Page 38 of Off the Trail

“We’re so isolated out here, you know? It’s hard to meet people,” she says. “Unless you want to do the whole dating app thing.”

I grunt noncommittally.

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Are you doing the apps and didn’t tell me?”

“No. I mean, sometimes, when I go to Portland, but it’s just casual stuff.”

“You don’t do it around here?” She seems actually curious and not little-sister teasing.

I turn away to count the pool noodles and gather my thoughts. “I don’t know. Maybe I should. It just doesn’t feel like I’d find anyone long-term that way. It doesn’t feel…authentic, I guess.”

“Not like how Mom and Dad met,” Brooke says shrewdly.

“I’m not looking for that kind of thing anyway,” I say, but that’s not strictly true. Not anymore. “I mean, for a long time I couldn’t think about it.”

“I know.” She doesn’t apologize for being the reason, and I’m glad because not only isn’t it her fault, but I wouldn’t have wanted to put anything else in front of taking care of her, making sure she, and us, would be okay.

“And then I guess it was habit.”

“What was?”

“To be alone. Working here’s kind of all-encompassing, you know? I love the job, but it’s not exactly regular hours. And now you’re home, and there’s the house, and…I don’t know. There’s not a lot of room in my life for⁠—”

“A hot baseball player who thinks you’re the best thing since they changed the designated hitter rules?”

I fight off a blush. “For a relationship,” I clarify. Though maybe there could be. Brooke’s not a kid anymore. She’s got a job, a life. We won’t even be living together after the house is built. “Maybe⁠—”

“Maybe what?” she asks, sounding heartbreakingly hopeful.

I shrug and mark down the pool noodle total. I don’t know exactly what I should be hoping for. It’s not like Shawn Camden is my future—he’s a temporary friend at most.

When I don’t say anything, Brooke sighs. “Look, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Something kind of big.”

I turn to meet her gaze. “What is it?”

“You know Dr. McCallum?”

“Your boss?” I’ve met the man a couple of times—a baby-faced guy a few years older than me. Dr. Rosen, the only dentist in Laketon, has been my dentist my entire life, so I can’t vouch for this McCallum guy’s dentistry skills, but he seems like a good person to work for from what Brooke’s said.

“Yeah, my boss. So Dr. McCallum—Rocky—and I, well, we’re dating. And it’s serious.”

I can’t process the second thing until I process the first. “His name is Rocky?”

She smiles with her lips closed. “Yeah. It’s a nickname for Rockford.”

“Okay, I see why the nickname.” I don’t know what to say. My sister’s dating her employer. Where to even start? “How long has this—have you⁠—?”

“About six months.”

I’m shocked. I’m only now hearing about this? “You’ve only been working for him for a year.”

“It was a bit of a love at first sight thing. At least for me. I tried to ignore it. Tried to tell myself it was a crush. Believe me, the last thing I wanted was to fall in love with the guy I work for. But it just kind of happened.”

“You’re—you’re in love?” That’s somehow way different from seriously dating.

She smiles again, but this one’s a genuine, soft smile that tells me more than anything she’s said. “Yeah. I’m in love with him.”

She’s had a few boyfriends over the years, but I’ve never heard her say those words before. In a split second, I’m overcome with a wave of fondness for her so strong it kneecaps me. It’s so much emotion I feel like it can’t all belong to me. Maybe Mom and Dad’s love is combining with mine, and I have to be strong enough to bear it all, to share it all. I cross the small room and put my arms around my little sister, hugging her tight enough for the three of us combined.