Page 47 of Broken Pieces
The rain turned back to a light shower. And the sun is peeking out behind the clouds. A short storm just like the one between me and Brooks. But unlike this storm, I don’t know when ours will pass.
“You okay?” Summer asks me.
I glance over at her as I pat my head making sure all my hairs are in the right place. “Yeah, I’m totally fine. Why?”
“Things seemed a little heated between you back there.”
I shrug nonchalantly. “We’ve just been arguing a bit the last few days. Our living situation is an adjustment on both sides.”
She climbs the steps up the back patio as I fall in step behind her. “That’s true. I kinda just threw y’all together and you don’t even know each other.”
“I’m sure we’ll work through it,” I reassure her. Although I don’t know what we are going to work through. Are we just going to let this tension between us pass or is it going to develop into a category five hurricane?
* * *
“Can you hand me another beer?” Brooks’ friend Mac asks me.
I nod as I grab a beer from the cooler that is next to me. We are celebrating the completion of the renovation on the house. Everyone is here except Harper who thought it was best to stay home with the baby. Easton, Ivy, Trace, Summer’s sister, and a handful of people I don’t know.
Everything is completely done in the house, the last two rooms that were under renovation are now open for booking. Summer got excited to post the openings on the rental website and within hours they were booked. The wedding from two weeks ago got a huge article in the paper that turned out to be amazing publicity for Summer. I am proud of her. And can’t believe she is doing all this while she is pregnant.
“So how is it living with Brooks?”
I look at Mac as I think about how to answer the question. I am sure Brooks told him about our kiss from two days ago. We’ve both been busy working and I haven’t seen him except in passing. But I can feel the tension in the air between us, the rolling of the storm waiting to unleash its surge. I don’t know what I want from him. I know he’s dangerous. The brokenness inside of me is a magnet repelling him from me, but my body doesn’t want to listen. My body wants to jump into the rolling tide of the oncoming storm and bask in the crush of the waves.
“It’s fine. We don’t see each other much. He’s kind of a slob though. I feel like I am constantly picking up after him.” I go with the safest answer I can find. But I can see a look in Mac’s eyes, like he wants to know my stance on whatever is going on between us.
The question in his eyes fade as he laughs at my response. “I know all about that. We lived together for a few months at one point and I wanted to strangle him. He seems to keep himself organized just fine when he’s working, but the second he would get home, shit everywhere. Has he left the milk jug out on the counter yet?”
“Oh my gosh, yes! I don’t understand how he can’t pour the milk into the cereal and then put it away. I’ve had to throw away two gallons already! Of course, there wouldn’t be any milk in the refrigerator if I didn’t go and buy it. I think he thinks groceries just magically appear.”
“I used to leave a bill out for him because he never bought them himself,” he chuckles.
“So how long have you guys known each other?”
Mac downs the rest of his beer and tosses the bottle into the trash behind him. “About ten years. I moved here when I was a freshman in high school. The two of us just hit it off. We were idiots, well mostly him, but somehow we have stayed friends. I’m surprised you and I never crossed paths in high school. This is a small town everyone went to the same parties.”
I blush. “Yeah, well I am four years younger than you. But I also didn’t really go to many parties. Just a couple my senior year.”
“Oh right, I was friends with Tacoma, she always said you were the bookworm at home studying all the time.”
“That was me,” I say solemnly, thinking about the path my life should have gone down, the ivy league school I was destined for until everything came crumbling down.
I grab a beer for Mac out of the cooler and decide to have one too. Easton is around somewhere, but hopefully he won’t see. I decide to change the subject before my thoughts turn too dark. “When did you live with Brooks?”
He takes a swig of his beer, his eyes glistening with the onset of drunkenness. “After Leigh died, he was kind of a mess. He didn’t want to live with his dad, so I let him stay with me. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long because of his pro—” he cuts himself off realizing he just said a whole lot more than he planned. I am sure he was going to mention probation.
“Are you tellin’ Rae all my dirty secrets?” Brooks approaches and sits on the chair across from me.
“I didn’t know you had secrets to tell,” Mac chuckles as Brooks throws a bottle cap at him.
I decide to play along, not wanting to give anything away. “Yeah Brooks, tell me all your secrets.”
He stares at me, a look I can’t quite place in his eyes. I am finding it’s a look I wish I knew the answer too.
Mac leans over and grabs Brooks by the back of the neck. “This guy doesn’t have any secrets. Can read him like a book.”
I snort at that before taking a drink of my beer. Brooks continues to look at me and it sends goosebumps up my arms. I want to know about the kiss. I know I started it, but I want to know how he feels. I don’t know why I care but as he looks at me, as if he is searching the depths of my soul, I can’t help but be drawn to him. Not that he will get too far into my soul without drowning, but a small part of me wants to let him in.