Page 21 of Feels Like Home

“I was going to say neck, Ma! Neck!” I fluster.

“Yeah, but you didn’t make the rest of us friendship bracelets.” West looks at Boone. “I mean, I didn’t get one—did you get one?”

Boone shakes his head. “I didn’t get one. Quent?”

“Leave me out of this,” Quent says. He looks up, something like pity behind his eyes, like maybe he knows the truth about how I felt all those years ago but doesn’t have any interest in using it to embarrass me. He’s more mature than my other brothers. Thank God Hudson is at the firehouse today. Two jokers is two too many, and my twin brother never misses a chance to embarrass me.

“Good grief, I was thirteen,” I say. “And I made that to thank him because he stuck up for me with stupid Elise Cline—none of you guys ever did that.”

“Hattie, you didn’t need us sticking up for you,” West says.

“You were the toughest one of any of us,” Noble says.

“She still is,” West says.

“Got that right,” I say. “It wasn’t a big deal. I wanted to say thank you, and I was thirteen so I made a bracelet. If I remember right, you all teased me about it for months.”

“Probably should bring that back up on the daily, huh, fellas?” Boone jokes to the table. “Keep the tradition alive?”

“Yeah, try it, Boone, see how long you’ve got two good legs left.” I smirk at him.

“They made fun of me too,” Noble says. “Every time I wore it.”

My gaze falls to my nearly empty plate. I’ll never admit how it felt to see him proudly wearing that bracelet. The day I walked out onto the porch and practically threw it at him, the teasing started. Noble didn’t care. He asked me to tie it on his wrist, and he said, “Nobody ever gave me anything like this before.”

Then, he saw that I was wearing one that matched. He didn’t say anything else, just smiled at me like we were in on something together.

Maybe my feelings for Noble didn’t form over time. Maybe I loved him right from the start.

And now maybe I don’t.

“Friendship bracelet or not, Hattie had a huge crush on you,” Boone says, laughing.

“Boone! I did not!” I practically shriek. Quent gives me a little head shake that seems to say, “Tone it down.”

I take a breath.

Noble turns to me, eyebrows raised. “This is the first I’m hearing of this . . .”

“I did not have a crush,” I say, calmer this time. “You were like another stupid brother,” I direct the last two words right at Boone’s stupid face.

My parents exchange a look, but I don’t have time to try and decipher it.

“Yeah, but you two weren’t exactly related,” Boone says. “Which is why we made Noble swear he’d never try and date you.”

Beside me, Noble sighs an I don’t want to talk about this sigh.

I frown. “What are you talking about?”

“The pact,” Boone says, like I know what he’s talking about. He looks at me, then at Noble. “You told her, right?”

I glance over in time to see Noble shake his head.

“Even I know about the pact,” Rowe says, nodding at her brothers.

“How do you know?” Boone asks her.

She shrugs. “Finn told me.”