I quickly jump up out of his arms and off the couch. That’s not Emmett—that’s Kyler.
“Good morning,” he says in a raspy voice.
Slowly he sits up and opens his eyes to find sheer terror on my face. I slept with another man.
Standing, he touches my cheek with one hand. “Hey, nothing happened, we just fell asleep. Why don’t you see if Zach is back from Haylee’s and I’ll make us some coffee.”
I nod. Wait, why would Zach be at Haylee’s? As if he can read my mind, a look of panic crosses his face.
Just then the front door opens and there stands my brother. Before I can ask why he would be at Haylee’s, I see that he is not alone. He walks in holding hands with none other than my best friend, or possibly former, I’m not really sure. I’m not sure that she would forgive me for how awful I was for leaving.
I look back at Kyler, then to Zach and Haylee and down to their hands. “Wait, why are you holding hands?”
I’m not prepared for what comes out of Zach’s mouth next. Haylee grips onto his arm as if she is grounding him.
“Dani…” He pauses and looks down at her. “Hails and I are together. We’ve been dating for almost three years. I was waiting for the right time to tell you.”
I plop down on the couch in shock. Yep, definitely did not see that coming. Silence consumes the room. Zach and Haylee? My brother and his best friend’s sister? Zach and my best friend? Well, I guess hell has frozen over.
Haylee comes over and kneels on the floor in front of me and grabs my hands. She smiles at me, but I can see tears in her eyes. “Hey, bestie, it’s been a while. About time you got your ass back here.”
She then pulls me up into a hug. Kyler pulls on Zach’s arm and says, “We’ll be in the kitchen making coffee and breakfast and let the two of you catch up.”
Still locked in Haylee’s embrace, I am hit with memories of growing up with her. Happy memories followed by the emptiness of her face at Em’s funeral. She rocked a blank expression for days, as did I. We were both empty and lost inside, and now she’s with my brother? Are they in love? I don’t even know where to begin, but for now I can feel her grip on me tighten. I hug her back. The past four years I have been without my best friend, and it’s been difficult, but I also feel as though if I had stayed it would have been more difficult. I wonder what it was like for her here, but it clearly couldn’t have been too bad if she found my brother.
I pull back. “So you and Zach?”
She blushes and smiles. I recognize that smile—it’s one I used to wear. Not something I was used to seeing on Haylee though. That smile says it all: she’s head over heels in love with my brother.
She sits on the couch and pats the spot next to her for me to sit.
I stare at the couch for a moment, the same couch Kyler and I had fallen asleep on, then take the seat next to her and pull my knees under me.
“I’m sorry, Hails, I should have called. I should’ve…”
How do I finish that statement? I should’ve kept in touch? I’m stuck in my own thoughts when Haylee finishes my sentence. “Never left.”
Her words sting, but I know she is right. I hurt her—I hurt everyone when I left—but it had to be done for me. Losing Emmett, I knew I would be alone for the rest of my life, so it was inevitable that I would have to deal with it alone.
“I don’t want to talk about that right now. Not before coffee at least,” Haylee says, “Remember Mom used to say nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m. and before morning coffee.”
Zach delivers us mugs full of coffee. We both say thank you to him, and he kisses the top of Haylee’s head before he heads back into the kitchen. I readjust myself with my knees comfortably under me while Haylee pulls her feet up to sit Indian-style. It’s clear the way they both looked at each other that they aren’t just casua
lly dating or fucking but are actually in love.
I can’t take the awkward silence anymore, but Haylee must have the same thought because she goes to speak the same time I do.
“So you and Zach…”
“So me and Zach…”
We both giggle. I guess after all these years our brains are still in sync. Our moms use to joke that we shared the same brain because we were always known for saying the same thing or reaching for the same thing at the same time. I bite down on the side of my bottom lip. “You go first, Hails.”
“Sure.” She looks toward the kitchen and smiles, hearing Zach and Kyler goofing off in the kitchen while supposedly making breakfast. I’ve never seen this smile on her before. She is 100 percent in love, and it’s weird that it’s with my brother. Although when I think about it, I guess it shouldn’t be too weird since the roles used to be reversed and she would watch me with the same look when I would look at her brother. But I mean, come on, this is Zach, the big manwhore in college—or well, at least he was in the first few months of his freshman year. I guess it’s possible that he changed.
“So, I guess I should start from the beginning. When you left, Zach and I had both found ourselves in a darker place—we not only lost Emmett, but we also lost you. We didn’t have answers. We didn’t know where you were, if you were okay, or if you were even coming back. We had both lost our best friend, and yeah, I mean, you didn’t answer my texts or calls, so I mourned you as if you had died alongside Emmett, and it was so hard.”
Her voice catches and I reach out to comfort her.