Page 36 of Loving You

I head straight for the locker room and spot Luca stuffing his bag into one of the lockers.

I set my gym bag down next to him.

“Hey,” I say, and Luca slams his locker.

“No.” He points in my face. “I’m mad at you.”

“Why?” I pull out my pre-workout and change into my gym shoes.

Did Hudson tell him?

“Because at lunch yesterday, you drop this bomb on me that you're doing whatever with Quinn, and you have not called or texted me once to clarify. I’m at a loss here. Hanging on for dear life and waiting for answers.”

It’s a good thing he’s not dramatic or anything.

“It sort of just happened,” I tell him. Which, to be fair, is not a lie.

“I don’t accept that as an answer,” Luca says.

We leave the locker room and walk down the hallway that leads to the cardio section. We usually run a mile before we lift weights, and then we run another mile after. We started this routine in high school, and it stuck.

We claim two treadmills side by side and get going at a slight jog.

Do I tell him the truth? It would be weird for Hudson to know and not Luca, but Luca talks a lot. Too much sometimes, and this isn’t something I want to accidentally slip.

“Who approached who?” he asks.

I turn up the speed. “She came to the shop and asked to rent out the apartment.”

“And you just looked at her, fell in love, and said yes?”

I chuckle. “No. I told her to get lost.”

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I regret them. Those aren’t the words of a man who suddenly fell for this girl.

“Sooo, then you felt bad and went to find her?” he asks. The confusion is clear as he says each word slowly.

“No. She returned, but this time she offered to help in the office. So then I said yes.”

Technically, it’s all true. Give or take a few details.

“Okay, and then you … spent the night together.”

Okay, this needs to be the end of this conversation. Lying to my brother is wrong, so I need to choose my words carefully.

“Luca, I’ll put it this way. You will be seeing a lot of Quinn this summer, and a lot of that time she will be with me. Things just happened with us, and this is where we are now. You’ll have to accept it.”

He nods. “Sure. I’ll accept it … as soon as you beat me to a mile.”

And then he sprints like he’s never sprinted before.

I catch up quickly, and even though it burns and all I can focus on is not tripping or hitting the front of the treadmill with my foot and slipping, one thought occurs to me.

I’m pretty sure my brother knows I’m not telling him the truth.

Maybe it’s a brother thing or maybe it’s just twin intuition, but either way, he gives me weird looks throughout our entire workout. Or maybe it’s because I hit a mile first by three seconds so he held back on asking more questions.

I follow him into the locker room, and as we both fill our water bottles and pour our protein power inside of them, hefinally says, “Does she still plan on leaving at the end of the summer?”

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