“Scout?” Brooks repeated, when she didn’t answer. “Pepper?”
She stared at the coffee table. “Do you think Officer Ellis will be disappointed in us?” she asked quietly.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”You’re starting a war, Ellis had told us. We certainly had.
Scout stood abruptly from the couch and disappeared into her room.
“She’s not hungry?” Brooks set a bowl of steaming pasta in front of me—corkscrews, my favorite—then untied the apron and set it on the coffee table. He’d worn it to make me smile, so I tried to muster one. Underneath, he was wearing what I’d come to call the Brooks uniform: a button-up, sleeves rolled to the elbows, and slim, knee-length shorts. California meets law-school preppy; not exactly cutting-edge, but Brooks was generally unbothered by things like fashion, his charm natural and easy, not artful.
“I guess not.” I crawled into the farthest corner of the couch, and he sank into the space Scout had left, handing me a fork. “Eat. I’m worried about you.”
I made a show of spearing a corkscrew. “Thanks.”
Brooks glanced at Scout’s closed door. “I honestly don’t know how she’s supposed to go on after this.”
His words shouldn’t have cut me, but they did. “Georgia was my sister, too.”
He turned. Even with concern marring his features, Brooks was effortlessly handsome, his shaggy, blond-flecked brown hair and bright blue eyes distracting. “I know. It’s just—she was Scout’s flesh and blood. I can’t imagine losing my brothers.”
I took a deep breath. Brooks didn’t know what I’d just done for Georgia. The sickness I’d committed in her name. I’d twisted myself into a new person last night, and you only made a sacrifice like that for a real sister.
“You can be family without blood,” I snapped, and dropped my bowl on the coffee table.
Brooks drew back. “Why are you acting like that?”
“Don’t tell me how to act.” Of course Brooks—the loyal, law-abiding law student—would judge me.
“Hey, you know what?” Brooks looked out the window, then back at me. “I was going to wait to say this, because I figured you weregoing through enough, but I’m your boyfriend, Iz. You’re supposed to lean on me. And all you’ve done since Georgia died is push me away.”
I was bitterness incarnate. “I’m sorry I haven’t reacted to her death in a way that meets your approval.”
He clenched his jaw. “That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it. You and Scout, you’re disappearing into yourselves. Building this separate world where no one else is allowed. I want in.”
He wouldn’t. Not if he knew the violence it was harboring, the secret things I was capable of. He would be horrified, and I’d lose him.
“You should leave,” I said.
Brooks stared at me like I’d grown an extra head. “Isabel, I love you. Whatever you’re doing right now, please stop.”
He loved me. I’d said those words to him in the privacy of my own mind so many times, but we’d never said it out loud. And here he was, choosing this of all moments—
“I’minlove with you.” There was a pleading edge to his voice. Brooks searched my face. “Don’t push me away.”
Before I could respond, Scout burst from her room, carrying her ringing cell phone. “It’s Haley. You should be on this.”
I looked down at our agent’s name on her phone, then at Brooks. I tried to catch my breath, to figure out which one to choose, but Scout made the decision for me. “She’s probably calling to fire us,” she said, then pressed Accept. “Hi, Haley. You’re on speaker. Isabel’s here, too.”
Brooks sprang up from the couch. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
“Hi, Isabel.” Haley sounded taken aback. Maybe she’d intended to call us separately and fire us personally. How thoughtful. “This news really only concerns you, Scout.”
Scout frowned. “I’m not changing my mind aboutWenda Word. I’m not going back.”
“Nor would I want you to.” Excitement lifted Haley’s voice higher. “Not when your music career is blowing up.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your album,” she said breathlessly. “People heard about your sister, I guess, and they started buying your album out of sympathy. It’s taking off.”
