Kaleb grins despite his brother’s angry tug. “Saturday morning. The river. We’ll be waiting for you.”
“Now, Kaleb.”
Kaleb gives me one last look. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Marlowe says through the screen door once he’s finally wrestled his brother back out onto the front porch. “He’s an idiot. But you’ve got to come back to school. Rory’s lost on that project without you.”
I narrow his eyes at him. “Oh, so is this what this little visit is really about?”
Marlowe cracks a smile. “Just promise me you’ll come back. Whatever you’re hiding from up here,” he says, nodding up at the wood-lined walls, “holing up inside isn’t going to help.”
I know he has a point, and he knows I see it.
His face brightens a bit. “Promise?”
I have no choice but to agree, or else I think Kaleb is going to break free from his grasp and make himself a permanent fixture inside the cabin.
“Fine,” I say. “I promise.”
The words make both the brothers smile, really smile, and I feel my heartbeat skip a beat.
Just as quickly as they came, they’re gone. Lost to the forest.
Almost as lost as I am.
15
Rory
“What were you thinking, inviting her down to the river like that?”
I’m fully aware of the fact that it’s not easy to distinguish my voice from an angry growl.
Marlowe stands at the base of my bed, while Kaleb grins stupidly up at me from where he’s perched on top of it.
“Oh, come on Rory,” Kaleb says, his mood showing no sign of dampening despite my apparent best efforts. “You really can’t just keep going on pretending like this isn’t happening.”
“Like what isn’t happening?”
Marlowe steps away from the bed and folds his arms across his chest. His face grows serious for a moment.
“Kaleb’s right, Rory. You know I’m not one to pick sides …”
“Sure, whatever you say,” I grumble.
He continues on, ignoring me.
“… But Sabrina isn’t going anywhere. And you’re a fool if you keep pretending this thing, this feeling, is going anywhere either.”
I stiffen a little, which is apparently just the reaction they’re looking for.
Kaleb points an accusatorial finger at me, but that stupid grin still refuses to budge from his face.
“Ha, see? I knew it. You said you were going to check with Lydia, but you’ve been avoiding it for weeks now.”
“I’m not avoiding anything,” I say, knowing full well none of us—not even myself—is fooled.
Of course I’m avoiding it.