Page 20 of My Ex-Best Friends

I froze. I didn’t have a hair tie. I wasn’t even all that good at putting her hair up. It just seemed like pieces always escaped, no matter how hard I tried.

“I’ve got you, girl.” Brooke squatted in front of my daughter and I fought the need to check out her ass. “I always carry an extra hair tie. I’ve met a lot of nice people by having an extra.”

Where were all those nice people? Having a daughter had made me more wary of the things that happened to women in the world. The idea of Sinclair being as alone as Brooke seemed made me feel ill. Why had she been so alone? Why hadn’t she had anywhere else to run when the shit hit the fan?

“Alright, we’re ready.” Brooke grabbed the two rollers and handed one to Sinclair. “Ever used one of these before?”

“Nope.”

“Let me show you. Knowing how to use one of these things can mean the difference in living in a place you love and a place that’s the color of dog vomit.” Wielding the roller like itwas a sword, Brooke held it over her head. “There’s power in this roller, Sin. There’s hardly anything a little paint can’t make better and you have to walk before you run. First, you learn to paint with this brush. Then, later, you move to smaller and smaller brushes until you can make magic.”

Sinclair drank in every word Brooke spoke, her eyes wide and focused. I’d never seen Sinclair take to someone so quickly, but then again, not many people were like Brooke. She could suck you in with a single look.

I tried to focus on my phone, studying the plans I was writing up for the summer camp for the football team that was coming up. The season wouldn’t start until the fall but the last month of the summer was always an intense time. We didn’t have the appropriate set up to hold the camp in town so Logan was visiting a few sports complexes across the lower half of the state to see what location would work. Even though he was the baseball coach he covered a lot of the traveling for me since I had Sinclair. It didn’t slip my attention that Colt had volunteered to go with him on that particular trip. He was definitely running and hiding from Brooke.

I looked at the pictures of the stadium Logan had just sent me and frowned. It was too big and would cost half of the budget, I was sure. I sent him back a negative and then looked up to watch Brooke and Sinclair again.

They were painting the wall a solid cream color. It was kind of an eyesore. The old brick wasn’t meant to be one solid color and it seemed to highlight every worn spot on the building.

Brooke caught my expression and frowned. “It’s just a base coat so the other colors stand out better. I knew it looks terrible.”

I smiled. “It’s looks fine.”

Sinclair sighed. “Daddy’s lying. It looks bad. Why does it look bad, Brooke?”

Brooke looked panicked but she was calm as she sat on the ground next to Sinclair and pulled a notebook out of her bag. She pulled out a pencil next and started sketching. Sinclair watched with more attention than she normally bestowed uponTangled.

“Okay, say this is what we were going to paint.” Brooke held the notebook up to Sinclair, who gasped.

“How’d you do that so fast?”

I couldn’t help moving over to peek. I felt my own wave of awe as I took in the wall of flowers she’d sketched out. She was so talented. I hadn’t exactly forgotten but her art wasn’t the thing I’d thought about the most in the ten years she’d been gone.

“Okay, now look at this.” Pulling out a professional looking set of colored pencils Brooke quickly colored half of the sketch in with a color similar to the one of the brick they’d painted over. “Watch how much better the color of the flowers can pop over the white background.”

Sinclair was so still as she watched that I wasn’t even sure she was breathing until she gasped and danced in place. “Wow!”

Of course the flowers over the white background looked amazing, despite how quickly Brooke colored them in. “That’s why we painted the wall white. It looks blank and weird right now but as soon as we get art on it, it’ll show off brilliantly. And since you just learned something in the summer, you deserve another chocolate.”

I was watching my daughter fall in love with Brooke and there was nothing I could do about it. Brooke just sucked people in with her big green eyes and even bigger heart. A sense of unease came over me as I thought about how easily she’d walked away before. Would she run away again?

“Can we paint flowers on the wall?” Sinclair already had paint on her face and shorts but I couldn’t find it in me to feel bad when she was clearly having such a good time.

“You know… I was thinking about the flowers that grow on the west side of the island. Why don’t we paint some of those?”

I gave up checking my phone at all and gave into the desire to watch them together. Logan would probably be pissy later but I had a feeling he’d understand if I told him what I’d been doing instead of answering his messages.

18

***Brooke***

“Idon’t want to go back yet, Daddy!” Sinclair was in the midst of a full fit. She’d gotten worn out while painting with me and she was in a mood. “I want to go back with you and Brooke!”

I winced, unsure of how Noah would handle a raging little girl. I’d never had a father of my own and I sometimes felt like an alien when I watched fathers interact with their children. It all looked so foreign to me.

Noah proved just how much he’d changed from the happy-go-lucky kid he’d been when I’d known him. His face was stern as he leaned into the truck. “Sinclair Grace, you know it’s your mom’s night. And you know throwing a tantrum isn’t the way to get what you want. Come on, little girl. Don’t leave me on a bad note.”

The pain in his voice when he spoke the last part made me want to cry for him. Seeing a man ache because he had to leavehis daughter was a gut punch. I had to look away to hide the devastation on my face from either of their prying eyes.

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