Page 105 of Scoring Eden

It’s everything she deserves and everything I’ve always hoped for her.

“Proud of you, Brynn Bear.” I fling an arm around her shoulders and ruffle the top of her head like we’re kids again.

“Thanks.” She grins up at me then extricates herself from my grip. “Does that mean you’re no longer worried about midnight diaper accessibility?”

“There’s a twenty-four-hour Walgreens about a five-minute drive away.”

“Of course you know that.” She snorts. “Bet you can also tell me all the different varieties and brands of diapers they sell there too.”

“Both disposable and cloth.” I nod seriously. “And they have an impressive selection of incontinence products for Leo in his old age.”

She shakes her head. “He’s a year older than you.”

“But he has the mind of an eighty-year-old.”

“Not the hips of one, though.”

“Good god.” I toss my hands in the air and stagger back a step. “Must you tell me these things? As if you guys haven’t already traumatized me enough.”

She sniggers into her glass of red wine. “I’d say I’m sorry, but you know I’m not.”

Her eyes sparkle, and though I know she’s purposely trying to rile me up for her own entertainment, I love the expression on her.

“You look happy.”

She smiles, and it isn’t one of mirth this time but one of peace. “I am.”

“Man, you really don’t need me anymore, do you?” I say it more to myself than her, and horrifyingly, my eyes start to burn. I knew it already, of course. But knowing something in a sort of abstract sense is different from realizing it yourself. It’s different from really accepting it, which, as I’m coming to realize, is something I’ve yet to achieve.

Her eyes water. And I know her tears aren’t for herself but for me. And damn does that make me feel like the shittiest brother in the world. This night is supposed to be about her, and here I am, making it about me.

“I’ll always need my big brother.” She reaches out a hand for mine and wraps her fingers around it. “But maybe not as a protector anymore. Maybe…maybe more like a friend?”

A tear slips free and rolls down my cheek. I wipe it away faster than it appeared, but she sees it anyway.

Jesus Christ. I’ve made a lot of fuckups recently, but crying at a house party is a new low for me.

“What about best friend?” I whisper.

She nods, and I track a couple of her own tears falling from her jaw to the collar of her shirt. “Yeah. Like my best friend.”

Oh, God, it’s really happening. I have to let her go. Is this what parents feel like when the kids they’ve raised since they were tiny red bundles of fists and kicking feet move away to college? Is that what I’ve been experiencing in the year since Brynn and Leo got together, a fucked-up version of empty nest syndrome?

“I should pull out of buying the house next door, shouldn’t I?” Because, let’s be honest, the only reason I viewed it in the first place was so I could be there for her if she needed anything. Like midnight diaper runs. Or Leo having an affair, which even I can admit is as improbable as a zombie apocalypse. The man is disgustingly in love with my sister.

But then, I went to see it. And all I could think about as Eden and I walked through the rooms was how perfect it would be for the three of us. That’s without even taking into account what happened in the laundry room. And though I’m still not sure if I’ll ever be ready to let go of my fear and have that life for myself, pulling out of the house would mean I’d have to let go of the fantasy too. And maybe I’m not ready to do that either.

“Only if you want to,” Brynn says. “But I quite like the idea of having my family right next door. And…” Her eyes stray from mine to find Eden across the room, laughing with Aspen about something as she sips from a can of soda. “It would be good for the girls to have someone to play with. Macon’s an awesome kid.”

My stomach churns. “Eden and Macon will probably be living in their own place by the time the sale goes through.”

She tips her head to the side and studies me. “Why?”

I shove my hands into the pockets of my dark jeans and shrug. “Because our arrangement will be over by then.”

“So?”

“So there’d be no reason for them to move in here with me.”