Page 74 of Only Between Us

“You’re spiraling.” Parker is watching me carefully.

“Yeah. I’m spiraling.”

“If this is about Naomi—”

“No. It’s nothing to do with that.” I lie as firmly as I can. Because how humiliating is it that she was able to mess with my head like this? “Siena doesn’t see it with me. If it’s up to her, we end the second I get signed.”

Summer tears her gaze off the trajectory of Parker’s fingers over her leggings to turn a sharp look on me. “Brooks, you know I love you to pieces.”

Parker smirks. “So why does it sound like you’re gonna rip him a new one?”

Summer shrugs. “I’m only going to point out that, this time last year, he thought he’d never step onto a football field in full gear again. And now, the top industry publication is predicting he lands on a roster before the first kickoff of the season.”

“Technically, they say I’m third in line.”

“The point remains,” Summer insists. “So what if Siena doesn’t see it with you right this second? It doesn’t mean she never will.” Shejabs a finger in my direction. “You’re not the type to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. You’re a fighter. So act like one, goddamn it.”

Siena’s phone rings,MOMflashing across the screen again.

Parker shrugs. “Pick it up. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Chapter24Siena

I’m still buzzing as I make my way out of the marina and onto the boardwalk, which is quiet except for the predictable line coming out of Molly’s Chowder Cove down at the very end.

Unless I count midnight swims in the bay, I haven’t been out on the water in the years since Dad passed. I’d expected it to feel at least a little painful, being back on the ship where he and I spent so much time. But that was the place we shared so many laughs. Where he’d let me swim around as he fished, effectively scaring away any potential catch and not caring one bit. Indulging in those memories, and the heat of the sun on my skin, eclipsed any kind of pain I might have felt.

I’ve got a mountain of administrative work for the shop after playing hooky all day. But today has got me wondering if I can somehow juggle both. Maybe talk Evan and Carla into letting me run a couple of charters a week. Finally put that certification to good use the way I’d planned to, before I had to take over Ship Happens.

I blink down at the phone I pull out of my bag. I hadn’t had a second to check it on the ship today, but the moment I tap it to life I realize it isn’t my phone at all. The home screen is littered withunopened notifications, over a picture of a gigantic German shepherd. Brooks must have handed me the wrong phone this morning.

I chuckle, admiring both the picture of his dog and the fact that Brooks is so head over heels for him that he’d give Peter this kind of prime real estate. It’s downright adorable.

And then I take a proper look at the text previews within his notifications. There are a handful from his agent Josh, demanding Brooks returns his calls, interspersed with some from an unknown number.

207-826-5848:Pip, if you see this, we mixed up our…

207-826-5848:I answered your phone when your…

207-826-5848:She broke her leg falling down the stairs…

My heart sinks into my stomach at the words, and then right into my gut when I recognize the phone number. Brooks has been texting from my mom’s phone.

I follow the sound of the tap running in my parents’ tiny kitchen. Stupidly, I expect to find Mom at the sink, blond hair pulled off her face with a tortoiseshell claw clip the way it normally is.

Or maybe I hoped to see her there, that Brooks’s texts had been wrong. That my sweet mom, who already lives in severe pain given her arthritis, hadn’t fallen, hadn’t broken her leg, hadn’t tried to call me while I was unable to get to her.

It’s not Mom at the sink, though. It’s Brooks standing with his back to me, so intent on the dishes he’s washing that he doesn’t even look around.

My heart sinks and lifts at the same time.

“Brooks.”

He starts so hard soapy water splashes back on him. Brooks wipes the suds off his forehead with the back of an arm, staring at me carefully like I’m a skittish animal about to take off.

“She’s in her room. She’s okay. We just had some dinner.”

Dinner?He fed my mom. I gulp down the sob building in my throat. It gets stuck halfway down, a thick and painful lump. I’m seconds away from losing it in front of him.

---