Page 40 of All Too Well
Hazel’s eyes widen. “Something else?”
“Someone else, more like.”
While I don’t know Hazel, I like her a lot. She’s incredibly sweet, and I hope that at the end of this, we can remain friends.
“I thought that might be the case,” she says with a smile as she leans back. “Lachlan is a great guy.”
“He’s also my brother’s best friend and has always seen me as a little twerp who he had to be nice to.”
She shifts forward. “But that’s not the case, is it?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Do you like him?”
What a loaded question. “I’ve always loved him. Not in the way that I feel now, but Lachlan will never see me that way. He’s basically told me so in a hundred different ways.”
Like how he never should’ve kissed me. How he was sorry.
God, that was the worst.
To be told they were sorry they kissed you.
I wasn’t sorry. I was ... shattered.
“Can you use that to write about?”
“Use what?”
“Your feelings. Look, I think the best stories come from what we know, right? You don’t know sports, but you know Lachlan. You know what that time in his life was like, and you can understand what it must’ve been to see his football career go up in smoke. It’s clear you care about him.”
“I do, but I don’t think he wants me to talk about that. He refuses to even discuss it. However, the other guys seem all for it.”
Hazel purses her lips. “Could you have the guys focus on what they miss?”
I think about that for a second and write it down. “I could try to have them talk about the brotherhood they experienced, teamwork, and how it shaped them into who they are now.”
She nods. “Yes, I mean, that has definitely guided them into their daily lives, right?”
“With Lachlan being a fireman—definitely. Killian is a businessowner, so surely he has experience with building a team. Miles has to rally an entire faculty and he served in the military, which I know a lot about. The only one I don’t know about is Everett.”
Hazel immediately stiffens. “He’s an idiot. Just leave him in that box.”
I smile. “I think they’re all idiots.”
“I would agree. Especially if Lachlan fails to see how amazing you are.”
If only it were that simple. “Lachlan has his reasons.”
“Do you know what they are?” Hazel asks.
“Nope.” Although I’m assuming something with the loss of his mother.
“Then we’ll put him in the idiot box too.”
I lift my coffee cup and cheers to that. “To the idiots who drive us bonkers.”
Hazel grabs the coffeepot and lifts it in solidarity. “And to the women who are slowly learning their lesson.”
