Page 39 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
Heryaaayis so unenthusiastic, Olivia snorts with laughter.
To Monica’s credit, her next words feel a lot more genuine. “Welcome home, Kate. I love your Instagram.”
Her words surprise me. I had no idea Monica followed Kate’s Instagram. Come to think of it, I don’t think we ever even talked about Kate, which feels weird since Monica just called us the “dynamic duo.”
Kate pushes her hands into her pockets. “Thanks. Brody says you teach theater at Green River Academy.”
“Yeah. He was super helpful in showing me around the school.” She shoots me a quick glance. “We’ve gotten to be really good friends.”
Oh, geez.I don’t like where this is going.
But Kate is unfazed, responding with a huge smile. “He is a really good friend. The best, actually. The kind who will help you break into your house when you get locked out. The kind that just—”
“Hey!” I say, stepping toward Kate and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. I give her an extra tight squeeze. “That’s great. Good friends. We’re good friends. We can drop the subject now.”
She smirks, her expression teasing. “Are you concerned about how I’m going to finish my sentence, Brody? I’m talking about friendship. That kind ofnakedawareness you have with people you’re really close to.”
I press my lips together, my shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “You have got to stop.”
Kate’s laughing now too, and I don’t even care that Olivia and Monica are looking at us like we’re crazy.
Finally, Olivia clears her throat. “Okay. This is fun, but Monica was just saying she needed to head out.” My sister shoots me a disapproving glare and I sober up quickly. I’m not trying to rub anything in Monica’s face, but I can see how it might look like I am.
“Right. Sorry. It’s good to see you, Monica.”
She smiles, a sadness in her eyes that wasn’t there before. “Walk me to my car?”
I glance at Olivia who gives me a tiny nod of encouragement. “Kate, want to walk over to the goat barn with me? Penelope is whelping for the first time right now. Tyler and Mom are with her, but I’d like to check on her too.”
“Penelope from TikTok? Famous Penelope?”
Olivia nods. “That’s her.”
“Oh, yes. Definitely,” Kate says. “Let’s go see her.”
Tyler is the one who made Penelope famous. His first summer working on the farm, before he and Olivia got married, he started posting videos of her following him around as a newborn, and her social media presence blew up almost overnight.
“I’ll be that way in a sec,” I say as they turn and head toward the barn.
I fall into step next to Monica. “Sorry about earlier,” I say to her. “That thing with Kate. It was sort of an inside joke, and I just—”
“You don’t have to explain,” Monica says. “Honestly, it was probably good for me.”
We reach her car, and she pulls out her keys.
“I’m not sure I follow.”
She lets out a disheartened chuckle. “I guess I was still holding out hope. I thought if I was around enough, you mighteventually change your mind about us. But seeing you with Kate?” She shakes her head. “Brody, it’s so obvious. I can’t compete with her.”
“We’re just friends,” I say reflexively. “We’ve always just been friends.”
Both statements are true no matter how much I dislike them.
Monica leans against her car. “Maybe, but don’t pretend that’s how you want things to be. It’s almost as obvious now as it was back in high school.”
I don’t know aboutnow,but there’s no denying what Monica observed back in high school. “I was pretty obvious, wasn’t I?”
She chuckles. “If she was the earth, you were her moon.” She nudges my shoulder. “Did you ever tell her?”
