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“Sounds fun,” I offer.
“Not you, Sienna. Just me.”
Kael moves closer, patting Bailey on the shoulder, and for the first time in years, I notice my brother doesn’t instinctively move away. He just stands there, dwarfed by the tall, sexy, man who suddenly seems to be taking up too much space in my living room, and in other places, too.
“Do you know what bro-code means, Bailey?” Kael asks, and my brother shakes his head. “It means guy friends who have each other’s backs. We’re guys. Sienna isn’t a guy, so she doesn’t get to learn guitar. Just me and you. Because we’re guys. Would you like that Bailey?”
“Bro-code,” he says flatly.
“Yeah, bro-code. We don’t go behind each other’s backs, and we definitely don’t look at each other’s girls. You got a girl, Bailey?”
Bailey clicks his fingers nervously and stares straight ahead. His cheeks turn bright red, and I know what’s coming before he even says it. “June 16th, 1963. Valentina Tereshkova. First girl in space. Vostok 6.”
Kael looks lost. “Okay?”
“Taylor is a girl at my school.”
“Do you like this girl?”
Bailey nods. “She’s pretty.”
“Cool. You asked her out?”
“No,” he says softly. He looks crushed. “Taylor is not like me.”
“How do you know she doesn’t like you?”
Bailey shakes his head again. “I didn’t say she doesn’t like me. I said she’s not like me.”
“Oh,” Kael says softly.
The ache in my chest spreads. What are you supposed to do when he says stuff like that? He kills me.
“Jonathan is a boy,” Bailey announces, catching us both off guard. “But Jonathan is not part of bro-code. Is he Kael?”
Kael’s silent for half a second, his face tense. “No. Jonathan is definitely not part of bro-code. Just Kael and Bailey, just you and me. Bro-code. You okay with that, man?”
This makes me smile for reasons I can’t even begin to explain. But my smile slips a notch when I notice a deep frown form between Bailey’s eyes.
“Jonathan went into her bedroom,” he says, looking directly at Kael, just real matter-of-fact, and I wonder when he got so comfortable telling relative strangers all about my personal life. “That’s very wrong, isn’t it?”
“Jonathan’s a dick,” Kael grumbles to himself, but Bailey hears him, and a ghost of a smile touches his lips.
“You said dick.” And then he turns and disappears up the stairs.
I wait until I hear his bedroom door shut before I climb off the couch, walk across the living room, and throw my arms around Kael’s neck, almost knocking him backward, kissing his lips over and over again.
Bailey likes Kael. Bailey seems to trust Kael.
Kael likes Bailey.
And in that moment, my chest feels tight, and my throat aches for a whole other reason. I might be standing on my feet, upright and safe in Kael’s arms, but whether I want to admit it or not, I’m already falling.
I’m falling hard.
Kael
One week later…
