Page 31 of Reckless With You
“I know,” Amelia said, shrugging again. “It’s kind of hard to figure out what to say to Zoey sometimes anyway.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“About relationships? You know, I shouldn’t really talk about that. It’s not my business, and I’m afraid if I do, it’ll sound like gossip.”
I nodded, putting that tidbit of information away for later. “I get you. But if you want to talk about it, I’m here. Now, the subjects wecantalk about areAvengersmovies, work, animals, plants, and cookie dough.” I quickly listed off the things, and she snorted.
“That’s a very odd list.”
“Well, since I just came up with it off the top of my head as I was speaking to you, it’s a list that works.”
“I still don’t know why you’re doing this,” she said, coming up beside me to help me wash some of the produce.
“I don’t know why I’m doing it either,” I said honestly, my voice a whisper.
She let out a sigh beside me and then rested her head on my upper arm. “He was my friend, Tucker. I used to do this with him all the time. And now I’m afraid I’ll never be able to do it again.”
I ignored the comparison. “Yeah, well, your friend was kind of a dick.”
“No, he wasn’t.” Even though she said the words, they didn’t really ring true. I didn’t think she actually believed them.
“Yeah, he was a dick. But I’ll be your friend now. Got it?”
“Uh, no. You can’t simply declare yourself my friend. Yes, we’re friends, but you can’t move in to that position.”
“I totally believe I did. So, you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
She gave me a weird look and shook her head again. “I don’t understand you, Tucker.”
I went to fill a pot with water and pasta, and then turned to look at her. “I don’t understand me sometimes either. But it’s what I do. I sort of inserted myself into Devin’s life when we were younger, too, and look how that turned out.”
“You did?” she asked, helping me chop tomatoes.
“Yeah. I don’t even remember how it started, but he hung out with me enough at school that we became friends. When he invited me over one day, I didn’t want to leave.”
Amelia snorted. “You didn’t want to leave our house? Do you not remember the yelling?”
I reached out and squeezed her shoulder before going back to cooking, not looking at her.
“I do. But your parents were pretty good when I was there.”
“At first, because you were company. And then you weren’t company anymore, you were practically one of the kids. And that meant someone had to feed you, and Dad got all pissed off at that.” Amelia just rolled her eyes. “Dimitri always made sure we were good, though. He was so much older that it never felt weird. I mean, it was worse for the rest of them, I think. I had my big brothers to take care of me.”
“You have a great family. And it’s only growing as the guys get married.”
“I know, right? I wish things had been different with my parents, but we can’t go back and fix it.”
“You’re preaching to the choir,” I said, sautéing garlic.
“Yeah, at least I had my brothers, and my dad stayed around as long as he did, you know?”
“I do. Foster care wasn’t always bad. I found some good homes when I was younger, and then had a decent one for a while. But no one really wanted a kid with asthma—medical bills and all that. Plus, I had some pretty serious and stupid night terrors when I was a kid.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“I told Devin, but he was really good at keeping my secrets, you know?”
“My brothers are the best.”