Page 29 of Pretty Heartache

Looking at my best friend, I try to pinpoint a time when it all changed.

I hardly recognize him.

“This meeting shouldn’t take long.” He spins around and swallows down the rest of his beer. “At least I’m hoping it won’t so I can get the fuck out of here as fast as possible.”

I narrow my eyes and ask him a question I already suspect I know the answer to. “Have you even seen your sister since you’ve been in town?”

“Not yet.” He presses his mouth into a thin line. “I told her I was in town, but I was leaving tonight. We’re supposed to meet for coffee later before my flight heads out.”

“Didn’t you just get in?” Irritation brews under my skin.

“Yesterday.” He wipes the back of his hand across his mouth and waves to the bartender, for another beer. “But I’m not interested in staying long. I need to get back home.”

By home, he means Austria. Archer landed a huge marketing deal for the tech company I helped invest in here in Boston, only to move its headquarters to Vienna.

I think about Adeline living in my house. I still don’t know the reason for her returning to Boston, but I’m not an idiot. I see the loneliness in her eyes. I hear the sadness in her voice. She plays it off, pretending it doesn’t exist, or I won’t notice, but I do. Every conversation we’ve had over the past week, I’ve found myself wanting to learn more. She’s easy to talk to, and something about her is comforting, like a bright, warm glow in this shit world.

Every day I’m at the house, I search for something to repair. I know I could easily call my brother Jude and his crew to help with the renovation, but until I feel it’s out of my realm of expertise, I plan on helping Adeline myself. She hasn’t yet begun to work on the structural parts of the house, but she’s shaken off the cobwebs that once littered the walls and ceilings. She’s started to breathe life back into the house in a way I wasn’t expecting.

The work around my place has been a pleasant distraction from my reality, and the break Lennon forced me to take has been a little easier to swallow when I’m able to channel all my frustration into blowing out all the damaged walls and prying off broken floorboards.

Every day I’m there, I find it more difficult to leave than the day before.

“Don’t you think you should have set aside a little more time to see her?”

“Why?” he asks, turning his head in my direction but keeping his arms resting on the edge of the bar. His eyebrows pinch together as he looks at me. “Is something wrong with her?”

“Well, no.” I frown, avoiding his stare. “I just thought you’d want to see her for longer than an hour, considering she left Los Angeles in a hurry.”

“I don’t know why she did.” He shrugs. “Adeline has always had this impulsive streak.”

I don’t know how accurate Archer is when he says his sister is impulsive. For as long as I’ve known her, she’s dreamed of becoming a model, and she’s done just that. She wasn’t plastered on every billboard or magazine, but there were times I found myself scrolling through social media or on a news website and I’d come across a makeup ad with her gorgeous face on it.

“She didn’t tell you why she left?” I’m careful with my questions. I’ve never pried into Archer’s relationship withAdeline, and I’ve never brought her up with him. With their twelve-year age gap, I saw her very little compared to her brother. But getting small glimpses of her personality these past seven days has me curious now.

“Nope.” He darts his attention to the front door again. “I didn’t ask. She asked if there was a place she could stay, and I told her you might be able to help. That’s when I messaged you.”

“Oh.” I frown, picking at the label of my beer. More curiosity eats away at me. The mystery surrounding Adeline’s sudden departure from LA deepens. It’s clear I won’t get any answers from Archer, though. He appears to be as distant from Adeline as he’s always been. I don’t hold it against him, considering he moved out before Adeline even started kindergarten.

“Hey, but thanks for taking her in, man.” Archer slaps me on the back. “I know she’s in good hands at your place. I don’t like to dig too deeply into my sister’s life, but I know she’s safe with you.”

“She is.” I raise my eyebrows. “I wish my house was in better shape, but I’m getting it there.”

“I feel guilty for not being there as much when she was growing up, but she’s done well for herself,” he confesses with a distant look in his eye. “Her modeling career seems to be going well, and pretty soon she’ll probably be more famous than either you or me.”

He laughs, and I smile. He may be right, but from the look in Adeline’s eyes, it doesn’t look like it’s happening as soon as Archer believes it will.

Either way, I hope he’s right. Or I at least hope it’s what Adeline wants.

“Don’t worry, though,” Archer adds, finishing off his second beer already. “She probably won’t need to stay for long.”

The squeak of the blue metal door swinging open has Archer and me darting our heads toward the front of the bar as a mandressed in a charcoal gray suit stops in the doorway. The door shuts behind him, and he surveys the room. None of the patrons inside bother to look up from their pool games, and the couple in the back corner are clearly not focused on anyone other than themselves. The man and woman are a tangled mess of limbs as the man grinds against the woman, pinning her in the corner.

I follow Archer’s lead when he pushes off the bar top and turns around.

“Is that him?” I lean toward Archer, though I already know the answer when the man in question turns to look in our direction.

He lifts his chin in recognition and makes his way toward us. My stomach flips, and goosebumps dance their way down the back of my neck.

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