“Doesn’t change the consequences,” I mutter, unsure of how to handle this shift in mood.
“No,” Aiden says slowly. “It doesn’t. But I’ll help you. We’ll think of something. We can run interference with Grandfather until we figure things out. We’ll—”
“Does she know?” Sienna asks.
I shake my head, my throat feeling too small.
Whit is giving me an assessing look through the phone. “Does she like you back?”
“I’m not sure.”
I can feel the mood shift in the room.
“What happened?” Aiden’s using his older-brother voice, the one that says he’ll fix everything, but this isn’t something he can fix.
I steel myself. “We’ve been hooking up. There’s something there. At least I think there is.” The words are rushing out of me, and I shove off the couch, too itchy to sit still, not interested in eating. “It feels like it might all be in my head, you know? But then I watched that video and it looks like she’s just as into it as I am. I think she felt it too. And I think she might be scared. Or maybe I’m misreading everything.” I run a hand through my hair as my siblings eye me.
Sienna is fiddling with her fork, looking thoughtful. Whit is silent. “Some help would be nice,” I mutter. “Don’t all jump in at once.”
“Well, presumably she already likes you as a person,” Sienna says.
“Thank you for that.”
She wrinkles her nose at me. “Despite all odds, Tristan.”
“It’s not enough.” I drag my hands over my face. “It’s not—I don’t know what to do. I can’t just blurt it out. She’ll run. We’re not there. This is so—new. And maybe she doesn’t feel the same way. Maybe she doesn’t like me that way.” The thought has my stomach trying to climb up my throat.Maybe I can’t make her happy. Maybe I hurt her and she won’t forgive me.
I start pacing. “Maybe I should tell her. Honesty is the best policy, right? I should go—”
“Tristan. You need to calm down.” Whit’s voice comes through the phone, muffled by the roaring in my ears and the racing of my thoughts.
Sienna’s hands land on my shoulders. “Relax. We’ll help you. We’ll make a plan.”
I let my sister press me onto the couch. “You’re right,” I say. “A plan. That’s good. Plans are—good.”
“Right.” Sienna gives Aiden a wide-eyed look.
“Whatever we decide to do, all of you need to playalong.” All heads swing my way. “You’re sworn to secrecy. Got it?”
Everyone nods and I wipe my damp palms on my pants. “Let’s do this.”
“How did you win Emory over?”
Aiden smiles at my question, turning the coffee mug in his hands. Sienna left to study, Whit hung up to prepare for his game, and Emory is on the lawn with Dusty and Charlie. Aiden keeps looking out the window at them where they’re playing on the grass. I catch Emory looking too and waving. Against all odds, my brother, the most closed-off man in existence when it comes to people outside the family, got his wife to fall in love with him.
“I mean, you started from zero, right?”
He snorts. “Worse than zero. I started from negative. God, she hated me when she got here. Remember that first day in the gym?”
I chuckle, remembering how Emory’s eyes practically spat fire at him that first day. “And yet.” I tip my coffee toward him.
“And yet,” he agrees with a smile. “I did the usual things, I guess. I’d probably tell you it was the library. But she’d probably tell you it was when she started to learn my secrets.” He looks out the window, toward the ocean, his gaze faraway. “Emory knows everything about me, Tris. Even the things you don’t know. Even the bad things. The things that I don’t like about myself.” His gaze drifts back to mine, a smile still playing on his mouth. “Against all odds, it made her like me more, not less.”
I swallow, nodding like this makes sense. I can’t imagineKatie liking memoreif she knew everything about me. The thought makes me feel like I’m standing on the edge of the cliffs along the water, where one wrong step could send me hurtling to my death.
“So I should just…be honest, and that will be enough? I don’t possibly see how that will work.”
Aiden snorts. “Try it, Tristan.”
