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“So tell me how your week went,” Briar asks as she goes for a spring roll. “I’ve missed my nightly updates.” It’s true, because Briar has been going out at night, and I don’t think it’s clubbing or bar hopping. She’s up to something.
“Speaking of, where have you been in the evenings?”
“There are some things you shouldn't know about, Meadow.”
“Oh, now I really need to know,” I say, and she chews on her bottom lip for a second. “Seriously?” Briar knows I’m not going to judge whatever it is she’s up to.
“Maybe I was doing some light stalking.”
“Light stalking?” I say a silent prayer that Briar hasn’t gone and got some crazy PI job. It’s not exactly out of the question.
“I mean, can you stalk kittens? That can’t be against the law,” she says, and I shake my head. On the surface this sounds legal, but I don’t think we’re going to land on legal by the time this story is over. “I might have kidnapped a few kittens when I saw an opening.”
“Did you punch someone in the process?”
“Of course not. The kittens were right there, and it would have traumatized them.”
“Right,” I laugh.
“Drink more of your cocktail,” she says, and when I start to reach for it, I pause.
“Out with it.”
“Okay, I might have brought them home. We’re just fostering them for a bit.”
“How many is a few?”
“Two?” It comes out as a question, and I know better.
“So three,” I correct, and she nods.
“Look at them!” Briar pulls out her phone to show me a picture of the three kittens.
“They’re cute,” I admit, even if they are a bit malnourished. “But is this a foster?” In the back of my mind, I knew when we moved off campus, a pet situation would arise. I made sure that the places I checked before we picked one were animal friendly.
“I mean, yeah. It’s a foster until they find a home.” She’s lying to herself, but I’m going to let it go. Briar is floating around at the moment and not latching on to any one job or direction.
“Where are they now?” In the picture, they’re in a crate.
“At the shelter being checked out.” Her smile grows. “We’re having triplets, all boys.”
Three boys living with us? That would be a first. The one and only man, besides the movers, to enter our home is Dad.
“Oh shit.” Briar sets her phone down quickly, and I know not to follow her line of sight because that would be way too obvious to whoever has caught her attention. “Mace and Heath,” she whispers under her breath.
“Here?” I whisper back, and she gives me a subtle nod in the direction she looked.
My back is to where she indicated, but just hearing the name Heath makes my stomach tighten. Years ago that was different because I used to get excited to see him. Then he crushed my teenage heart and took the missing piece from me. The puzzle to my life I’m building has no chance of being complete. It’s not his fault, because I can’t make someone be attracted to me, although I’m sure he thinks I’m a total bitch now.
Mace and Heath are identical twins too, but they are three years older than us. Our moms became super close after they met in some twins group back in the day. The two of them clicked, and both of our families came together. We spent holidays together, and every spring we’re all stuck together for two weeks on a family vacation since our families own beach houses right next to each other.
Once upon a time, we got along with the Monroe twins, but then they were suddenly a pain in our asses. They always found a way to ruin our spring break at the beach houses. Especially after the time I blurted out to Heath that I was in love with him. That’s when he told me I was drunk and it was only a crush. Then he scolded me about drinking.
In fairness, I never drank before that night, but I’d stolen a couple of drinks and chugged them so I’d have the liquid courage to tell Heath how I felt. Between the beers and seeing some of the girls on the beach flirt with him, my confession came tumbling out of my mouth. The expression on his face told me all I needed to know.
After his shock, he finally told me how brilliant my mind was and that I was cute. He even said he found shyness endearing. When he turned me down, I thought it was all a lie, and I was sure there was something between us. I felt it deep inside of me, but after that, I really thought about it, and no man wants cute and adorable. He was describing a little sister, and although it wasn’t a lie, it still was not what I’d longed to hear.
It crushed me, and in the wake of my heart's destruction, I built a cold wall of ice between us. I didn’t want to be mean so instead I was indifferent toward him. Briar, on the other hand, got pissed at the Monroe brothers even though I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what happened. She blamed them even if she didn’t know exactly what took place.
