Kenzie
I walked into the diner at the roadhouse after work on Saturday to meet Ryder and Jeremy, but it was empty. Glancing at my watch, I realised I was early. “Hello!” I called out.
“Kenzie?” Harper’s voice came from up the stairs, followed by the sound of thudding footsteps as she ran down to meet me.
“You’re home?” I smiled when she stopped in front of me.
“This morning.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the kitchen and out the back door into the field behind.
“What are we doing?” I ran through the long grass behind her.
“Catching up, duh.”
I followed Harper to the water tower and stopped. “Uh-uh. No.”
“What?” She turned to look at me.
“No chance in hell am I climbing up there.” I looked up at the platform forty-seven thousand feet above my head and screwed my nose up in disgust. The damn thing was so old, I was surprised it hadn’t collapsed yet. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to be on it when it finally did give way. Besides, I didn’t even want to know what went on up there. It was like bloody Lovers’ Lane or something where couples went to make out, only it was a water tower.
“Why not?”
“I’m not sitting on anything your naked ass has rubbed against.”
Harper’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“I have eyes, Harper. And sometimes, watching you and Nate together makes me want to gouge them out with teaspoons. Don’t even try to tell me you haven’t screwed his brains out up there.” I pointed.
Harper scoffed. “You’re all class, Kenz.”
“That’s me.” I winked and sat on the grass. “How was the trip?”
“It was great. Beautiful. A lot of fun. But we’re not talking about me.” I’d have preferred to discuss Harper’s week away with Nate, down to every last boring or mushy detail, than talk about what I knew she wanted to.
Jeremy.
“We’re not?” I picked at a blade of grass.
“Nope. We’re talking about you and my brother.”
I coughed and banged a fist against my chest. “What?” Smooth. Didn’t give anything away.
“I hear things.”
How could she possibly hear things? There was nothing to hear.
“Like what?” I leaned back, resting my hands behind me.
“Chace showed up, and Jeremy got rid of him, then you two spent a cosy night on the sofa eating pizza.” She raised an eyebrow, a knowing smirk on her face.
“He told you?”
“Of course not. Nate told me.”
I shook my head. “How did Nate know?”
“Linc told him—”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Harper held up a hand to silence me.
“Before you say anything else…” She took a deep breath. “Linc heard it from Indie, who heard it from Bailey, who heard it from Ryder, who spoke to Jeremy on the phone.” Harper exhaled the breath with a whoosh and almost sagged in relief.
Those guys gossiped more than anyone else I knew.
“So, you know everything, then.” I threw a handful of grass at her. “Wait, when and why did Jeremy speak to Ryder?”
“Couple days ago. Why do you think they’re meeting here?”
“Because I told Ryder to call him this morning.”
“No. Because Jeremy called you the other night, and Ryder answered. They got talking.”
Ryder didn’t mention anything about Jeremy calling, and I was curious why. Why had Jeremy called? And why had my dear brother failed to tell me?
“You’ve been away for over a week. How do you know this?”
“Uncle Johnny has a big mouth.”
He wasn’t the only one, it seemed.
“Jeremy called here and spoke to him today about something important, but I don’t know what.” Harper frowned.
“Ah…there’s something I know that you don’t for once.” I elbowed her. Everyone seemed to know all about my personal life and dramas, but I finally knew something no one else did.
“What?”
I looked away. It wasn’t my place to say. Jeremy would tell her when he was ready. I was sure there was still a lot to discuss. Otherwise, Ryder wouldn’t be meeting him.
“What are you two doing out here?” Indie’s voice echoed across the field.
Harper and I looked up as she made her way over to us from the back of the diner. “Everyone is inside.”
“Everyone?” I thought it was just Ryder and Jeremy.
Indie nodded.
“Why is everyone here?”
Indie reached out to both of us and helped us stand with a grunt. “You know us?” She smiled sarcastically. “We do things in groups. Never alone. We’re like the freaking Brady Bunch, only not related. Well, no. We’re all practically related now, huh?”
I laughed. “Yeah, it’s kind of messed up, when you think about it.”
Bailey was dating my brother. Harper was dating Nate, Indie’s brother, who just so happened to be Harper’s ex-boyfriend’s cousin. Indie was engaged to Linc, her brother Nate’s best friend. And me, well, I was developing a mild crush on Harper’s brother.
It was all kinds of messed up. Nothing like keeping things close.
We walked into the diner, and Indie wasn’t lying. Everyone was there. “Mumma!” Cole called as he bounded across the black and white tile floor toward me.
“Hey, buddy.” I wrapped him in a hug and walked over to the booth that held my brother, Bailey, Linc, and Nate.
Indie placed her scuffed Chuck on the red vinyl seat cushion, and smooshing her hand into Nate’s face, she used her brother to support herself as she pushed up and stepped over him to slip into the small space between him and Linc.
Nate elbowed her. “Get off me.” And Linc laughed, wrapping his arm around her waist. I looked around for Jeremy but didn’t see him.
“Brody not coming?” I asked as Harper and I sat at the table next to the booth, even though I knew the answer. Cole sat in the next booth with his colouring book and pencils, a giant chocolate milkshake, and bowl of fries.
“Doubt it,” Ryder mumbled.
Brody was still cut up over Harper and Nate hooking up behind his back. For months. Sure, I got it. It was understandable, sort of. Finding out his cousin Nate was sleeping with his ex-girlfriend had to hurt. Finding out it had been happening on and off for six months couldn’t have been nice either. But…
“Come on. He needs to let it go. It’s been weeks,” I said. Maybe even longer. He moved out of the apartment he shared with Nate the same day he found out.
“It would be nice if we could all hang out together again,” Bailey mused.
“Look, no one wants to make things right with Brody more than I do.” Nate held up his hands. “I feel like a prick for the way things turned out, but would I change anything?” He looked at Harper, who was biting her lip nervously. “Hell, no. They dated and broke up two years ago.”
“So, what you’re saying is the statute of limitations has passed?” Linc scoffed, swirling the dregs of his coffee in the bottom of his cup.
“Yeah, don’t think heartbreak has a timeframe, big bro.” Indie patted him on the shoulder in sympathy.
“You’re right, but I thought we could get past it by now. He won’t even look at me,” Harper said.
It was true. Every Sunday night, we had dinner at the Kellermans’ house. It was something Nate and Indie’s mum had enforced since everyone graduated uni and moved back to town. But every Sunday, Brody sat at the opposite end of the table, as far from Nate and Harper as possible, if he even showed up at all. Most times, he’d make some excuse to leave early.
“And Audrey, how is she doing?” I asked because I knew she and Brody were close. And when they weren’t at dinner on Sunday nights, it was usually because they were together. I thought Brody used Audrey as an excuse to avoid the family dinners, and because no one wanted to put additional stress on the girl, everyone let it slide.
“She’s getting better,” Nate said. “She doesn’t hide in her room all the time when we visit, but she doesn’t hang around for too long either.”
“Brody is good for her, though. He’s the only one who can get her out of the house most of the time,” Nate added. “Not even Mum has much luck.”
“It’s understandable,” Bailey said. “I don’t know how I’d cope in her situation.”
The poor girl was having a bad time adjusting to her new life, and the only person she truly felt comfortable around was Brody, and Nate sometimes. The Kellermans decided to foster her just before Christmas, unable to bear the thought that she had no one. Her entire family perished in a house fire last year, and she was left orphaned and badly burnt. Nate and Brody had been the ones who rescued her, Nate being a fireman and Brody a paramedic. Brody had spent every day at the hospital with her while she was recovering, so they formed at special bond, a great friendship—something the girl needed.
A heavy weight rested on my shoulder, causing me to jump. Glancing down, I noticed tattooed fingers gripping my shirt, a thumb pressing into the back of my shoulder blade, moving in circles.
I looked up at Jeremy standing behind me and Harper and smiled. “Hey, Casanova.”
Lips pinched between his fingers, Ryder’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Jeremy’s hand still on my shoulder, but he didn’t say anything, and maybe that was because Jeremy was resting his other hand on Harper’s shoulder. But he wasn’t massaging her like he was me.
He smirked. “Neighbour.” I thought he secretly liked me calling him Casanova.
“Hey. I didn’t expect everyone to be here.” Jeremy looked at Ryder.
My brother lifted his shoulder, not caring.
“Sorry. That was my fault.” Bailey raised her hand. “I told Indie we were coming.”
“It’s a public place, so who cares?” Ryder added, defending his girlfriend like always. “What is it you wanted to discuss?”
“The roadhouse.”