Page 133 of You Float My Boat

Here goes nothing. ‘I’m in love with your sister.’

There was silence for only a split second before a combination of thunderous shouting and a croaky screech broke it.

‘WHAT?’

It was hard to tell whosewhatwas the loudest: Brooks’ or Stella’s. It wasn’t Violet’s because she was just standing there staring at me with her mouth open. This time, thankfully, she let me take her hand.

‘I love you,’ I repeated, hopefully at a volume only she could hear. I wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign her tears started again. I held her gaze as her beautiful blue eyes overflowed with a combination of confusion and – the real kick in the nuts because I’d caused it – hurt, but also a little happiness I think from the way her mouth turned up. Ihoped.Taking her face in my hands, I wanted her to see me and only me along with all the sincerity and truth I could dig from the depths of my soul. ‘I love you, Violet.’

I kind of wished her brother wasn’t witnessing it, however.

‘Hang on,’ interrupted Brooks. ‘Back the fuck up, right to the beginning. I thought this was fake. Iagreedto fake.’

I pulled down on Violet’s hand before she started shouting and/or punched Brooks, because I was well aware of her opinion about her brother and his ban on her dating life, having been on the listening end of many a rant. I also happened to agree with her.

‘Yes, it was fake.’ I tried not to choke over the word. ‘You’re right. It was. But we started spending timetogether. And the more time we spent together, the more I realized that I liked Violet. Liked her a lot. And somewhere along the line it stopped feeling so fake.’

I gave Violet’s hand a gentle squeeze, but from a quick side-eye I could see she was looking at her feet. Shit.

‘How long’s this been going on?’

I glanced to Violet, still looking down, guess I was answering all the questions. ‘About six weeks, maybe a little longer?’

Someone, probably Stella the shit stirrer, let out a low whistle.

‘Six weeks? Six weeks?! Oh my god, are you …’ he stopped talking and I really prayed he wasn’t going to finish the sentence, because Iknewwhat he was going to ask. ‘Nope, no. Not asking that.’

I had no doubt Violet felt my sigh of relief. I think everyone did, until he focused on her.

‘Violet, have you been in our house recently?’

Her chin jutted as she nodded defiantly at him, leaving absolutely no room for interpretation as to why she’d been in the house. Maybe now was the time to share she’d copied his key and had broken in to use his bath.

Or maybe not.

‘And you …’ he pointed at me, just in case anyone was unaware whom he was addressing. ‘I knew I heard you come in the other morning, I hadn’t just imagined it.’

I groaned. On Wednesday morning I’d woken up next to Violet, a small sliver of light was sneaking through a crack in the blinds and sliced across her bareback, traversing the ridges of her spine. She’d been fast asleep, and instead of getting out of bed, I’d stayed there watching it move over her smooth skin as the sun made an appearance.

It was then that I knew, right that second, that I’d fallen in love with her.

I’d been so late leaving that Brooks had been downstairs when I snuck back into the house, but I’d dismissed it with a yawn and a confused look.

‘Did you know about this?’ he snapped at Oz.

I held my breath, I was almost as interested to know the answer as Brooks seemed to be. I was positive Oz suspected something, but as he’d been practically catatonic due to his own love life drama, it had not been brought up since the day I’d made Violet’s cupcakes a month ago.

Wow. An entire month with Violet.

It had gone both quickly and infinitely slowly all at once, and I wished I could experience it again for the first time.

Oz shook his head. ‘No.’

From the way Brooks’ eyes narrowed I wasn’t sure he believed him, but his focus turned back to me.

‘Okay, so you love my sister, except she doesn’t seem that happy about it. So, what’s going on?’

‘Um …’ I began, wondering where to start.

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