Page 66 of Take Me Slowly: part 2
Her hands still in front of her face, she flipped him off with both middle fingers. "How old was I? Ten or eleven? It made sense to me then."
"Apparently it still makes sense to you," Fiona teased.
Whitney huffed. "Don't you start." She finally lowered her hands, and picked up her wine to take a gulp. "See, you're all driving me to drink."
"Don't blame us, Whit." Connor took a sip of his own beer.
"I'll absolutely blame you," she said, smirking playfully at him. "If nothing else, it's fun."
Brooks glanced over at me. "I like this."
I offered a faint smile. "Me too." I could tell what he was thinking. We could have been more like them. Always teasing and making fun of each other, but they'd had each other's backs since childhood. Fiona, Holly and Riley too.
Josiah also looked wistful.
"We have each other now," I told them both.
"Yeah, we do," Josiah said. "Whatever happens tomorrow, we've got you." He slipped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him until my cheek was pressed against the stubble of his.
"And after tomorrow," Riley added. "We don't care who you are or where you came from. The only thing that matters is who you are right now."
"Did you read that on a motivational meme?" Connor shot him a glance.
"Yes, and I've been saving it up for the right moment," Riley said unapologetically. "Turns out, this is it. You got a problem with that, bro?"
"Not at all, bro." Connor patted his back a little too hard. "It was mushy, but I agree with the sentiment. I don't give a shit about Leah's past, or anyone else's. Right now is what matters." He glanced down at the table for a moment before raising his eyes and nodding at Josiah. His hazel eyes laced with regret.
"Bygones," Josiah said simply.
"Yeah, bygones," Connor agreed.
"Water over the falls," Riley said. "Which is actually ironic. I used to think if we looked hard enough, we might find Coral out there, beside the white water. Or hiding under a tree near the zip line. Or… Whatever. Instead, she found us."
"Yeah, I found you," I said. The rest of it, we had yet to figure out. "It would be ironic though."
"It makes sense to me," Brooks said with a sly smile. "It wouldn't surprise me if Leah was raised by wild animals."
I flipped him off, but laughed at the same time. "Funny, I was going to say the same about you. Except you wouldn't have survived the cold."
His hand went to his chest, right over his heart. "Direct hit. Damn, woman. That's some aim you have."
"And don't you forget it." I stuck my tongue out at him.
"As if you’d let me." He stuck his tongue out, right back at me.
"As if you want me to," I retorted.
"And you think you missed something not growing up here," Whitney said. "You two are as bad as me and Connor."
"Except you and Connor don't fuck each other," Riley said, grinning at the opportunity she'd handed him.
"Gross, gross, gross," Whitney groaned. "No, we'd never go there!"
Riley just grinned bigger. "You don't know what you're missing."
"Leah," Whitney complained. "Make them stop!"
I laughed. "Riley, stop grossing Whitney out. You wouldn't want to share Connor with her too anyway."
