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Dizzy.
I suck in a deep breath.
Kip is quiet for a few beats, leaning back, his fingers tapping along the wheel. “I just mean…you’ve had a front-row seat to their relationship your entire life. If anyone would have suspected anything, I figured it’d be you.”
Suspected.
Yeah, sure, it’s crossed my mind more than once lately—that dark shadow following me around, whispering down my back, filling me with nasty thoughts. There’s been signs. Fleeting touches, heavy eye contact, long hugs that teeter along the line of innocent and illicit.
But I thought I was going crazy, losing my damn mind.
How could he…?
How could they…?
I swallow. Brant and Peach have always been close—extremely close. They’ve shared a bond so concrete, so unbreakable even I could never hammer my way through. I never understood it. I was never able to pinpoint what drove their mad affection for one another, what nourished it or, hell…what sparked it in the first place.
My relationship with June was built on loyalty, security, and a fierce, protective love.
My relationship with Brant was built on shared interests, respect, and a powerful common denominator—June.
But Brant and June? They were always something else entirely.
I asked Mom one day when I was just a little punk, pissed off because June wanted to ride her bike with Brant instead of have a sword fight with me in the backyard, why June loved him more than me. Mom told me I had it all wrong.
She didn’t love him more. She just loved him differently.
I thought it was a stupid answer at the time, but now I can’t help but spot those “differences” as my mind reels in reverse like a spinning time machine.
Was this inevitable?
If Brant had never come to live with us, would they have still gone down this same path?
It’s too much to process right now.
My fists still tingle with suppressed rage.
My heart still feels galloped on by steel hooves.
“Talk to him. Fix this.” Kip’s voice is calm yet assertive as he sits beside me, as if listening in on all the things I’m not saying out loud. We pull up to the scene of the accident, my teeth grinding together as he finishes. “Life’s too short to hate the people we love the most.”
I sniff. “I’m not the one who needs to fix anything.”
“Then allow him to fix it.”
We spare each other a sharp glance as he veers off to the shoulder, where two mangled cars sit before us. “I don’t know if I can.”
“That’s your ego talking, Bailey,” Kip says, unbuckling his belt. He pauses for a beat. “Trust me on this. It’s not worth it.”
My jaw clenches.
“Listen…June is going to end up with somebody, right? It’s inevitable. You can’t keep her from falling in love, no matter how hard you try. At least you know where Brant stands. You know him. And you know he loves her.”
It’s too much.
It’s too much to consider right now as I run a hand through my hair, shaking my head. “Yeah,” I mutter. “I guess.”
I unbuckle my seat belt and force the situation from my mind for the time being.
