“What about you, then?” he asked, looking up at me with that charming, twisty smile. “Who’s this chick who’s got you all twisted?”
My elbow almost slipped off my knee where it had been propped as I took him in, and his grin spread as if I’d proven what he’d said right. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the girl who you’re trying to deny exists for some reason, when I’ve seen you looking at your phone with that goofy-ass smile on your face,” he said. “You all say that my face is easy to read, but y’all should try looking in the mirror. It’s pretty obvious that there’s something there.”
I shook my head. “Nope, that’s not how it works. I’m not just gonna spill everything if you’re gonna sit there not saying anything.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. I’ll answer a question about the girl I like if you answer a question about the girl that you like.”
I snorted but nodded. “All right. You wanna start?”
“Sure,” he said. “What color is her hair?”
“Blonde,” I said, “and it’s long.”
My brother nodded. “We have that taste in common.”
“My turn,” I said. “Does this girl of yours live in Rock Ledge, or is she in another town nearby?”
“She lives here,” he said.
I furrowed my brow. “Is she tall or short?”
“She’s not that tall—I’d say she’s on the shorter side of average,” he said. “You got two in one, jerk.”
“Fine.” I was starting to get a sinking feeling in my stomach that I refused to acknowledge.
“What does she do for a living?” he asked, leaning forward even more. I could tell that he was getting into the conversation, thoroughly enjoying himself as we exchanged bits and pieces of information like we were trading candy on the playground.
I would be too, if it weren’t for the itch at the back of my brain that told me about a horrible possibility I couldn’t bear to confront.
At least not right now.
“She works with animals,” I said, trying to keep my voice as steady as I could.
He blinked once, and then again, and as the blood drained from his face, I knew that the same possibility—now probability—had entered his mind as well. A wave of guilt rushed over me, and I brought my hand up to cover my face as I fought against the shame.
“Is it—” He cleared his throat, struggling to keep a straight face as he looked back to me. “Is Lucy the girl you like?”
I nodded, swallowing hard. It was hard to look him straight in the eye, but I did my best.
“Lucy Oliver?” he asked.
“How many other Lucy’s do we know?” I asked, the sarcasm bursting out without my willing participation. My regret grew as I saw him flinch, and I immediately backtracked. “Sorry, Adam.”
“It’s okay,” he said, his voice seeming to thin out a little bit.
I took a deep breath, steeling myself for an answer I wasn’t sure I was prepared to hear. “Do you think that she likes you too?”
“I think she might,” he said. “At least, I think that she did a few weeks ago.”
“What’s changed between now and then?” I asked, forgetting about my own conflicting feelings for a second and just wanting to hear from my brother.
“Christmas Eve,” he answered, “after I showed her my old room, we stopped in the hallway, and it happened to be under that little bit of mistletoe that Mom hung. So… I kissed her.”
“Oh,” I said, my stomach twisting even more than it had before. “And… she liked it?”
“I thought she did. She certainly seemed to,” he said. “But that was before. We haven’t talked for the last couple of weeks, at least not beyond a text here or there. I’m not sure of anything anymore.”
I bit down on my lip as I thought hard about what to say to my little brother. It wasn’t like we could both pursue this girl, especially now that I knew how Adam felt about her. At the end of the day, he was my highest priority, more important to me than just about anything else in the world.
“You should reach out to her, Adam,” I said. “Text her. Meet up and tell her how you feel. Like Aaron said, she’ll be crazy if she doesn’t go for you.”
He blinked at me a few times. “What about you?”
I shook my head. “I’ll bow out. Between a girl and you, I’ll choose you every single time.”
He bit down on his lip again, and I could tell that he was swallowing back his reaction to what I’d said. It took a minute, but finally, he looked back at me steadily before shaking his head. “No.”
I had to pause for a second before asking, “What do you mean, ‘no’?”
“There’s still Lucy,” he said, “and her feelings. She should be the one to make the choice. It would be wrong for you to take yourself out of consideration without even giving her the option.”