Page 18 of The Tides Between Us

Weston Cole was my brother’s best friend. He was an interesting character who was the peanut butter to Nico’s jelly. My brother was a little more on the serious side whereas Wes was constantly cracking jokes. He had a way of keeping things lighthearted, but I knew there was more to him beneath the surface.

One night when he was drunk, he had admitted to me that he essentially grew up caring for his little brother. His father was never in the picture and his mother had lost her parental rights when he was ten. He grew up living with his grandparents, but he was the one who was always looking out for his little brother.

He never gave me any more than that, but he had his own struggles he didn’t like to talk about. He masked everything with a smile and a joke.

Nico lifted his head as he handed Wes his food. A smile worked its way onto his lips and there was a look of satisfaction as he saw me walking into the kitchen. Wes turned halfway, looking over his shoulder at me with a grin.

“Hey, G,” he nodded at me and motioned for me to sit down next to him. “Aren’t you usually awake by now?”

I shrugged.“I forgot to set my alarm so I figured I would enjoy being able to sleep in… until the two of you rudely interrupted.”

I sat down and Nico placed a container in front of me. I popped it open and smiled at a heaping pile of pancakes with fruit. My stomach growled yet again in betrayal.

“Thought you said you weren’t hungry?” Nico questioned me with an eyebrow raised.

I gave him the middle finger again before smothering my food in maple syrup. Wes had already turned his attention back to his own breakfast. My brother was staring at me with a suspicious look on his face as he shoveled a mouthful of eggs between his lips.

Sliding my knife through the pancakes, I cut them into pieces before I realized he was looking at me. My eyebrows were pinched together as I stared back at him.“What?”I mouthed to him before taking a bite of my pancakes.

“Wes and I stopped by yesterday morning with food, but you never came back.”

“Since when do the two of you show up with random meals?”I asked him with my hands.“Do you frequently abandon your girlfriend to have breakfast with your boyfriend?”

"As much as I love your brother, it’s strictly platonic,” Wes spoke after reading my signs. “He’s not my type anyways. I prefer blondes.”

I rolled my eyes at him. I was always grateful when someone took the time to learn ASL so they could communicate with me, but there were times I wished they didn’t. Right now was one of those times because I didn’t need Wes’s commentary, even though it did make me involuntarily smile.

“Harper had a pregnancy announcement shoot yesterday morning and she’s prepping for a wedding today,” Nico informed me. “Wes just so happens to not have any other friends, so he’s my second choice to her.”

“Hey. I will never be someone’s second choice.” Wes gave Nico a disapproving look, although there was a playfulness to it.

“Looks like you already are,”I signed to him while rolling my eyes. I turned my attention back to my brother.“I ended up getting breakfast with a friend.”

His forehead creased. “I thought Winter and Kai were out of the country?”

Shit.

It was none of his business, but like I had already mentioned before, my brother was persistent as hell and he made it his life’s mission to keep a watchful eye on me. Even as a grown adult, he still felt it was his duty to make sure I was safe. I appreciated it always, but there were times he was borderline overbearing.

“She is… I went with another friend.”

I didn’t know if Declan was necessarily my friend, but that was what we were going with.

“Who’s the friend?” Wes questioned me after swallowing a mouthful of food.

I hesitated for a moment and abruptly got up from my seat to fetch a glass of orange juice. The two of them were waiting for a response. I wasn’t sure if I should tell them his real name or make something up. Who knew where things were even going between the two of us, if they were going anywhere.

When I walked back over to my seat, I saw the screen of my phone lit up on the counter and Wes was looking at it like the nosy bastard he was. I quickly snatched it away and flipped it upside down on the other side of my container of food.

“Who’s Declan?” he asked me.

My brother tilted his head to the side. “That’s a new name. Is that your new friend?”

Dammit.

I took a sip of my orange juice, swallowing roughly as I nodded.“I met him a week or so ago when he brought in an injured turtle. We ran into one another at the beach yesterday morning and he invited me to breakfast.”

“A breakfast date?” Wes asked, speaking at the exact time Nico did.

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