Page 99 of Could Have Been Us
“She is not mathematically inclined.”
I cross my arms while rolling my eyes. “Is there such a thing?”
He grins and then sips his coffee. “It seems Kinsley is.”
“I like numbers, they’re honest and reliable. You can always get the same answer, no matter what. There’s no guessing if two plus two is four. It is. To everyone in the world,” Kinsley explains.
“There’s a fairness in numbers,” Jack finishes. “I get it.”
Kinsley nods. “I don’t . . . fit in, but the numbers don’t care.”
How different this girl is from me when I was her age. I never struggled to fit in. I don’t know if it helped having three older brothers and a twin who would always be by my side, but I had my people. Joshua, Alex, and Grayson made sure that I was always protected. No one would dare to hurt me.
As for girls, I had my fair share of stupid drama, but because I had Winnie, it didn’t matter much. Also, they all wanted to sleep with my brothers, so being on my bad side was a surefire way to never get close to the Parkerson boys.
I take the seat beside Kinsley. “Do you have a best friend?”
She nods. “Carrie Ann. We’ve been friends since we were about five.”
I smile. “I have one of those. Her name is Winnie.”
She looks to Jack. “What about you?”
“My best friend is also Stella’s older brother.”
I sigh deeply. “It’s a very tangled web in Willow Creek.”
“So, you fell in love with your best friend’s sister?” Kinsley asks.
“I did.”
“Carrie Ann has an older brother too.”
“Oh, honey,” I say quickly. “It’s a bad idea. Trust me.”
Jack raises one brow. “Really?”
I nod. “They’re horrible,” I explain to Kinsley. “They are wishy-washy. They can’t seem to decide if they want you or don’t want to rock the boat with their sibling. It’s a really bad look.”
Jack huffs out his laughter. “And here I thought it was sweet that I cared about everyone.”
“It wasn’t. It was annoying.”
Kinsley laughs. “So, I mean, how was I born then?”
The shift in the room is almost tangible, but I promised her answers.
“I loved Jack since I was a little girl. At least, I thought I did. Now I see that what I felt back then wasn’t even close to how I feel about him now. I was young, and . . . I was . . . a little broken. I had no reason to be, not really. My brothers, I have four of them, are all pretty great. My parents, on the other hand, well, they’re . . .”
Jack clears his throat. “Horrible.”
“Yes, they’re horrible. But back then, I really thought they could fix themselves if they just tried. I was watching my brothers struggle with it too. It was my eighteenth birthday when Jack and I gave in to those feelings. For one night, we weren’t Grayson’s best friend and little sister. We were just Jack and Stella.”
“And then I came along?”
“Yes.”
“Did you want to keep me?” Kinsley asks with a tremble in her voice.
