AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But what if, hypothetically speaking, the person you love doesn’t want the same things as you? What if, for most of their life, they didn’t even want you? At least Tom has never wavered in his devotion to you.”
June reached over and took my hand with her neatly manicured and fake-baked one. “Darlin’, Brooks has always wanted the same things as you; he’s just never known how to get them, so he lied to himself. Same thing with you. He never saw you as an option because he didn’t believe he was worthy of you.”
I let go of June’s hand and tucked some hair behind my ear. “I never said I was talking about Brooks.”
“Right,” June and Carly roared simultaneously.
“I’m serious—the man in question told me marriage was not a viable institution. Let’s not forget he was dating a woman who he called his inti-mate. And while we’re on the subject of Morgan . . . He dated Morgan. Enough said.”
June and Carly rankled at the mention of her name.
“I can’t be with someone who doesn’t believe in marriage. I’m too old to be someone’s perpetual girlfriend. And I sure as heck don’t want to be an inti-mate. My ovaries, while still functioning, are past their prime. I need a man who’s willing to act quickly. The right man, mind you.”
“You mean Brooks?” June didn’t pull any punches.
“I admit, for a long time I thought he was the one, but come to find out he never even thought of me. That’s not an easy pill to swallow. I mean, the man didn’t even recognize me when he came in for his facial massage.”
Carly patted my knee. “I’m not saying this to excuse him, but honestly, for a long time, I don’t think my brother even recognized himself. Sometimes it was even hard for those of us closest to him to see the real him. You don’t know how happy I was yesterday when we arrived,” she got all choked up. “It was the first time in a long time that I saw my brother. When he wrapped his arms around me, I knew he was different.”
I swallowed down my emotion. I had seen a difference in him too. The boy I’d fallen in love with had come back, but it scared me. “Do you think it can last?” I whispered.
“The question is, Do you think so?” June wisely responded.
That was a good question.
It was a question I thought about all night long, even after I went home to work on the name tags and photo booth props for the class reunion. I was using old yearbook photos that I had paid someone on Etsy to format with our high school mascot—an eagle—and our motto, Soar Ever Higher. Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and had decided I needed to embellish them with sparkly silver cardstock. Then I’d bought little buttons that sounded like cheerleaders when you pushed them, shouting our lovely motto. Hey, once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader. I looked at the name tags as precious mementos. Okay, so I was nuts. Although, I had to say the props for the photo booth were stellar. They had sayings on them like, Reunited and It Feels So Good. I even made one that said, Still Lives at Home. I would be sporting that one, unashamed.
As much fun as it was preparing for the reunion, thoughts of Brooks overshadowed everything. I had given up on avoiding him; he wasn’t going to let me. After all these years, he was finally chasing me, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be caught. Maybe that wasn’t exactly true. It was more like I was wary. Was he really over Morgan for good? Would he continue to try to mend his relationship with Tom? Could he love me? Love me enough to give me everything that I ever wanted? To be his bride and bear his babies?
I sighed while using my hot glue gun to adhere the cheer buttons on each name tag as I watched my beloved Dr. Noah Drake break hearts. While I was deep in contemplation and wielding my glue gun like a pro, I heard a tapping on my bedroom window. At first I ignored it, thinking I was hearing things. I hadn’t heard a tap on that window in over twenty years. Then the tapping became a desperate rapping, so much so I thought my window might break. I dropped my hot glue gun, rushed over to the window closest to my bed, and parted the gray ruffled curtains to find Brooks clinging to the trellis with a look of terror in his eyes. It was kind of adorable.
I unlocked the window and pushed it open. “What are you doing?” I heard some creaking and cracking in the wood.
