Page 42 of Love Never Happens with your Brother’s Best Friend

“That’s right.”

“Where did you go? And why? Are you going to explain?”

“No. Because you already know.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Oh, come on!” Rita throws her hands in the air then holds her arms out in supplication like a saint begging for mercy. “You must know.” Rita bends down, picks up her pile of decapitated daisies, and throws them at me. Some of them hit my hoodie and stay there, others descend to the ground. “I couldn’t be there, listening to you and Dylan, Mom and Dad, all celebrating any longer because… because it suddenly dawned on me that you would be leaving. Leaving Oak River… And leaving me! I couldn’t imagine my life without you, okay?”

Rita breathes heavily. Her eyes shine with frustrated tears as she looks at the daisies on my shirt.

“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t come and meet me at our tree.” Rita wrinkles her nose in the way she used to when she was little. “I left a letter for you. I said I would be waiting for you at our tree at a specified time.”

“Oh.” Rita’s eyes ping wide open as if she has been given an electric shock. “Oh, no.”

“What, ‘Oh, no’?”

“Oh, no. That letter.”

“So, you got it. I slipped it under your door.”

“Yes.”

“And…”

“I ripped it up, then burned it. I knew it was from you. I was so upset I didn’t even open it. Brodie, I was so angry with you… for leaving. For kissing me and making me fall in love with you. I did actually hate you for that, by the way. So, no. I didn’t open your stupid letter.”

“What?” I fall down on my back and laugh at the sky. “You didn’t even open it? That is so tragic and ultimately hilarious.” I stare up at the infinite blue. “And the only scenario I didn’t think of.” I take a deep breath and sit up. “Rita. I left and never came back because I believed that was what you wanted. It broke my heart but…”

“Brodie?”

“Yes.”

“What did the letter say?”

“I wrote out how I felt about us. And said I’ll leave it up to you. Come and meet me. Or not. And if not, then I would know never to come back to Oak River. Ever.”

Rita just stares at me like she has been hit with a cold wet fish.

I jump up, then pull Rita up too. I hold her hand and march her with me down the riverbank without saying a word. When we arrive at the big tree, our tree, I stop marching.

“This is what it said.” I pull Rita to me and plant my lips forcefully on hers. She makes a muffled yelping sound then kisses me back with anger and passion as if she is making a point. When our lips eventually part, we’re both breathing heavily. I look deep into Rita’s eyes then gently kiss her forehead.

“Look up here,” I say pointing at the furrowed hard bark of the tree where I had carved a heart with our initials, and the words for eva, all those years before. “What does that tell you?”

“It tells me that you defaced a tree, which could possibly have led to an infection and a long slow, painful death.”

“Rita.”

“Yes.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Brodie Kent.”

Chapter 21

Rita

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