“Oh, really? Because to me, it sounded like you made a deal with my brother that you would never date me, and toadd insult to injury, you also agreed to come here and babysit me.”
“I never agreed to babysit you,” he tries to say, but I talk over him.
“Okay, let’s start there. If you aren’t here to babysit me, then why did you agree when Tyler called you?”
“I was already here when Tyler called, and I never said I’d babysit you. You are very capable of taking care of yourself, but Tyler did ask me to watch you,” I open my mouth to argue back, but he keeps talking, placing a finger to my mouth. “I agreed to keep you and Kevin in my sight. Tyler didn’t trust Kevin and just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he rushes out before I could try to interrupt again.
“Tyler is doing what any brother would do, and that’s to watch out for his sister,” Bo says, looking down, then dropping his finger. “And I would do the same, even if Tyler didn’t ask me. You mean too much to me for a leech like Kevin to do something stupid. I wouldn’t be much of a man if I didn’t look out for you.”
“Then, if I meant so much to you, why did you tell Tyler you wouldn’t touch or date me? I guess I don’t mean that much to you,” I say in a whisper.
Bo stops flipping the pencil in his hands, a nervous habit, and steps so close I can almost feel the heat come off him.
“I was seventeen. I’d already lost my parents and didn’t want to lose Tyler. He was a brother to me. You were only fourteen at the time. You were so beautiful and amazing. I’d fallen in love with you the moment I saw you punch Cindy Walch in the jaw for talking about me behind my back. You had always been Tyler’s little sister, a rare and exciting woman who kept Tyler and me on our toes. You broke the rules, and you were unlike any girl I’d ever met. Until Tylersaw me looking at you at the lake on the Fourth of July. He made me promise that summer.”
As he speaks, I can see his control rise and fade. His hands reach out to touch me on more than one occasion, but he fists his hands and lets them fall. Rowdy had moved into the bathroom and was now standing right next to Bo, his head nudging his thigh.
“You have always been everything I’ve always wanted, and because I value Tyler and his friendship, I know that I can’t have the one thing I want.” His jaw tightens.
I watch him and see the frustration and pain in his eyes. I am dumbfounded. When I brought up the promise, I was so angry. Instead of denying it, as I’d expected, he owned it. I can’t lie and say I’m not hurt; I am, but maybe not angry.
“You aren’t seventeen, and I’m not fourteen anymore. Time and things change. I know you, my parents, Tyler, and the town see me asTyler’s little sister, but do you not see the woman standing in front of you? Do you not see that I am more than justTyler’s little sister?” My breathing shakes, but I keep going.
“I can’t believe that I was naive enough to think that one day, you would see me for me. I have loved you since I was twelve, when you defended me at the rodeo. I have watched you flit from girl to girl and wondered when it would be my turn. If you would ever see me, as you saw them.”
I start to cry now, and the tears stream down my face. I wasn’t a crier in general. I didn’t cry when I needed thirteen stitches in my leg, I didn’t cry when Oliver Perkins slapped me across the face, but while pouring my heart out to Bo for ten seconds, I am a blubbering idiot.
Bo reaches out and wipes at my tears. I bat his fingers away and used the back of my hand to swipe at my betrayingtears.
“I wish I could say that I was angry with you or even felt lied to. But I’m hurt that you didn’t choose me.”
“Falon, please,” Bo reaches out and pulls me into a hug, his chest heaving as he holds me close. I can feel my tears soak his shirt as I cry like those girls I swore I wasn’t.
“Falon, I would choose you over anything.” I close my eyes and let out another sob.
“Even Veronica Eden?” I ask, knowing he’d dated her the longest in high school.
I feel his chest rumble as he chuckles. “Even Veronica Eden,” he said, kissing the top of my head, making my heart melt, and the tears stop for a second. “Besides, I only dated all those other girls because they weren’t you. And if I couldn’t have the real thing, then I didn’t want anything close.”
I pull away from him and wipe at my eyes. “Does this mean we can’t date now?” I ask, feeling my heart hammer in my chest. If he says yes, I am going to push him through the floor and fix it myself.
“No, it just means that I still need that measurement for the far wall,” he says, pulling away and placing a measuring tape back in my hand.
I playfully scowl at him. “Not fair,” I say. “That wasn’t an answer.” I stare at him, then stick my tongue out at him.
“The far wall,” he says. His voice comes out rough at the edges.
I pick up the tape measure. “Are you sending me to the corner again?”
“Yes. It’s the only place you’re safe from yourself.”
I go, laughing on the outside. But inside, I’m a train wreck.
We fit the new subfloor in sections, andthe work falls back into rhythm, but a little quieter. My leg throbs steadily, and my mind is still preoccupied.
He calls out another measurement, and since my notepad is across the room, I write the number on my palm and finish my task.
He sees it and stops, resting his hands on his knees.
