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“Wait, what? Serena?” I asked, his last statement confusing me.
“The night Gabe and Zoey had Evie, Serena said how she thought that you’d be the first of us to have kids, not Gabe, and when I asked why, she said because she’d figured you and Laurel would realize you’d been in love with each other all these years and settled down to have lots of babies. When she said it, I thought she was certifiable, but, now … maybe not?”
“What?” I asked again, and although I realized that’s basically all I’d said for the last few minutes, I was having a hard time finding words. When I finally did I said, “I haven’t been in love with Laurel, are you saying she’s been in love with me?”
“Beats me, man, you’d have to ask her … or Serena,” he said, then looked at me and asked, “How the hell did this happen, anyway? I thought you could barely stand being around her. That you’re still pissed at her for her pranks as a kid.”
“If you thought that, why did you guys ask her to go with me to Chicago?”
“Gabe started it,” Reardon said, then grinned. “Plus, I thought it would be fun to fuck with you.” Then his grin fell and he added, “I never expected you to literally fuck her.”
“Hey,” I warned. “It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like then?” he asked. “You guys dating now?”
“No, it was just for the weekend, we both agreed to that upfront, but I’ve realized that I’ve been misjudging her. She’s not like she was as a kid, she’s grown up and is actually pretty great.”
“Well, no shit, I could have told you that,” Reardon replied; they’d always been friends. In my defense though, it was because she didn’t prank him, or Gabe for that matter. She’d always saved that side of her personality just for me.
Shit, had I been totally oblivious all these years? Had she picked on me because she always liked me? Did she still? Is that why she’d suggested spending the weekend together? Cause, if so, that complicated things.
I didn’t want to be the dick who used her emotions against her, then walked away without looking back.
“So, it was just the weekend, huh? No residual feelings?” Reardon asked.
Distracted, I glanced at him, then looked back down as I worried about Laurel and whether she was really okay when I’d left her, or if I’d inadvertently broken her heart.
“Yeah, we’re just going to be friends,” I replied, but had to wonder … is that all I wanted?
26
Laurel
I allowed myself to sit in my apartment and mope after Dillon dropped me off, but after an evening of snuggling with Princess, watching This Is Us, and eating a pint of Chunky Monkey, I decided enough was enough.
I’d made a deal and stuck to it, time to move on.
So, rather than feel sorry for myself any longer, I decided it was time to put my plan into action.
Although, now that I was standing on my parents’ front porch, I found myself missing my earlier bravado. Now, I was terrified. What if they hated my ideas? What if they still thought I was flighty and foolish?
What if they said no?
I rolled my head back and tilted it from left to right, then stood straight and took a deep breath.
Then, I knocked.
Yes, I knocked. On my own parents’ front door.
People often found this to be very weird, but my parents and I did not have a come on in kind of relationship. When I was younger, I thought this was normal, then I spent time at Jazzy’s house and saw the way her family interacted with each other, and realized it was kind of sad. As I got older I just got used to it, so now, I knocked without even really thinking about it.
“Oh, Laurel,” my mother said when she opened the door and found me on the stoop. “Did you call and tell us you were coming by?”
I bit back a sigh, because, no, I hadn’t, and forced a smile.
“Uh, no actually, I realized it had been a while since we’d seen each other, and I have something to show you, so I thought I’d stop by.”
My mother forced a fake smile, then reluctantly stepped aside.
