Page 54 of Falling Back to You

I groaned, dropping my head back against the couch. “You cheat. You have to, because no one wins against you.”

“Jules did last week,” he said, fiddling with his controller.

I arched a brow. “She did, huh?” I slugged his arm. More like he let her win. “You’re a softy.”

He didn’t deny it, and we started a second game.

“You good, Elle?” Myles asked after a moment.

The question had me slipping a banana peel—figuratively, as I was currently ahead on the course. “I’m fine. Why?”

Apart from all the changes, life was good. Mostly. Except with my family. Olive was in her “threatening to run away” stage again.

Myles paused the game—unheard of!—and shifted to face me. Caramel eyes bored into me, and I fought the urge to fidget. Or smack him with a pillow. Myles always noticed more than you wanted him to. He was like a human X-ray, seeing what you wanted to keep hidden. Despite being totally clueless about when a girl was interested in him, he was the most emotionally intelligent teenager I’d met. But that’s because he took after his mom.

My throat tightened just thinking about Sandra Delavan—or Aunt Sandy as we used to call her. She made the best oatmeal-raisin cookies, and like her son, she was good at seeing the hurting and broken parts you kept buried deep in your chest. She called it her “mom superpower.”

But we’d lost her almost two years ago to an aggressive battle with cancer, and Myles had shouldered the emotional burden of supporting his poor excuse for a dad and younger brothers.

“Talk to him,” Myles said quietly.

“Cal? We talk all the time, Canada.”

He shook his head. “Don’t deflect. If you won’t talk to him, talk to someone. Mama D or Melissa.” His gaze was steady. “Don’t carry it alone, Elle.”

Like you? But I didn’t say the words because they were wrapped in barbed wire and acid. “I’m fine.” I said it so firmly with a perfectly intact smile I almost believed the lie myself.

My family was my problem. I’d handle it. Like I always did.

Stomping thundered down the stairs, and Cal swept in with a flourish. “My lady.” He bowed and handed me a coffee.

Greyson’s stealthy tread followed, and he held out a mug to Myles. “Chocolate mint.”

Myles’s throat bobbed, but he took it with a nod.

Aunt Sandy’s favourite. The hurting didn’t go away, even after two years. In some ways, it hurt more because you had to live with the grief. Each morning began a new day without someone you loved. Grief reshaped you. Made you see the world differently. But it never really left.

Reaching out, I gave his arm a quick squeeze. His smile was faint, but the tension in his shoulders relaxed a fraction.

Cal flopped down on the couch, draping an arm around me. “The last night of the Fabulous Four. Did you crush him?”

I snorted. “Can anyone? He’s a menace.”

Greyson grunted but sipped his black coffee without a word.

Cal chuckled. “I’m sure you were amazing.” He leaned in for a kiss, the taste of hot chocolate on his lips. Guess that was his drink of choice tonight. Raising his mug, he grinned, and gosh, I loved that smile. “To the Fabulous Four. May we always be fabulous.”

Greyson rolled his eyes at his twin’s cheesy theatrics but lifted his cup. Myles followed suit, and I was the last one to clink my mug to theirs.

We were all young with plans ahead of us. Love, dreams, ambitions. But this—the four of us—whatever happened, we’d always have us.

Chapter eighteen

Cal

Noelle fit seamlessly back into my family. Almost.

The biggest snag was Greyson. He was a veritable seam ripper, determined to make trouble. Not even Paisley’s soft influence could erase the hard glares he’d been flashing Noelle all night. When he wasn’t ignoring her, that was.