“Yeah, I feel the same way about myself.”
She looked up at me, furrowing her eyebrows. “You do?”
“Yup. I don’t think I’ll ever—” Before I got to finish my sentence, a little cat tried to sneak past us. It was probably forthe best that Purrito decided to interrupt. I shouldn’t burden a ten-year-old withmyproblems.
“Purrito!” Nova laughed and picked him up. “You sneaky Mister.” She tsked. “Always trying to escape. Don’t you like any of us?”
Without even glancing at me again, Nova walked inside the house, leaving the door open for me. Guess that was the usualcome in.
“Oh, good, you’re here,” Emory said as soon as she spotted me make my way past the living room to get to my fiancée.
It was a miracle Brooke hadn’t been waiting by the front door for me.
“Yeah? I said I was going to come pick Brooke up, hadn’t I?”
Emory nodded, smiling at me but there was something that didn’t feel right about it.
“She wasn’t sure I meant it, huh?” I sighed softly, but honestly, I had no reason to feel any sort of bad about it. I wasn’t evenallowedto take it badly. By the way I’d been acting for weeks before she moved out, it probably wouldn’t have surprised her if I stood her up again.
But I was getting better. Slowly.
“Brooke was certainly hoping you did,” she told me, sympathy in her voice. “You can’t blame her for worrying.”
“I know.” I took a step toward the stairs when all of a sudden, I stopped moving entirely and looked at Emory again. “Did you ever think I wasn’t good enough for Brooke?” blurted out of me before I even knew I was wondering about it.
Ever since I’d been living with Luan and Grey, once or twice staying at my brother’s place again, I’d been thinking Brooke deserved way better than me. However, while I wasbeating myself up for hurting her, I didn’t actually think her parents thought of me the way I had been thinking of myself lately.
Emory shook her head. “You’ve always put her overyourself, Reece. Seeing you in a different light just because you’ve encountered a pretty rough path in your life wouldn’t be right. And losing someone pulls out different reactions in everyone. Some take it a little better than others. You’re not suddenly a bad person just because you lost yourself for a little while, especially after something like this.”
“So Colin keeps saying.”
“You should listen to your brother more often.”
“Perhaps I should.” My eyes fell to the flowers in my hands, reminding me of why I was here. “I’ll go find Brooke now, otherwise she’ll probably think I forgot about her.”
“Last time I checked on her, she was still getting dressed. I’m not sure she even knows what time it is.”
I chuckled. “Sounds like Brooke.”
54
BROOKLYN
Iwas going to lose my goddamn mind.
Looking back at the pile of clothes on my bed, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. In the past god-knows-how-many-minutes, I’d been trying on outfit after outfit, and none seemed to look right.
It was just breakfast, nothing fancy, and yet my clothes seemed to have built a mind of their own and collectively decided to make me look bad in every single piece. Not even my go-to outfits—a short skirt with black tights, loafers, a cute shirt, and a jacket, plus jewelry—were working today.
I was going crazy.
“Urgh.” I fell onto my bed next to the pile of clothes. “Fuck this, I’m not going.”
But I couldn’t justnotgo, I knew that. If Reece showed up without forgetting about me, there was no way I could tell him we couldn’t go because my clothes were doing unfunny things to my body today.
In fact, if I told him this, he would tell me all the reasons why it was all just in my head and how I looked good in everything I tried on. Perhaps I needed his input after all.
Upon hearing a knock on my door, I looked up but didn’t bother to move at all. The door was unlocked either way.
