Page 130 of The Path to Loving Him
She shrugs. “Yeah, random things. It’s not a big deal.”
“You acted like you didn’t know what was going on with him,” I say.
“Well, we don’t talk about baseball or anything like that. It’s not a big deal.”
“Have you texted him recently?” I ask, feeling really weird about all of this.
“Yeah, I told him that I was visiting you. He asked me to take pictures and send them over, so I did.”
“What?” I nearly shout, and when I see that I’m being loud, I lean in and ask, “What kind of pictures did you take?”
“Well, not of the gross bruises, because yikes.” She wipes her mouth. “Of the apartment, of the inside of your fridge to prove that you have food. I took one of your broken shower, but then told him that you’re showering at the hunky neighbor’s house, so I took a picture of the house as well.”
“Oh my God, Bower.” I hold out my hand. “Let me see your phone.”
“Ooof, can’t do that, sorry. There’s personal stuff in there.”
“What do you mean, personal stuff?” I ask, my eyebrows raised. “Are you . . . are you sending dirty texts to my brother?”
“Wow. That’s where your mind goes? I mean personal stuff from him about you that I’m supposed to keep confidential, you know, just that he worries and all that crap. I don’t want to break that confidence. Therefore, you’re not allowed to see my phone. Sorry.”
I lean back in my chair. “I can’t believe you talk to Bennett.”
“Oh yeah, we’ve been talking for a long time. I’ll have to mention that I’m wishing him luck on the expansion thing. He’ll probably think I lost my mind since we never chat about baseball, but it might be nice to throw in some encouragement. Oh, I also sent him Nathan’s picture. He was very pleased to see he wasn’t doing well. I think his exact words were ‘I hope Nathan finds hell soon.’ I chuckled because I’ve never seen that side of Bennett before.”
She takes another bite of her burger as I try to filter through this information. “Does he tell you things he doesn’t tell me? Like is he dating anyone? Does he need more money? Is he hungry?”
“Nothing like that.” Bower shakes her head. “I asked him recently about his love life because, you know, the romance novels have me invested in everyone’s love life now, and he told me that he’s not interested in anyone. I then probed and asked if he was, would he make a move. He said he would.”
“He doesn’t talk to me about that.”
“Do you ask him?” Bower picks up her iced tea. “Or do you just talk to him about baseball?”
“I talk about his life.”
“Well, maybe you don’t ask about his love life because you don’t want him asking about yours.”
“Maybe,” I say, looking out toward the busy restaurant. “So he’s not interested in anyone?”
“Nope, he did say he had a crush, but he wasn’t sure it would ever be anything, so he wasn’t going to invest time in it.”
“A crush?” I ask, my heart pumping faster. “Why doesn’t he think it would be anything?”
Bower shrugs. “He didn’t get into it. But I told him if he set his mind to it, he could make it happen. Gave him the old Gabby advice, pulled it straight from the book.”
“Yeah, that is advice I’d give him.” I gingerly cross one leg over the other as I pop a fry into my mouth. “Maybe I should talk to him more about his personal life.”
“No, he’d know I talked to you about it, and I don’t want him to lose trust in me. Remain cool.”
“You realize he’s my brother, right? I can talk to him about anything that I want.”
“Yup,” Bower says with a smile. “But we’re friends, and I refuse to break that confidence.”
“Drive safe and let me know when you get back home,” I say to Bower as she pulls out of the driveway with her head hanging out the window.
“I will. Love you!”
“Love you,” I call out and watch her pull away, her taillights lighting up the barely lit street.
