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I close my eyes, picturing Aunt Vivian wailing about a cat from forty-plus years ago. Not that it died, but that some other family probably took it in and it wasn’t hers anymore. Hell, it probably ran away on purpose to get away fromher.
“But guess who didn’t go back with her?” Kyle hints. “Not the cat. Aunt Vivian.”
“Devin?”
“Ehnt! He was following Mommy around like a puppy on a leash, back and forth with her each time, glaring at us when we laughed at her outbursts and telling her that she’ssooo rightto be upset. But Bridgette? She got progressively annoyed with the whole thing, and the last time Devin tried to shoo her after Vivian, she waved him off. Told him to ‘sort his mother out’ and that she’d take an Uber.
Apparently, I missed a lot when we left.
“What happened?”
“I took her home,” Cole answers. When all eyes shoot to him, he adds, “Dropped her at the curb, told her to listen to Samantha, and pulled away as soon as she walked in the front door. I don’t know if she’s gonna take the good advice, though. She was pretty quiet the whole way.” I get the feeling he’s already told them this at least once before.
“After that, the party broke up pretty quickly,” Kayla says. “So that was our night. How was yours?”
She’s fishing, big time.
“I apologized to Samantha for our family, she apologized for upsetting everyone, and we shook on it, deciding to leave it in the past.” Technically, I‘m not lying. We definitely did some apologizing and shaking, just not in the way I’m making it sound.
“Good,” Carter declares, not calling me out on the lie.
“Maybe we can double date sometime?” Luna asks hopefully.
“As long as you don’t call it a date, maybe so,” I answer, more of a realist than she is.
“If we’re done here, I really gotta go,” Cole says, looking at his watch. I’m surprised he’s sat here this long with us, to be honest.
When he gets up, everyone starts to leave, but Cameron hangs back. I’m not surprised. He probably wants to do a big brother speech, better known as Dad 2.0.
“What’s up?” I ask.
He swallows hard and looks up at the ceiling, gathering his words. “Be careful, that’s it. I can tell you have real feelings for Samantha, but if she’s not...” He trails off, and after a heavy sigh, tries again. “I’ve been in love—real, deep, forever love. I’ve held it in my hand until it didn’t even seem special anymore, and I took it for granted. And when I lost it... it fucked me up, man.” He grips at his chest over his heart, showing more emotion about the loss of his wife than I’ve seen from him since her funeral.
My instinct is to throw my arm over my brother’s shoulder, but he purposefully steps away from me, not wanting any comfort.
“Cameron, what happened to you was—”
He cuts me off. “Just... I do hope it turns into something more. For you, for her. Because I’d go through ten more decades of the hell I feel every morning for the good years I had. But be careful. Because if this is one-sided or Samantha can’t give you what you need, it’ll burn out just as fast as it started, leaving you alone to realize you burned your whole world to the ground for someone you can’t have a future with.”
He leaves, not giving me an opportunity to respond in any way. Perplexed, I walk back toward my office.
“Hey, Chance!” Stephen calls out, stopping me.
Distracted, I nod. “Yeah, what’s up?”
He furrows his brows, looking at me curiously. “You good, man?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I repeat, filing away the heavy thoughts Cameron laid at my feet.
“You know where Samantha is? We have an appointment today, but she’s not in the counseling room.”
“She has a test today,” I answer without thinking. “You shouldn’t have a session scheduled. Maybe you got the day wrong?” I suggest.
“No, it was today,” he answers tightly. “Guess she forgot.”
That’s not like Samantha, but she maintains her own schedule of classes and mentoring, so I can’t be sure. The test I know about because she’s been studying for weeks and I helped her with flashcards over breakfast. “Is there something I can help with? I have a minute,” I offer.
But Stephen shakes his head and starts walking away. “Nah, that’s okay. I wanted to talk to her.”
