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I knelt nextto the motorcycle in Brooke’s garage—her much cleaner than a few days ago garage—and examined the primer on the gas tank. The base coat was dry, set, and sanded. It was the perfect canvas.
Last time I said that, it was looking over Daria’s gorgeous frame. I missed her terribly.
Paige, my niece, had rebuilt this bike. It had been her dad’s before he passed away when she was a kid, and she was determined to give it a good life.
She hadn’t quite figured out the right look for it, this would be the third time I’d painted the thing, but I didn’t mind. She made the bike purr, and I’d help her make it look good.
Her twin brother, Bryan, was just as brilliant, but in an academic direction. They were seventeen, and in a few weeks would head into their last year of high school.
Brooke would never admit it out loud, but she was already wondering how she was going to cope when they went off to college. Like Daria, she’d given everything to her kids, and doubled down when they lost their father.
The twins were at track and field practice, with Paige cheering on Bryan as he and the team prepped for early school year matches. I’d already cleared the garage, the attic, and taken most of the large trash to the dump. I wanted to tackle the creaky old barn on the back of Brooke’s property, but she’d reiterated it was off limits, so I was prepping Paige’s bike for painting. Was I doing anything I could to not think about Tanner and Daria? Damn right.
I glanced over my shoulder at the sound of the door from the house to the garage opening. Brooke stepped into the garage, and I gave her a nod and went back to work.
“Who’s Daria?” Brooke’s soft question tied my insides in knots.
“Where did that come from?”
Brooke shrugged. “Sisterly instinct.”
Bullshit. “You already know who she is. She’s a mom of one of the kids in our classes.”
“And a friend?”
“Of course.”Just a friend. Tanner’s voice taunted me in my head.
“A good enough friend she let the two of you stay at her house, while no one else was going to be there.”
I stopped what I was doing and turned to Brooke. “You have a point?”
“Just being nosey.”
“Without question.” I wanted to get back to work, but there was no way I’d have the focus now. So much for ignoring my problems.
Brooke crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “It’s just that you’re here moping over Tanner, but you’ve got some lady friend…”
“Daria’s not some throwaway rebound fuck.” I winced as the words passed my lips. That wasn’t what Brooke said.
She looked surprised as well. “Not all of us think in terms of flings and hook-ups.” She almost sounded hurt.
She hadn’t dated much since she lost her husband. And not really before that, either. We were raised in a religious household, and my sisters were all taught their biggest goal in life was to find a man and make him happy.
Brooke took longer to lose her faith than I did, and even though she was older, there were still some things she wasn’t comfortable with. I’d never delved into whether or not one of them was casual sex, but I assumed.
I sighed. “Daria… The thing is… It’s complicated.”
“More complicated than you loving Tanner for years and not telling him?”
“So much more complicated. What’s with the twenty-questions?”
Brooke pushed away from the house and joined me. She settled on an upside-down milk crate we had out here to use as a stool. “I worry about you. I’m not complaining about the fact that you’ve eaten through myI’ll never dolist, but it does make a woman curious.”
How was I supposed to explain this to her when there were parts of it I couldn’t make sense of myself. “I think I’m falling for both of them.” The words tumbled out unfiltered. “Not in a love triangle kind of way, but in anI want them both long termkind of way.”
“Still sounds like a love triangle…”
