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Parry starts to calm, and he listens more to the sea shanty my brother is singing to him. When Colt returns to the table, he thumps the bottom of his rum bottle, adding more percussion to our brother’s song.
Brian has always had a great voice, but never did I think he’d serenade anyone. Let alone Parry.
October whispers to me, “Your brother really likes Parry.”
“Oh yeah he does,” I say with wide eyes. The shock should be worn off completely by now, but this entire time, I’ve started believing Brian could so easily crush Parry’s heart. I never considered that Parry could destroy Brian’s—that my brother could be in way deeper than Parry.
He finishes singing the sea shanty, just as Babette plops down in her chair. She waves her phone. “And now we wait for the photos.”
“How should we pass the time?” I wonder. “You still have Uno cards behind the bar?” I’m asking Brian.
He scratches at his trimmed beard. “What’d you major in?”
“At college? You want to know?”
Brian nods tensely. “I asked, didn’t I?”
Okay, I bypass that surliness, and I’ve gone this long without sharing my life in Chicago with my brothers or Parry—what’s one more day? The mystery is unfolding. I’ll probably be gone tomorrow. Need to book a flight.
My heart is sinking.
“Parry thinks something with engineering,” Brian says with another nod to himself.
Parry gives me a soft smile. “You’ve always been good at math.”
My heart is hurting.
Parry looks to his best friend. “Colt has always thought you majored in business.”
“Something to do with people,” Colt says quietly.
“Really?” My voice carries a tremor.
“You wanted to be social, but no one ever wanted to be around you here. Except for her.” He dips his head to October.
I squeeze her hand beneath the table. She squeezes back.
“I thought maybe you’d find that out there,” Colt finishes. “More.”
More.
The saddest part…I think more is sitting at this fucking table with me. But I did need to go out there to discover what has always been here.
“You were right, Colt,” I whisper. “I ended up majoring in hotel management, and I’m an assistant manager at this luxury hotel in Chicago—it’s a great job.” Don’t cry. “The fucking best.”
Brian is nodding a ton.
Like way too much.
“Great,” he chokes out. “So go back. Once this all has cleared.” He motions to thrashing rain on the roof. “Tomorrow.”
I am.
I can’t say the words.
“She’s buying a plane ticket tonight,” October says, her hand squeezing the life out of mine now.
My frown deepens.
She narrows her gaze onto me. “That is the plan?”
“Yeah, yeah…” That is the plan.
“October and I can drive you to the airport,” Parry offers, looking morose, but I almost smile hearing that he included October. The two of them aren’t fighting over protecting me anymore.
“Thanks,” I nod.
Colt swigs straight from the bottle of rum.
“Pass here.” Babette wiggles her fingers a little.
Colt slides over the rum, and she suddenly tosses the bottle over her shoulder. It shatters on the floorboards.
“What the hell?” Colt shouts, glancing backwards at the pool of alcohol and broken glass.
“It’s better on the floor,” Babette notes like she did him a favor. I am actually happy that Colt won’t be drunk in an hour.
“You do realize I can just go grab another bottle. We’re at a bar.”
Alright, maybe he still will be.
“You do realize that if I know how to throw one bottle, then I can throw two?”
“No—not at my bar,” Brian cuts in. “And you’re paying for that, Baby.”
“That’s fine,” Babette says. “The cost of not watching this one drink himself to sleep.” She side-eyes Colt. “And anyway, Seagull95 purchased five more windchimes off my Etsy shop last night, so I’m feeling flush.”
Colt says nothing. He drops his gaze to the table.
Brian makes a strange face. “Windchimes?”
October explains, “She makes them out of beach glass.”
Brian is scrutinizing Colt up-and-down. “Uh-uh. And how many windchimes has Seagull95 bought from you?”
“It’d be close to thirty or forty by now.”
Brian shifts a candle closer to Colt, seeing his face. “These wouldn’t happen to be the same box of beach glass windchimes you told me to hang up outside the bar? Would they?”
Holy fuck. “Colt…” I feel myself start to smile. “Are you Seagull95?”
Babette is in shock. “No…he can’t be?” She eyes him. “…are you?”
October mutters, “Upgrade from the fifty-year-old.”
“Hear, hear.” I’ve never seen Colt crush on anyone. He had one girlfriend in high school, and she epically broke his heart. She dated him as a literal joke. The soccer team pulled the prank on him just to humiliate Colt. They goaded his so-called girlfriend into doing it. But she’d been dating someone else the entire time.
Colt exhales roughly. “I think they’re cool.”
“You think they’re cool?” Babette repeats with a rising smile.
He shrugs. “They’re cool, and I bought some.”
“You bought a ton,” Brian corrects.
I can’t stop grinning.
