Page 40 of Falling for my Brother's Best Friend

Twelve

Savannah

Isit in Juno’s apartment in downtown Lake Starlight, drinking water from the faucet and eating the last of her pizza-flavored Pringles. “He’ll be at work tonight, and that’s when I’ll go over to get my stuff.”

“I’ll help, but can I just say one thing?” Juno gulps down a large amount of water. The girl is still dehydrated from being wasted off champagne last night.

“You’ve said enough.” And she has. Her pro-Liam speeches need to cease and desist.

“But—”

“He thinks just because we’re physically attracted to one another, it means something more than what it is. I can’t date Liam Kelly. We’re completely unsuited for each other.”

Juno’s forehead crinkles. “Why?”

She doesn’t get it. Juno was only twelve when our parents died. She was so wrapped up in herself, she never bothered to think about how it affected anyone but herself. I don’t blame her. We were all wrapped up in our feelings. That moment changed each of us in different ways. Juno told me once she thought it was romantic that Mom and Dad died together, that they never had to live without one another. I call bullshit.

But Austin and I swore that our siblings’ lives wouldn’t change any more than they had. I don’t regret that, but maybe I’m so mad at Liam because what he said, what he always says, about me is correct. He’s not content to let me live in the space I’ve created for myself. He demands I examine what I really want, who I really want to be.

None of my siblings thought that last night. No one said, “Now that Liam mentions it, Savannah, you have changed.” That’s what scares me the most. Do they think I want to be this way? This OCD person who, instead of drinking champagne and dancing with my niece at my sister’s wedding, is arguing with the deejay and making sure the cake cutting cutlery is where it should be and that the present table doesn’t topple over? They’ve accepted that I’m that person. I’ve become my mother without ever giving birth to my own children.

“It’s just not a good fit. There are other reasons too.”

“Name one.” Juno cocks an eyebrow at me.

“He’s younger than me.”

Juno guffaws as if that’s nothing. “Five years.”

“Has he even had a girlfriend before?”

“That Rachel girl. Remember?”

I do, but I play dumb. “Maybe.”

I straighten her magazines. She always tears out pages that interest her and they end up in a pile on the end table of her living room.

“Sometimes love exists in the place you never thought to look.” She shrugs.

I’d tell her to examine her own life, but I’m not going to throw stones.

A knock on the door interrupts us.

“Are you expecting anyone?” I ask. My stomach flips at the thought that it might be Liam.

She shakes her head. “Kingston said he probably wouldn’t be back for at least a month. I think last night, with him talking to Celeste about how Stella’s doing away from here…”

I nod and take a deep breath. Maybe I’m not the only messed up one in my family.

“Celeste mentioned that Stella might be coming home from school for a little while.” I stand and open the door to Grandma Dori with two suitcases in hand. “What are you doing here and why do you have luggage?”

“How about you let me in and, I don’t know, take my bags?”

I look over my shoulder at Juno.

“Grandma?” she says.

“Nursing a hangover, I suppose?” She doesn’t wait for an answer, plopping the bags down and pushing past me. “I need to stay with you for a while because I have termites at my place.”

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