Page 105 of Take What You Want

My question seems to snap her out of it. She straightens and clears her throat. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m just gonna run to the bathroom before I join everyone again.”

She sets her can on the counter and takes off down the hallway, then pauses and turns back around. “On second thought, I’ll use the bathroom downstairs.”

I cough and choke on the chip I just popped in my mouth. I mean, I guess don’t blame her. If that was Hayden and Carter, or even worse, Scar and my brother in that bathroom, I wouldn’t want to use it either.

I head outside and slip my sunglasses on. Walking across the hot pavement, I quicken my steps and set a towel on the pool’s edge for a seat next to Carter. Hayden stands in water between her legs, while Walker is still on his floatie and Nikolai sits on the other side of Carter.

“Where’s Scar?” Walker asks me.

“Bathroom,” I answer.

He cranes his neck toward the house, his lips tense. Something’s off. I can feel it. He slips off the float and wades through the water until he hauls himself out and quickly dries off. “I’m gonna go get her. I’ll be back.”

I glance at the other three, and everyone looks equally concerned.

It’s almost enough to distract me from the fact that now another person knows about me and Nikolai, this one the closest to my brother. The clock is ticking. I find Nikolai’s eye over Carter’s shoulder. His brow shoots up in silent question.Everything okay?

I hope so.

I really fucking hope so.

27

NIKOLAI

My phone rings right as my fingers hover over the piano keys, ready to make sense of everything swirling in my head. I debate ignoring it, but when I glance at the screen, a baby-faced version of myself and Milo lights up.

I close the lid and lean an elbow on it as I answer, “Bratishka.”

“What’s up?” my little brother’s voice rings through the line. “Long time, no talk.”

“You’re the one who hasn’t been returning my calls,” I scold him, but there’s no malice behind it. Milo and I could go a year without talking, and when we pick back up, it’s like there’s never been any distance.

“Sorry,” he mutters. “Work has been crazy.”

I snort. “Welcome to adulthood. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, huh?”

“Is this it? I just work until I die now?” Milo graduated college last December and has since been working at a tech start-up he had an internship with.

“Pretty much,” I drawl.

“I don’t know why I’m asking you actually,” he says, “since your work is basically partying.”

“Hey, that’s an oversimplification.” It’s true that in the early days of Whisper Me Nothings, there was a fair amount of partying that took place. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t balance it with hard work. “I’ve spent more hours in the studio lately than my own house.”

“Oh sorry, are you there now? I can call back.”

I walk toward the window seat. It’s golden hour and the setting sun basks the room in a warm glow as I get comfortable. “Nah, I’m at home. I wanted to work from my piano.”

“How are things going? I wish I could’ve been at one of your shows so far, but with the number of videos people have posted online, I feel like I’ve seen them all anyways.” He laughs and it brightens something in me. There was a period of time when I didn’t know if I’d hear Milo laugh again after the shooting.

“It’s good,” I say, leaning back against the frame of the bench seat. “But I don’t want to talk about me. How have you been doing?”

The smile is evident in his voice when he says, “Are you trying to distract me from asking you about your new girlfriend?”

I groan and rub a hand down my face.

“I got my friends asking me about it, too. Way to give your brother a heads up about it.”

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