Page 140 of Only Between Us

Sure enough, it is. I’ve been too much of a nervous wreck to notice. “Does this rumor happen to originate from a six-foot-four football god with an ass to kill for?”

“If you mean Brooks, I’ll have to take your word for it.” Parker wrinkles his nose. “Can’t say I’ve ever sat staring at my friend’s ass.”

Shy’s shoulders pop with a chuckle. “Keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you’ll actually believe it.”

It might be the cribbage-induced nerves, but I think I’m missing a joke. Parker seems to get it just fine, though, given the warning look he gives Shy. And hey, if he’s been secretly checking out Brooks’s backside, I wouldn’t blame him in the slightest.

But then Parker’s gaze cuts to Summer, whose head is tipped all the way back to stare at the bejeweled lures dangling from the ceiling, not paying this exchange any mind. His eyes linger on her signature sun-bleached French braids, then fall down her back, all the way down the pale gray leggings hugging her killer legs before he blinks away.

Fascinating.

“This is cute,” Summer says of the décor, so sweetly oblivious to the way she’s just been the subject of what had to have been a filthy-as-hell fantasy. She gives me a small smile. “Mr. Ass to Kill For is worried about you, Cee. And he’ll be expecting a full report from me and Parker when we fly out for Fans and Family Day tomorrow, so we recruited Shy and decided to do what Parker does best: meddle.”

Brooks had mentioned the Fans and Family Day that the Rebels host during training camp, gently hinting he’d love for me to come. But I don’t have the heart to leave again without having spoken to Mom. Without bringing Brooks some kind of clarity as to our living arrangement. I know the distance has been hard on him, too.

Parker leans his elbows on the checkout counter, taking up his best friend’s study of the ceiling. “Am I ever going to live down that meddling, d’you think?”

“Not if I have anything to do with it.” Summer gives him a snarky smile before returning her attention to me. “Look, we’re not going to pretend to know your life better than you do. But I also like to think we’re all friends now, and that means we’re allowed to dish out some tough love.”

“Avoiding your mom, Cee?” The look Shy gives me has my stomach pinching with guilt. “Since when do you hide from your problems?”

I fiddle with the inside-out hem of my shirt, and the tag on the side that’s been hanging out all day. “I’m not hiding, I’m… thinking. You really expect me to show up at her place all, ‘Hi, Mom! I’ve decided to move across the country, and I have no idea what to do about the shop, but it’s your problem now!’?” My gaze moves around us, as though I expect the answer I’ve been searching for to materialize in the fluorescent lights or the scuffed floor. A good, solid plan I can lay out for Mom, that will mean leaving the shop in hands that’ll treat it with the love and respect it deserves. I’d never becareless enough to hand it to just anyone. And shutting it down isn’t an option, seeing as Mom’s still chipping away at that second mortgage. She needs the income. “Idon’thide from my problems. I solve them. Always have. And this one is…”

My gaze falls on the display of football-shaped bobbers on the counter, spinning as Parker messes with it. I look at that thing every day. Stand next to it for hours on end, this silly thing that Dad had been so proud of when it arrived years ago. It’s him in a nutshell, the two things he loved more than anything. How am I simply supposed to say goodbye to it?

Leave this place without a care for what happens to it, or to my mom?

But given the way I’ve got Brooks’s voicemail memorized only a week in, the distance isn’t sustainable. It’s already draining me of life, resurfacing the abandonment issues I’ve worked hard to forget over the years.

“Oh, Cee.” Shy wraps both arms around me this time as the tears that’ve lived so close to the surface all week threaten to pour. I love her to pieces, but I so badly wish she were Brooks. I miss the feel of his arms around me. The way I fit so perfectly in the crook of his neck. The stockpile of T-shirts I stole from him is starting to lose his piney scent, and I feel every single one of the three thousand miles between us in the hollowness of my chest.

“This placeismy dad, you know? It matters to me what happens to it.”

“Even if it means not going back to LA?” Summer’s expression is soft, devoid of judgment even with the note of apprehension in her voice.

I split from Shy, shrugging helplessly. “What choice would I have if I can’t figure this out?”

Shy purses her lips in obvious disapproval. “Is that really something you’re considering?”

“He thinks you’re going back.” Parker exchanges a loaded look with Summer. “Please tell me you didn’t say that just so he’d let you go.”

“I didn’t—I meant it.” Their silence rings around us, broken only by the sounds around the shop—footsteps from customers milling the aisles, the ventilation system working overtime against the blistering August weather, causing the dangling lures to gently sway overhead.

Hearing it said out loud, this possibility that’s lurked in the back of my mind, makes me more than a bit nauseous. It won’t come to that if I can help it. I meant every word I said to Brooks—I want to be there with him. Just as soon as I find a way out from this place that I can live with.

“Well, I guess that’s that.” Parker heaves a sigh and moves for the door. He loops an arm around a startled Summer on the way, dragging her with him. “Should we go to lunch? I assume you’re stuck here, Cee. But you’re welcome to join us, Shy.”

I…what? “That’s it? You came all this way just for that?”

“Nice as this was, rule number one of meddling is recognizing a lost cause when you see one.” He doesn’t even look at me. “Obviously, you’ve asked your mom at least once if you could give up the shop. And the answer was no.”

“That’s… Were you tuning me out, just now? I’ve never asked her that.”

Parker ignores me. “And I’m sure you’ve told her you overheard them talk about all that remortgaging and bribery. And she made it clear that they were happy to do it so long as you made it up to them with your blood, sweat, and inside-out shirts. Worked here forever and a day, no matter how unhappy it made you.”

My lips pop open. “She would never say something like that.”

Parker turns a confused frown over his shoulder. “Really? Could’ve fooled me.”

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