Page 60 of Winter Glam in Amsterdam

A family emergency might be an explanation, but it's by far not an excuse. Not after leaving me the way he did, feeling used and dirty.

It's silent for the longest time until I hear a shuffle on the other side of the door and then footsteps that slowly become quieter as he walks away from the door.

"God damn it," I whisper once they’re out of earshot and reach for my phone to pull up my brother's contact.

Summer: "Tell Tanner to leave me alone."

Once I hit send, slowly get up, stretching my arms over my head and take a deep breath.

The phone buzzes with his answer.

Luca: You always want to do everything by yourself. Here’s your chance.

Luca: Knock yourself out.

"Oh, that asshole." I curse under my breath, glaring at my phone. It's taking every ounce of restraint in me to not chuck it across the room. How dare he make me eat my words?

Then I look around. Maybe there's some other way I can get even with him.

Tanner

"I hate to say it, but I don't think flowers are such a great idea," Luca sputters during our call and I sigh. First Reed, now him, why does everyone say that?

He's still not my biggest fan, but I think, slowly but surely, I'm getting there. It might just take a bit of time to convince him that I would be the perfect brother-in-law.

"I bet she's not even opening the door for them."

"And that's why I ordered vases along with them and left instructions to put them on the porch," I point out, "I'm even tipping them extra to give the flowers a little extra zhuzh and to include one of the heartfelt messages I sent them for every delivery." Not to sing my own praises but I thought of pretty much everything. Summer won’t be able to escape my wooing.

"What does that even mean?" I can hear him shake his head. "What if she falls in love with the delivery guy instead?"

"Hah! I thought of that too and told the florist to send one of their women." I grin, then start cursing under my breath when I realize what time it is.

"Don't you think flowers are a little impersonal?" he continues while I hurry to my living room, almost slipping on my freshly cleaned floor.

Sitting down in front of my couch, laptop on the coffee table, I open it up and roll my shoulders. It's almost time for the weekly Walker Game Time and Adam was pretty insistent that this week all of us attend, in a tone that made me imagine him cracking a whip while shouting “I’m ordering you to have fun.”

"I'm slowly working my way to sending her desserts, because who can resist a brownie with a sweet message written on top in chocolate?" Luca mentioned she loves them when we first brainstormed my 'getting Summer back' wooing strategy. I've got to find a bakery I like, though, because so far, the samples I had bakeries send to me, quite frankly, weren't 'blown away' level and that's the level I need here if I want a chance with her. If I'm seeing this through, I better do it right. "Or do you have anything else in mind?" The question tumbles from my lips as I start my laptop. "I could camp in front of her doorstep, but that would likely get me a charge for stalking. Would you rather I grab my guitar and do a little singing action in front of her house? But may I just remind you that it's stillyourneighbors who are going to witness that? I don’t think they’d be thrilled."

"You’re right. No love songs and no stalking, please," he concedes, and I chuckle.

"That's what I thought."

"Still," Luca continues, "it might be a romantic gesture, but Summer is not the kind of woman you can persuade just by sending her flowers or brownies. Man, you've got to do something more personal. Did you talk about anything in Amsterdam that could help? Because mark my words, you're not going to win her back with this generic shit."

Something we talked about in Amsterdam… I tap my chin, thinking back to our conversations. We talked about, well, the Red Light District, the sex museum, and… Ah. I think I got something.

"Well, what is it?"

"I'm going to tell you another time. Because I'm meeting up with my siblings and I need to go. Talk to you later, Luca. Bye."

And then I quickly drop the call before jumping onto the next, albeit video, one. My screen is split as always, one of the squares showing me, then there's Reed, Jackson, Adam, and Zoey.

"Zoey?" I furrow my eyebrows, confused. “You made it!” Reed breaks into laughter at the grimace I'm pulling.

"Long time no see," she says sheepishly, and Adam grins over her shoulder. He finally looks a bit better. The bags under his eyes have disappeared and judging be the lack of a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows, I’d say he’s in a fairly good mood.

"So happy you made it," Jackson adds in a passive-aggressive tone. Zoey and I shoot each other an annoyed look—at least, I think we do, it's hard to tell through a screen.

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