“You’re not going to say anything?” Grace adds.
“What do you want me to say?” I ask, still not looking up.
“Hey,” she snaps in a tone I've never heard before. It pulls my attention instantly. “You can be grumpy and moody all you want to anyone else, but not me. Not when my best friend was … was…” Her eyes start to gloss over. “I just want to know how she is. We texted a little this morning, and I know she stayed with you, but how is she? Likereally,how is she?”
I lean back and give my sister a half smile.
I should have known she was here to ask about Brooke and not me.
I could mess up a thousand more times and Grace’s opinion of me would never turn negative.
“She’s at the bakery, and at the moment, she’s doing okay. Not great, but she’s?—”
“Pretending everything is fine,” Grace finishes for me.
I nod.
Grace takes the seat across from me.
“Did you know about this guy?” she asks.
“I knew she’d met someone on an app, and she told him she didn’t think he was a good fit. Even after she deleted the app, he reached out to her on social media, but she blocked him.”
Grace stares at me, her eyes once again glossing over. I barely hear her next words.
“I didn’t know any of that.” A tear falls loose as Grace takes a breath. “How did I not know? I’m one of her best friends. I don’t think any of us knew. What kind of friends does that make us?”
I stand and round my desk, taking a seat next to my sister.
“Her best ones. Always. You can be close as blood and still not know everything about someone.”
“But you knew,” she argues back. “You knew about it, and when she needed you, you knew without her even saying the words what was happening."
“Yeah, I did.”
Silence settles between us as she processes her thoughts.
Then she sits up taller, swipes the tears off her cheeks, and stands.
“I better get back to work.”
She walks right by me.
“Okay, but if you want to talk more about it, my door is open.”
Grace pauses at the doorway.
“Are you in love with her?”
I chuckle and move back to my chair.
“Get to work,” I say and then open my emails to the sound of my sister's laugh fading down the hall.
Am I in love with Brooke?
I’m something with her all right. I just hope she gives me the chance to find out what that is, and now that I’ve had time to think about it, I hope last night and even this morning weren’t just emotions running high over what happened.
Before I can think too much about it, my office phone rings.
