Page 56 of It’s All in How You Fall
“Then it was worth it.” She winks at him, and Dad sneaks a grin as he disappears back into the garage to get going. Olga and I backpedal past Nat’s bumper, giving Dad the space not to run us over.
As I wait with her, Olga pushes a flyaway behind my ear. Her hand lingers and cradles my chin. “Two days in a row seeing you… I miss seeing you every day, Caro. Come by the gym sometime. I can’t let your dad have me all to himself.”
My heart stumbles in a much different way than it did minutes ago. Wehaveseen each other more than just the past two days… but it’s been awkward, with my walls up and history a river between us. I don’t know why I didn’t cross the divide sooner—better. It feels so nice to be in Olga’s orbit again.
I’m incapable of words, tears pressing hot against my eyes, and so I just hug her.
24
I back into the house with a wave more to Olga than to Dad asthey perform almost the same three-point turn Alex did moments earlier. Olga doesn’t live far—she shares a townhouse with Elena on the other side of Balan’s. It’s a newer place than ours, and more of a crash pad. Olga spends all her time at the gym. She doesn’t even own a TV, so hosting movie night is sort of out of the question.
“How was your night with Alex?”
I spin around, and there’s my brother, standing in the hall, smirk cartoonishly drawn on his face—he doesn’t want me to miss it. His arms are crossed, tan forearms bulging at me.
Nat’s eyes narrow as I fumble to dislodge the thing in my throat.
“Alex? I was at Peregrine’s.” I fiddle with the little zipper cover of the racket. And really hope in the low light he can’t see my tears because that’ll make this one hundred percent worse. “Artemis gave me this racket too. Isn’t it nice?”
Nat guffaws, baring his teeth. There’s something mean in his eyes. “Don’t give me that. Artemis drives a Toyota Corolla. Even with a racing package—which she doesnothave—it would never sound like that.” He steals the racket from my hand and I let him. “Plus I saw this exact racket in Alex’s trunk when he grabbed an extra basketball the other day.” He turns it over, and there, in Sharpie at the bottom of the handle, are the initials LJM. A smoking gun in tidy teenage girl strokes. “Lily Jane Mack. Also known as Alex’s half sister.”
“Sister.Don’t be a prick. Use what they prefer. Even when Alex and LJ aren’t around.”
His lips twist further. “How did Peregrine’s sister get Alex’s sister’s racket?”
“They’re friends.” That is not a lie. Artemis was on cheer squad with Lily Jane.
But Nat was on that particular squad too. “They wereteammates. Not friends. And a friend doesn’t give away another friend’s stuff without asking.”
I—shit.
I’m caught, and Nat knows it. His smirk slides into a true smile as he does the mental gymnastics for me. “Are you going to tell me that Lily Jane was over at Peregrine’s too? And then Alex picked her up, even though she’s got her own car, and drove you back because it was stupid of Artemis to take you, and then Lily Jane gave you her racket out of the back of her brother’s car?” He pokes me in the stomach with the racket and I steal it back. “So I’ll ask again. How was your night with Alex?”
“It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like, then?” Nat asks, challenging my pushback. “You better tell me or I’m going to startassumingthings.”
My lips press tightly against my teeth.
“Things… like that you were with him for the past four hours.”
Four hours?Itwasfour hours. Shit.
“That you had dinner together, because literally everyone, including you, leaves Bruno’s smelling like they could kill a vampire.” Nat tips his head to the side, watching me like prey. “Thatafter dinnerhe gave you a present literally only he could give you unless Lily Jane was hiding in his trunk the whole time—which I highly doubt because she left for a cheer clinic in St. Louis this morning.”
Hell. Of course she did. And of course he’d know.
I can’t get past Nat and his boulder shoulders in this narrow hallway. And I can’t back up unless I attempt to retreat from the house, which is definitely an option because I’m wearing running shoes and Nat is barefoot… but then also, why do I want to lie so badly? Why have I lied already? And so easily.
The proof’s cradled in my arms, and it’s not like Alex isn’t a text away on the phone in Nat’s pocket.
It’s just… neither of us have said a thing to Nat. And I like it that way.
So much of Alex is Nat’s and this is my first piece of it.
I need to keep my sliver of Alex.
“Remember how you demanded I find a new sport? Well, Alex offered to help me find one. Volleyball, tennis, golf, running—and I guess basketball if you count that one game of horse. But I like tennis the best, and so… racket.”
