Page 54 of Break Your Fall

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, she sends back, and I snort. I should’ve thought of that one.

He’s letting her in?

I watch the dots bounce as she types.

Trying to. He’s had a meal with her and his dad twice this week.The dots bounce again.Baby talk is still off the table, though.

He’ll get there, Camille sends next before I can type out the same thing.

I’m happy for him. Julian’s been through the worst kind of shit with his parents. Two affairs that led to two babies—one of them being him—that led to Julian finding out Brent Fowler isn’t his biological father. It’s a web more tangled than any of ours, but family isn’t always blood. Brent is family, and you hold on to family. He chose Julian and everything and everyone that comes with that choice. He has been the best dad for him and I’m glad Julian’s taking more steps to mend fences.

Now he needs to hold on to Reyna and quit letting her slip through his fingers.

I’m tossing my sweaty workout clothes into the washing machine when Camille sends another text.

Let me know how it goes. I could use a good laugh.

I’m about to ask her to spill what the hell she’s talking about when I hear rapping at my front door.

Literal rapping, right outside my door that gets louder as I approach the familiar voice, regret fighting with curiosity as I reach for the knob.

Banks cuts his rapping off with a record scratch as I open the door, and my eyes zero in on the duffel hanging off his shoulder. “Yo, T-Man!”

“No,” I say, my head shaking as I slam the door in his face, my back already turned when another sound stops me.

My favorite laugh mixes in with Banks’s protests, causing my irritation to thaw, but only slightly.

This cannot be what I think it is.

I groan into my hands, rubbing them down my face as the door reopens and Reyna says my name, the pull in her voice turning me around.

“A house-warming party for two? I know you didn’t fail math,” I start right in with a gesture at Banks as he struggles to detach the strap of his duffel from around the doorknob.

“Fuck,” he cries out once he’s freed, then gives me a nod as he struts past, making himself right at home on my couch.

I’m getting this guy a dictionary the next time I’m out so he can look up the wordno.

He flings his duffel onto a cushion, then faces my hardened stare. “I’m really cleaning the air this time.” He points at me as soon as I open my mouth to correct him again. “Hey,Mr. Clear, it’scleaning. Leave it alone.”

Tommy Clear, I think with a chuckle that stays hidden in my stomach. There are worse things. Like Banks moving in with me.

“Reyna, he’snotstaying with me,” I attempt to shut down again, already feeling myself thaw some more at her soft, pleading stare.

“Hey,” Banks shouts, bringing the ice back up. “I’m not some stray dog you can just throw out to the street.”

“Yeah, you are, and you’re barking up the wrong tree,” I throw back at him.

Reyna laughs at my word play, and I meet her eyes when she steps closer. “I think you owe us, Tommy,” she says with a playfully pointed stare.

“You thought it was funny,” I remind her of her reaction to the Banks prank, trying not to smile at the way she wrinkles her nose and purses her lips, which is the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.

“Yeah, you sabotaged my shot with Blondie,” Banks says to me, right beside us now, then says to Reyna, “And I lost my best friend again for you. Youbothowe me,” he finishes as he points at us, his index and middle finger spread apart like a pair of scissors, and I slap his hand away.

“None of that means you have tolivewith me.”

Reyna shoves him away, then draws my attention back. “Okay, look. Camille’s been giving him a really hard time, and Julian—”

“I doubt it’sthathard. And Julian?” I question with a face. “Really?” She knows what’s going on between Banks and Julian is a whole lot of nothing, being dragged out for Julian’s own amusement.

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