From twelve-year-old Brynn’s summer camp journal:
Dear Moms,
Omg, this year’s veggie is WILTED SPINACH! I don’t even think they mean for it to be wilted, but it is. And it’s disgusting!
I’m not even going to bother telling you how much I hate it here, or that I want to come home, since I know you’re on your dream cruise this week and I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m fine. UGH! But if you come home early, come get me.
Also, guess what? Someone—I’m sure it was Kinsey, because hello!—stole my glasses again. But when I fell into the creek and got all muddy and scraped both knees, Eli brought me my glasses. He said he found them, but I know he stole them back from Kinsey. He seems really quiet this year. I heard someone say his dad ran away with the babysitter. I’m glad I don’t have a dad.
Also, I still hate everyone here but him.
Love,
Brynn
BRYNN WAS WORKING her way through her stack of chocolate chip pancakes, trying not to moan with pleasure with every single bite. How in the world had she lived her entire life without midnight chocolate chip pancakes? When she finished, she nearly licked her plate, and would have . . . except a guy came into the room.
He was massive. Six and a half feet of solid muscle. Clearly just out of bed, dark hair sticking up in an oddly endearing fashion, dark eyes at half-mast, and a whole bunch of dark skin covered only by a pair of basketball shorts, tats, and nipple piercings. He had a T-shirt in one big hand, which he shrugged into as he entered the kitchen, sniffing the pancake-laden air appreciatively. He came up behind Kinsey, where she was eating standing up at the island. Got right into her space, his chest to her back, and rubbed his jaw to hers. Then he swatted her playfully on the ass, ending with a palm squeeze.
Deck, she presumed.
“Hey,” Kinsey said. “Hands off the merchandise.”
“That’s not what you were saying a few minutes ago.” He took her fork and helped himself to a bite. “Were you seriously not going to wake me for Eli’s pancakes?”
Kinsey snatched her fork back.
Brynn goggled at this domestic display.
Max didn’t. “Wouldn’t mind having my ass slapped,” he said a little woefully.
Deck slapped his ass.
Max grinned at him. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
“This here is Deck,” Eli told Brynn. “He’s Kinsey’s—” He broke off and looked at Deck.
“Don’t look at me,” the guy said, accepting a stack of pancakes on his own plate from Eli that was so tall, surely no single human could eat it. “You know she gets hives if you put a label on it.”
“I do not,” Kinsey said.
“Yeah?” Deck took a big bite, chewed, swallowed. “Then label me. Boy Toy? Best Lover You’ve Ever Had?”
“How about Pain in My Ass.”
“Aw,” Deck said with a grin, not appearing the least bit insulted. “Sweet.”
Kinsey rolled her eyes and went to the fridge, grabbing a cranberry juice before going still. “Hey, there’s a piece missing from my chocolate lava cake.”
Eli raised his hand.
“That cake’s mine,” she said.
“She’s cranky when she’s not getting her beauty sleep,” Eli said to Deck.
“No shit,” Deck said.
Kinsey’s eyes were narrowed. “A mom of one of the kids at the middle school made that cake for me.”
“It’s massive,” Eli said. “You’re not sharing?”
“Let me repeat. Chocolate lava cake.”
“Thought I was your best friend,” Eli said.
“You are, but touch my chocolate lava cake again and I’ll murder you in your sleep.”
“I remember like six months ago coming home with that whole big basket of mini muffins,” Eli said. “I went to bed, and when I woke up, you’d mowed through all the good ones.”
“Hey, that basket came to you by way of some rando chick at a work party. You didn’t even know her name. She could’ve been a stalker for all you know. I was merely taste-testing for you. You’re welcome.”
“Wow.” Eli flipped some more pancakes. “Just when you think you know someone . . .”
“Just stay out of my cake,” Kinsey said.
Brynn was fascinated by the easy comradery between them all. They were close and comfortable with each other in a way she couldn’t say she’d ever been with anyone. Thinking about that, she pushed her glasses up farther on her nose . . . at the exact moment that Kinsey did the same thing.
Max snorted.
Kinsey glared at him.
Max just shook his head.
Okay, there was either an odd dynamic going on, or Brynn was missing a whole bunch. Like take Deck and Kinsey. If Brynn went off just their words to each other, she’d have said they were a one-night stand. But Kinsey was wearing Deck’s shirt, and Deck clearly liked that. And then there was the way they looked at each other. Or at least the way Deck looked at Kinsey, with warmth and genuine affection.
But she realized that Kinsey was looking at Deck too, but only when she thought no one was watching.
Brynn had no idea why she’d hide it. If she had someone as into her as Deck appeared to be, she’d . . . well, she’d probably screw things up like she always did.
“How’s the arm?” Deck asked Max.
Max flexed his arm, rolled his shoulder. “Better.”
“Max wiped out on his surfboard a few weeks back,” Eli explained to Brynn. “Tore some ligaments. Deck’s a nurse at the hospital and was on the night I dragged Max’s whiney ass in.”
Deck grinned. “That was a fun night.”
“Hey.” Max pointed a fork at both of the other men. “I did not whine.”
“Ah, man, you so whined,” Deck said. “And then you passed out when you got a steroid injection. Bounced your head off the floor and gave yourself a concussion. We admitted you for the night, and then you mooned all the nurses when you got up in the morning.”
Max sighed. “Those hospitals gowns suck, man. You try dragging an IV stand around and holding the back of the stupid gown together at the same time.”
“I only moon people who want to see my ass.” Deck flashed a grin at Kinsey.
She pointed at him. “Finish your damn pancakes and get out.”
Deck just laughed. He’d cleaned his plate. But he grabbed one more pancake, rolled it, and took a bite. He winked at Kinsey, bent for a quick but hot-looking kiss, and then walked out the back door, eating his pancake.
Kinsey watched him go. Well, she watched his butt go, and Brynn got it. The guy had an exceptional butt.
“You kicked him out of bed?” Max asked.
“He takes up all the space.”
“And?”
“And I like to take up all the space.”
Max just shook his head and ambled off, presumably back to his room.
Brynn hopped off the counter to do the same, but stopped at the sink to wash dishes.
“What are you doing?” Eli asked.
“You cooked—again—so I’m washing.”
Eli looked at Kinsey. “You see that? That’s a good roommate.”
“Hey, you explicitly forbade me to do the dishes ever again.”
“That’s because you throw away the silverware instead of washing them.”
“That was an accident.” Kinsey yawned and pushed away from the island, wobbling for a minute. Eli quickly set down the pan he was carrying to the sink and grabbed her, sliding an arm around her.
“I’m fine.” But for a single beat Kinsey set her head on his shoulder and accepted the hug. Then she pushed away and walked out of the room.
Brynn sent a silent question Eli’s way, but he just shook his head.
“She gets vertigo.”
They all had a role here, she realized. And Eli’s role was the glue. He nudged Brynn over and took on the dishwasher role, letting her dry, directing her where to put everything away.
It was a comfortable silence between them, but there was something underlying the ease, she realized, watching him efficiently wash the dishes. He had a way of moving, his muscles bunching and releasing beneath his T-shirt, that sent a zing through her body, putting it on high alert. The good kind of high alert.
Which was not good at all, but bad.
Not making any decisions right now, remember?
“Deep thoughts?” he asked.
“No. Ignore me.”
His gaze held hers. “That’s going to be hard to do.”
She stared back at him. “I . . . should tell you something.”
“Besides the fact that you’re not allowing yourself to make any decisions right now?”
“I think I should also be off men.”
“Forever?”
“I don’t know.” She grimaced, because she knew herself. “No. Not forever.”
He gave a single nod. “Noted.”
She nodded too. “All righty, then.” All righty, then? What the hell was wrong with her? “Good night.”
“’Night. Oh, and, Brynn?”
She turned back to him.
His eyes were no longer just amused, but also heated. “You’ll let me know if that changes.”
“The decision-making thing?”
He smiled. “The ‘off men’ part.”
BRYNN SPENT THE remaining hours of the night tossing restlessly, and not sure why. She loved this big, old, creaky house. Loved having her window open so she could hear the waves rhythmically hitting the beach. Loved that her roommates sometimes ate chocolate chip pancakes at midnight.
Loved that she’d been brave enough to agree to staying here, even if she worried that, like most of her other recent decisions, it would turn out to be a bad one.
She remembered how Eli had looked at her in the kitchen when they’d been alone, and how just that had changed the rhythm of her heart . . . Yeah. She was worried that he’d gotten under her skin in the very best of ways.
When her alarm went off, she groaned and got out of bed to get ready for day one of the rest of her life. Thanks to her open window, the room was chilly, but she liked that. Nothing in here belonged to her other than the duffel bag on the chair in the corner, but somehow she felt more at home than she had in a long time. She grabbed a sundress and cropped cardigan from the duffel, showered and dressed, and then left the room.
Kinsey stood in the kitchen in front of the opened fridge, frowning.
“Morning,” Brynn said.
Kinsey grabbed some juice before turning to eyeball Brynn, then immediately squeezing her eyes shut with a pained look. “Jeez, I need sunglasses just to look at you.”
Brynn looked down. Okay, so her dress was a very bright and sunshiny yellow, but she thought it’d seem cheery to the kids. “Should I change?”
Kinsey shut the fridge and sighed. “Like kicking a puppy,” she muttered. Then she shook her head. “No, you shouldn’t change. You should tell me to go to hell, that you’re wearing what you damn well want to wear and you don’t care what I think.”
Brynn’s backbone snapped straight. “You’re right.” And oh, how she hated that. “Go to hell. I’m wearing what I want to wear and I don’t care what you think. And you know what else? Roommate rule number two—you have to say something nice for every not nice thing you say.”
Kinsey blinked. “What’s roommate rule number one?”
“No walking around naked.”
Kinsey blinked again. Then she tossed what looked like a palmful of pills into her mouth and chased it with a glass of water.
“Vitamins?”
“They’re my superpower pills,” Kinsey said.
“Fine.” Brynn shook her head. “Not sure why I thought things might be different.” She headed to the door.
“Different how?” Kinsey asked.
“I don’t know, maybe with you being sweeter and kinder.”
Kinsey stared at her for a beat. “Those traits aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse.”
“No kidding.”
Kinsey took in Brynn’s outfit and appeared to squelch a grimace. “Um, okay. So . . . I like your bracelet.”
Brynn was wearing a thin leather cord with a silver charm that said: BE STRONGER THAN THE STORM. “Thanks,” she said, surprised at the compliment.
“So are you really going to wear sneakers to work?” Kinsey asked, and when Brynn just stared at her, she shrugged, palms up. “What? You said I have to say something nice first, so I did. I said I liked your bracelet.”
Brynn sighed and looked down at her adorable favorite white sneaks. She started to second-guess her choice, but then narrowed her eyes. “I’m wearing what I want to wear and I don’t care what you think.”
Kinsey lifted her glass of water in a toast—granted it was also with a cynical smirk—and Brynn yanked open the door.
“Oh, and who walks around naked?” Kinsey wanted to know.
“Your roommates.”
Kinsey’s jaw dropped. “You saw Max and Eli naked?”
Brynn just shut the door on her, pleased with herself for once having the last word. Or lack of the last word . . .
At the school, Brynn was given the keys to her classroom and sent on her way without much fanfare. Two minutes later, she stood at the front of her classroom—gulp—staring at thirty-two little five-year-olds. She had them sit in a semicircle facing her and asked them to take turns telling her their name and a fun fact. She pointed to the girl on her left wearing a bunch of ponytails to go first.
“I’m Cindy,” she said, jumping to her feet. “My dad thinks farting is funny, but my mom doesn’t.”
“Okay,” Brynn said, biting back a laugh. “Thank you.”
The girl in glasses next to Cindy was bouncing in place with excitement.
“I’m Tabitha. Sometimes in the middle of the night, my mommy yells at my daddy to go faster.”
Brynn chewed on the inside of her mouth. “Interesting. Thank you.”
Next was a little boy missing both front teeth. “I’m Toby. The tooth fairy gives me different amounts of money depending on whether I’m at my mom’s or at my dad’s house. Why would that happen?”
“Uh . . .” Brynn racked her brain. “Maybe the tooth fairy sells the teeth and demand fluctuates depending on which house it comes from?”
Toby processed this answer and put his hand down.
Huh. That actually worked.
Just then, Kinsey popped her head into the classroom, and there was an immediate chorus of “Hi, Ms. Davis!” telling Brynn that as unsociable as Kinsey had been with her, she was the opposite with the kids, who all genuinely appeared to love her.
Toby ran to Kinsey and hugged her tight before racing back to the circle.
“Deck’s kid,” Kinsey explained.
Brynn moved to the door for privacy. “I’m boggled.”
“What, that I’d stop by and see you?”
“That the kids adore you.”
Kinsey actually laughed. Note to self: All you have to do to keep the new roommate in line is out-bitch the bitch. “Thought we had to say something nice for every not nice thing.”
“You’re right,” Brynn said. “Your clothes are amazing.” She paused, let a beat of time go by. “But why do the kids adore you?”
Kinsey shrugged. “Maybe they know something you don’t.”
Yeah, and that was what was bugging her. How was it that she brought out the worst in this woman, someone others clearly loved and adored? There was no point in asking. Kinsey wouldn’t answer. Hell, she probably didn’t know the answer. “What can I do for you, Ms. Davis?”
“Nothing. Just wanted to see if you were drowning.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
Kinsey blew a kiss at the kids and walked off.
“You and Ms. Davis kinda look alike,” Tabitha said when Brynn moved back to the share circle.
Brynn glanced at the window to catch her reflection. Stilled. Then pushed her glasses up. They did sort of look alike. How annoying was that?