirt that he’drefusedto give back to Luke. I tried to catch his eye, but the only person he was looking at was his twin, determined as ever.
“3:08 tomorrow afternoon,” he said when he came up to us.
“Okay,” Nick said back. “I’ll book it.”
Charlie nodded and then left.
Nick walked me home after the party. “Tell me it’s going to be okay,” he’d said when we reached Simmons’ back door. “Tell me he’ll be okay.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I said. “And he’s going to bemorethan okay.”
He nodded a few times. Instead of an exasperated mom, he was now a full-on helicopter parent. Suddenly I didn’t think there was anyone in the world who loved their brother as much as Nick loved Charlie. “You’re right, he will.” He sighed. “But do you think—”
“No.” I shook my head. “You cannot go with him.”
Nick laughed and put his hands on my waist. “I had fun tonight,” he said. “Did you?”
“Yes,” I told him. “I had a lot of fun tonight. Thank you for inviting me.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, spinning me around once.
I grinned. “I love you, Nicholas Carmichael.”
Which made Nick grin back, dimple and all. “I love you too, Sage Morgan,” he murmured and leaned close, so close his lips brushed mine. “And now I’m gonna kiss you good night.”
CHAPTER 37
CHARLIE
Nick tried to give me a pep talk before Ileft. “It’s going to befine,” he told me, then amended, “No, it’s going to begreat. You’re going to do it, and then you’re going to come back here and fix it all with him, and then things will be good again.”
