Brooks

  “I could loan you my copy,” I said, just to hear his reaction.”

  “Really? Sure, I’d love to read it,” he said without a hint of sarcasm or irony.

  “You’d read a young adult romance?” I asked, totally taken aback. He shrugged.

  “Why not?”

  Well then.

  ****

  We walked for what seemed like hours, just... talking. I discovered that Brooks Benson was not only smart, but he was kinda funny. I hated how much and how easily he made me laugh. I’d really made a huge mistake when I’d agreed to go to breakfast with him. Because there was no going back from this. We couldn’t go back to not being friendly. It just wasn’t possible.

  We made it to the end of the trail and then turned around and looped back to his truck.

  “We should have brought some water. I didn’t exactly plan this out.”

  “Yeah, well, I should probably get home anyway. I only have a few hours of Mom-free time in the house and I want to take advantage of it.” Mostly to take a shower and read in peace.

  “Yeah, I should get back to the store. Falyn can go a little stir crazy if she’s left alone for long enough. She doesn’t do well when she’s bored.” His sister was several years younger than me and I sort of remembered her from high school. The only Benson girl. She stuck out, especially since she and her twin were joined at the hip.

  We got back to the truck and he took me back to the store and my car.

  “Thanks for breakfast. And for the walk,” I said. Why was saying goodbye always so awkward? In person and on the phone. It always was.

  “Yeah, I’ll see you on Tuesday night?” I nodded. I hated how much I was suddenly looking forward to Tuesday night.

  “Bye, Remington,” he said with a wink before disappearing inside the store, the screen door slamming behind him so hard that I jumped.

  “Bye,” I said to the empty air.

  ****

  I got home and took a shower feeling very... confused. About Brooks, about what we’d discussed and about how I had somehow stopped hating him in only a few hours. Guess I wasn’t as good at holding a grudge as I initially thought. I sighed and slicked the shampoo through my hair, realizing that I needed to redo my purple soon. I’d have to order some bleach and dye. Mom was going to love me using the bathroom for that. Ugh. Why did everything I do have to be a battle with her? It was exhausting.

  I decided that staying in my room for most of the night was my best plan of action, but that made me feel like I was punishing myself, so I ended up telling my parents I was going out and leaving the details vague.

  I had no idea where I was headed, but I ended up down at the wharf and figured I might as well get a drink while I was there, so I headed down to the bar, which was pretty empty, thankfully. I said hello to the bartender (who I knew from school, of course, just like 90 percent of the other people in this stupid town). I really wanted a mojito, but I wasn’t even going to ask if they had mint behind the bar because they definitely didn’t, so I got a rum and Coke instead. A few of the other guys around me gave me some looks, but went back to their drinks once they’d had their fill. I made sure to put off peak Bitch Vibes so none of them talked to me.

  “Remi Wright, haven’t seen you in ages,” a voice said behind me. I turned slowly and there was Levi Brewer. Ugh. I definitely did NOT want to talk to him.

  “Yeah, you too,” I said, sipping my drink and not making eye contact with him.

  “Well, ain’t that a shame. You look good. Really good.” I did not come here to be hit on.

  “Look, I just came here for a drink. And for no one to talk to me. Just because a woman is alone, that doesn’t mean she wants to talk to you.” Was it a little much? Probably. But I didn’t care.

  “Whoa, I was just saying hello. No need to make a thing out of it.” He held his hands up and backed away.

  “Fucker,” I said under my breath.

  “Am I allowed to talk to you?” another voice said behind me. I turned slowly.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” I asked and Brooks pointed to where the bar curved around. He must have been sitting where I couldn’t see him from this vantage point.

  “I guess. As long as you don’t try anything skeezy,” I said.

  “Yeah, Levi isn’t really good with subtle. Or respectful,” Brooks said, taking the empty barstool next to me and waving for another Bud Light.

  “Well, someone should teach him that women aren’t on this planet for his amusement.” Brooks snorted.

  “I’m not sure he would listen. He’s got a pretty thick skull.” Figured.

  “How was the rest of your day?” I asked, since it was probably polite.

  “Fine. Same thing day after day. People around here like their routines.” Wasn’t that the truth? The bartender passed him his beer and he slid a few bucks in the tip jar before handing her a few bills.

  “Yeah, but people are kind of like that everywhere. They don’t like surprises.” Brooks nodded and took a swig from his beer bottle.

  “Do you like surprises?” he asked, turning to face me fully.

  “Depends on the surprise,” I said.

  “But isn’t that the very nature of a surprise? That you don’t know what it is beforehand?”

  I sighed. “I can’t have surprise parameters?”

  He laughed. “You can have whatever you want, Remington.”

  Six

  Brooks

  “Are you stalking me?” she asked on Tuesday night when she came to bake. It was only natural that I’d run into Remi in town. But it actually started getting weird. I’d see her at the grocery store and the bank and our cars would pass when she was on the way to somewhere else.

  I asked if she needed any help and this time she actually said that she did.

  “I’m not trying to. It’s just what happens when you live in a small town.” She didn’t have recipes, just measured stuff out and tossed it in bowls and then it passed to me to mix. But only after she’d showed me how to do it properly. I now knew the difference between whisking and folding.

  “Before long I’ll be your protégé,” I said as she checked the consistency of cupcake batter.

  “Yeah, no. I’m not looking to take on any partners. I need all of the cash I can get so I can get out of here.” I’d assumed as much, but she’d never said it out loud.

  “And where would you go? Back to New York?” She shuddered.

  “No. I’m not sure yet. Away from here. That’s all I know.” I couldn’t help but feel a little twinge when she talked about leaving. Like I was going to miss her. I couldn’t be that attached yet; that was nuts.

  “Where would you go, if you could go anywhere?” she asked as she carefully measured out batter to go in each cupcake paper.

  I opened my mouth to answer and then realized I had no idea. Even though I’d gone away to college, I’d still been in Maine. I’d never lived outside of the state and had rarely gone on trips. The only time I’d been out of the country had been to Canada in high school and I didn’t think that really counted because Maine was basically South Canada.

  “I don’t know,” I answered.

  She looked up. “You don’t know?”

  “No. I guess... I guess I’d have to think about it.” She made a little sound like “huh” and finished with the cupcakes. I carried them to the oven and put them in as she double-checked the temperature and set the timer.

  “Well, you think about it and let me know,” she said, dusting off her hands. I liked these moments with her. She let herself go when she had a spoon in her hand. This was her art, and she didn’t care if her hair was a mess or there was frosting on her face. She also laughed easier here and her shoulders weren’t as tense.

  I realized I was staring at her and quickly looked away.

  “I think I want to live in another country at some point in my life,” she said as she started mixing ingredients for frosting.

  “Yeah, that would be amazi
ng.” I couldn’t imagine how my parents would handle having me so far away. None of their children had really left the nest. Not even Avery. My money was on Grey, but he was still under their roof for the time being.

  “I’d want to go somewhere I didn’t know the language at all. Just throw myself into it.” That was brave.

  I could definitely see her doing that. Remi didn’t impress me as the kind of person who backed away from a challenge.

  “You should do that. If it’s what you want.” She nodded.

  “I have no idea what I want right now. I’m so jealous of those people who’ve had their lives mapped out since they were five and then are able to make it happen. I’ve always been all over the place.” I leaned on the counter.

  “Yeah, well, I think a lot of people get trapped on a path that might not be right for them. Things change. Dreams change. My brother Dasen wanted to do a whole lot of things, but then he had a daughter and now he has to think about her first, but he doesn’t mind. His life changed, but he changed with it.” She thought about that.

  “You’re a lot smarter and more eloquent than I thought.”

  I made a shocked sound and put my hand over my heart. “Ouch. So you thought I was a big dumb idiot?” She smirked.

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  I picked up a spoon still covered in cupcake batter.

  “I swear to God, if you throw that at me, I will never speak to you again.” She was stubborn as hell, so I didn’t doubt it. I’d made up too much ground with her to fuck things up now. So I just slowly licked the spoon. Her eye widened and she stopped messing with the frosting.

  Then she blinked.

  “You’re going to get salmonella and you’re only going to have yourself to blame.” I shrugged.

  “I’ve got an iron stomach. I think I can handle it.”

  We washed the dishes together this time.

  I tried not to think about how many times our hands kept colliding under the soapy water.

  “Stop crowding me,” she said, bumping her hip against my leg.

  I leaned over a little bit and sort of pushed her out of the way.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, am I in your way?” She smacked a soapy hand against my shoulder.

  “You are going to pay for that,” I said, scooping up some froth in my hands.

  “Don’t you dare, Brooks Benson,” she said, putting her hands up to defend herself. Remi darted away from me, but my legs were longer. I caught her and rubbed the soap on the top of her head.

  “You bastard!” But she was laughing as she dived back toward the sink and grabbed the spray nozzle. I was instantly soaked as I tried to wrestle it away from her.

  We both ended up drenched and on the floor, laughing our asses off.

  “I hate you,” she said, pulling at her wet shirt. It was clinging in all the right places and I was trying to be a gentleman and not notice too much.

  “No you don’t. Or at least not anymore?” She sighed and pushed her wet hair out of her eyes.

  “No. Not anymore. And I’m mad at you for it.”

  I laughed.

  “I’m sorry?”

  She turned to look at me, something new sparkling in her eyes.

  “No, you’re not sorry at all.” We locked eyes and I wondered if she was actually going to lean over and kiss me. But then she seemed to come to her senses and glanced away again.

  “We should get cleaned up and go home. My mom is going to wonder what the hell happened to me. Lucky I keep a change of clothes in my trunk for just this kind of emergency.” She grinned at me and used the lip of the sink to pull herself up. I got up too and started mopping up the water and soap we’d gotten everywhere while she went and changed.

  “Well, I guess I’ll see you sooner rather than later,” she said, combing her hair with her fingers and then pulling it back in a bun.

  “Bye, Remington,” I said. I kind of loved her name. It was unique. Like her.

  “Bye, Brooks,” she said, pushing herself away from the counter and slowly walking out.

  I let out a long breath. What was this girl doing to me?

  ****

  Dasen came by the store the next day with Pearl. It was his day to watch her and he had a huge grin on his face when he brought her in.

  “Book! Book!” she chanted, holding her hands out.

  “She only likes you better because you always give her things,” Dasen said, passing her over. She looked more like her mother than Dasen, with her blonde ringlets and bright green eyes. She was going to be a stunner when she was older. But she had Dasen’s chin and when she smiled she looked just like him.

  “Hey, sweet girl,” I said, bouncing her up and down as she squealed.

  “What are you doing today?” I asked Dasen.

  “Taking her to the beach. I want her to be able to swim before she turns three.” Pearl placed a sloppy kiss on my cheek and then cackled in my ear.

  “You little flirt,” I said, tickling her belly until she screeched.

  “I’m going to court in a few weeks to see if we can work out a better custody agreement.” He gave me a grim smile. Dasen and Pearl’s mom, Amber, hadn’t been on the best of terms even before Pearl was born. But now that Amber had something Dasen wanted, she liked to use Pearl as a bargaining chip. He wanted to get full custody, but the chances of that happening weren’t good, so he just kept trying to get more time. He worked odd hours, so there were often days when he was free to watch her when Amber was working, but she didn’t want to let him have Pearl. It was a shitty situation and I just felt so bad for little Pearl, stuck in the middle.

  “You gonna go swimming with Daddy?” I asked her and she nodded very seriously before holding my face with her two little chubby hands.

  I gave her a kiss and she giggled before I passed her back to Dasen.

  “Well, if you need anything, let me know.” He nodded as he set Pearl on his shoulders and she gripped onto his baseball cap.

  “Thanks. I just wish we could settle this for her sake, but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen anytime soon.” Pearl waved goodbye and blew me kisses as they left. I wished I could go with them, but I had to stay at the store. It had become my entire life.

  And then there was Remi. She blew in like a tornado and shook everything up. I looked forward to seeing her everywhere and had even developed a double-take reflex when I saw the color purple because it might be her hair. It was becoming a real problem.

  Two weeks after she started baking her stuff at the store, she texted me and asked if she could come in and use the sink on a non-baking night. I had no idea what she needed it for, but I agreed. Honestly, if she asked me to reach into my body and rip out my kidney, I would have done it before she could say “please.”

  She came in just as I was getting ready to close, carrying a bag full of stuff.

  “Okay, you have to tell me what you’re doing,” I asked as I followed her back to the sink.

  “Dying my hair,” she said, as if that was a totally normal thing she did here all the time. I watched as she set out a bunch of things and then slipped on a pair of rubber gloves. I’d noticed that her regular brown was starting to show at the top of her head and the purple color wasn’t as vibrant, but I didn’t know she had to go through this whole process to fix it.

  “Do you need a hand?” She looked at all the bottles and tools and then up at me.

  “Kind of, yeah.” She tossed me a set of gloves and then explained that in order to get the color to stick, she had bleach out her roots and then reapply the color.

  “Sounds like a lot of work,” I said.

  “It is.” She put half of her hair up and told me how to brush on the bleach. I was scared I was going to do it wrong, but she told me she’d be fine.

  “But totally worth it, right?” I said as I started to brush on the bleach.

  “Exactly.”

  I did the back of her head and then moved around to the front.

  “Is it burnin
g?” I asked. The smell was making my eyes water a little so I had no idea what it was doing on her scalp.

  “Little bit. It’s more itchy. Nothing I can’t handle. I do this all the time.” I finished the first layer and afterward, the top, and then she set a timer. The kitchen reeked from the bleach, but I wasn’t complaining as she mixed up the purple dye in a little bowl with another brush.

  “I could do your hair,” she said, looking up at me.

  “Probably not purple. That would look weird. Like we were a couple.” She looked down into the bowl.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. But we could do it blue or silver or green or something.” I wasn’t sure about that. I’d never dyed my hair before. Never had the urge.

  But, once again, I’d let Remi do whatever she wanted to me. Hell, she could do it pink and yellow if she wanted and I’d tell her I loved it.

  “Maybe we could do like, one streak,” I said and she raised her eyebrows.

  “You’d really let me do that?” I nodded.

  “Yeah. I trust you.”

  She opened her mouth and then shut it.

  I cleared up some of the dying supplies and threw them in the trash as we waited for the bleach to do its thing.

  “We might have to do that,” she said and the timer dinged. I helped her over to the sink and rinsed out the bleach then washed her hair. She closed her eyes as I worked the shampoo into her scalp.

  “That feels really good,” she said with a sigh.

  I massaged a little more and then rinsed the rest of the shampoo out. She dried it with a hairdryer she’d brought and then it was time for the dye. Her roots were nearly white and it was strange to see her with such light hair.

  “Stop looking at my head, I don’t like it.”

  “Sorry, I’m trying to picture you as a blonde. It’s weird.” She elbowed me in the stomach.

  “I was blonde for a hot second and then I realized it didn’t work for me so I dyed it back.”