Page 19 of Tell Me Softly
Kam looked back and forth between us. My words had made her feel guilty. But I didn’t care. She deserved it.
“I know I’m to blame,” Kam said, with an expression on her face too complicated for me to put into words. “But you’re trying to put too much responsibility on me. I was ten years old, dammit.”
I threw my cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out.
“Your whole family was responsible, which is why I hate each and every one of you. Have a good night, now,” I said, trying to stay calm. I walked off, not even waving goodbye to my brother.
I’d had enough of Kam. Enough flirting, enough toying with her. I would never betray the person I loved most in this world. She deserved better.
Chapter Seven
Kami
I knew Thiago was right, at least in part, but I couldn’t help wanting to change his mind. Why? Because I cared about him…I cared about both of them, and I wanted so bad to have that unique friendship back that we had shared.
“Come on, Kami,” Taylor said, waving me over toward his car.
I didn’t comment on anything his brother had said. Especially about Taylor supposedly hating me. It had to be true, right? How could he not? I got in the car, and as soon as I breathed in, I knew the brothers must share it. There was a sweet masculine scent in it mixed with the aroma of tobacco. It was strange, the two of them smoking. For Thiago, it made sense; he looked natural with a cigarette, like a bad boy from the movies. But Taylor…
I had my hands in my lap, and with my finger, I traced the outline of my scar, which took me back to the time when we’d called ourselves the Three Musketeers and were up for any kind of adventure imaginable.
I remember Thiago first came up with the idea. “We’ve got to do it!” he said, and he was so convinced that nothing Taylor or Icould say would change his mind. “I saw it in a movie; it’s a way of showing who your real best friends are. And you’re our best friend, right, Kam?”
I had nodded, terrified.
“Then that’s that,” he said, picking up the wire he’d bent into a triangle at one end and sticking it into the fire we’d built beside the lake.
“It’s going to hurt, though,” I said.
“Relax, Kam,” Taylor said. “If you don’t want to do it, it’s fine.”
“Shut up, Taylor! If she doesn’t do it, it means she’s not our best friend.”
“I am!” I shouted, indignant.
“Then show it,” Thiago said, pulling the makeshift brand out of the fire and asking for my hand. “If you do this, I promise nothing will ever come between us.”
And for some reason, I’d believed him.
Eight years later, that mark my thumb was caressing was just a thin outline on my tanned skin. Afriendship tattoo, we’d called it. We’d all have it on our skin for the rest of our lives.
“Don’t worry about Thiago. He’ll come around; he just needs time. Being back home after so long hasn’t been easy for anyone.”
“You don’t have to make excuses for him, Tay.” I observed him from the passenger seat as he drove. Like Thiago, he had presence, a spark, and no one could resist his charm. His big hands deftly turned the steering wheel; his hair was a little longer than his brother’s and better cared for, and the brown bangs across his forehead brought out the blue of his eyes. He was handsome, and I was happy to have him talking to me again.
“Hey, stop staring at me!” he said, smiling.
I shrugged.
“I can’t. You’re handsome,” I said.
“You’re the good-looking one,” he replied automatically.“When you were little and all bony, I never thought you’d have those kinds of curves…”
I punched him on the shoulder.
“If you’re talking about my boobs, it’s just an expensive bra,” I said. My bust had always been a sore spot for me.
“You might think that. But I can promise you other people don’t. And you might as well drop the false modesty; it doesn’t suit you.”
