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“Exactly. Mine and hers.” And that’s why it’s nobody else’s business. Not my brother’s and not my mother’s. They’ve both been part of Olivia’s life for a long time, Mom more than Brooklyn, but that’s mainly because my brother doesn’t have time and isn’t exactly the most child-friendly guy.

“Are you really okay with that?”

“Yes,” I say and force a smile.

“Okay, then I’m happy too.” He bumps his bottle against mine, much more relaxed than he was a moment ago and more like the brother I know. Brooklyn clearly spends too much time at the law firm. It’s difficult to talk to him since he’s surrounded by real lawyers all day long, not just students. Sometimes it feels like he’s traded his empathy for a degree with honors. Still, he’s my brother and my best friend. The fact that we haven’t talked much in recent months doesn’t change that. When it matters, he’s always there for me. I know that. Brooklyn would do anything for me.

“I’m scared,” I say, finally breaking the silence.

“I know. Anyone would be in your place. But everything will be fine.” He gives me an encouraging smile. “You’ve grown up a lot in the last few years, Phoenix. Brittany and Clark will see that too.”

“That’s not what I mean. Not only that, anyway.” My heart skips a beat in protest.

What are you doing? Don’t do it! Don’t tell him!

But I need to talk to someone, and Brooklyn is the only one I can tell, even if he’s likely to kill me.

“Then what is it?”

I take a deep breath. Oh, screw it. “There’s this girl . . .”

He stares at me like he’s misheard me and then groans. “You can’t be serious. You have a girlfriend? Phoenix, you said you wanted to focus on Olivia.”

“I do. It’s not like that,” I protest. “It’s . . . complicated.”

That doesn’t even begin to describe what’s going on between Lia and me, but Brooklyn wouldn’t understand, so there’s no point in trying to explain it to him in detail. But that’s not the point.

“Your whole life is complicated.”

“I know.”

“So she’s not your girlfriend?”

“No.”

“But you have feelings for her?” He sees right through me, like he always has.

My fingers tighten around the bottle. I shake my head and nod at the same time. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“And that’s the problem?”

“No. Yes. That too. But . . . I haven’t told her about Olivia yet,” I murmur and quickly take a sip of my beer as my whole body tenses up. I haven’t been able to think about anything else for the last two days.

I think about Olivia and Lia and how similar their names sound. I think about how I told Lia about Isabel while still keeping the rest of the truth from her. I think about how I told her that we could figure out what this is between us, but I didn’t give us a real chance, because I withheld an important piece of the story from her. The most important part, damn it. I didn’t tell her about Olivia because I don’t want it to be over between us before it even really begins.

Putting it off won’t make it any better. Lying to her doesn’t help.

“Why is that a problem?” Brooklyn is back in lawyer mode. His gaze is sharp and alert. He pays attention to every little change in my expression, my voice.

“That I’m lying to her?” Why does that sound like a question?

“You’re hiding part of the truth from her, that’s different,” he corrects me. Like I said, he’s in lawyer mode. He thinks the same thing I do, but when he says it out loud, it sounds worse than it does in my head.

“It’s not. In the end, it’s the same thing.”

“Okay, fine. Why didn’t you tell her about Olivia?”

“Because . . . it’s complicated.”