Page 102 of Heartbreaker
“No! We...We’re—”
My brothers share a chuckle before Nash says, “You want to be, though.”
“I didn’t say that!”
“You didn’t have to, SJ.”
Brooks and I may not be together, but my brothers are right about one thing…I do want to be. However, I didn’t expect this kind of ambush from them—Bodhi and Blake, maybe, but not these two. When I came home brokenhearted, they were the ones most upset, even refusing to watch when he would come across the television for the first few months, unless they knew he was about to get his ass kicked.
I never told my family the truth about our breakup. As far as they knew—as far as anyone knew—we had simply grown apart. “It just isn’t going to work out,” I said when I called Crew to help me pack up and move back to Celestia. I didn’t give him details, no matter how many times he asked. Brooks was supposed to be on a plane to Europe, so the chances of him showing up were slim to none. But on the off chance he did show up, the last thing I wanted was for him to walk in with my oldest, most protective brother, pissed off about the truth.
I don’t know why I never told them. Maybe in some convoluted way, I hoped it wasn’t really over. But what does that say about me?
“You guys are delusional,” I say, rolling my eyes. “You’ve only seen what’s on TV, and that’s not real.”
“Wasn’t on TV today,” Nash says, and shares a look with our oldest brother. I turn just in time to see his own smirk before he hides it behind a sip of beer.
“Are you boys still bothering your sister?” Mamá asks, walking out the side door of the hotel to the second-story patio we’ve been occupying. They both answer with a resoundingNobefore she begins to shoo them away. “Okay,mijos, c’mon. Your sister has had a long day,y de nuevo mañana.”And again tomorrow, my mother reminds them, motioning for my brothers to rise. “She doesn’t need you poking and prodding her for information.”
“You just want to do that yourself, Mamá,” Nash says, earning an eye roll from her, but she doesn’t deny it.
“She’s right, it’s been a long day for everyone, I’m beat,” Crew says, standing from his chair.
Nash mumbles something under his breath along the lines ofsuck up,before he follows suit, stretching his limbs and following our oldest brother to the door.
“How are you doing,mija?” my mother asks, sitting down beside me once she is sure they’re gone. She wraps a comforting arm around my shoulders, and I sigh. “That good, huh?”
“It’s fine, Mamá,” I say, snuggling a little deeper into her embrace.
“¿Es John?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well,” she draws out, and begins to play with the ends of my hair. “I think it’s pretty obvious from the way you two are with each other. Not to mention, you came here to partner with him when I’m pretty sure you haven’t settled whatever it was that happened years ago.”
“Ay, Mamà.”
“¿Me equivoco?” No, she’s not wrong. But that doesn’t mean I want to hear it. I sigh again, letting my face fall into my hands. “What’s going on, Savannah?”
“He told me he loves me.”
My mother throws her head back in laughter, like I just told the funniest joke on the planet. “Well, yeah! A blind man could’ve told you that. You two seem to be the only ones who can’t see it, just like before. And what did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” She practically jumps from her seat. “Ay, Savannah, why did you say nothing?”
“Because…” Do I tell her? Do I finally tell her the truth about things? “Because we agreed to just be friends, Mamá. And saying that I love him isn’t exactly staying within the friend zone.”
“So, you both spoke and settled things from the past before you agreed to this, or did you just say ‘Let’s be friends?’”
I swear this woman has cameras everywhere with the way she knows things. Sure, we talked—kind of—but I wouldn’t call that conversation putting things to rest. There are still things that need to be said before Brooks and I can be friends again…if we can even be that.
Mamá sighs, pulling away to look me straight in the eye. “Savannah, I may not know what really happened, but I know that it hurt you. You were talking about marriage, he’d already asked your father’s permission—”
“What did you just say?” I interrupt. He had already asked for Papá’s permission?
A sad smile crosses my mother’s face. “That’s why I was so confused when you said you wanted to move back home. I thought things were going well.”
