“There’ll never be another you.”
“There doesn’t have to be. There just has to be an alternative.”
As quickly as it had arrived, the daydream left, and I tried like hell to pull enough oxygen into my body, but when my hand moved across the bedsheet, it brushed against my phone, drawing my attention to it.
Within one breath and the next, I’d hit Nina’s name and pressed the phone to my ear.
“Henry?” she answered as though panicked, because I never phoned Nina. Not without Andy present. Not without warning.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay? Is Andy?”
“Hey.” I cleared my throat. “Yeah. We’re fine. He’s fine. I’m… fine.”
“Okay.” I could hear the confusion in her voice. Nina had tried to love me like her own over the years, and even though I’d always been so grateful for her home, for her respect, for her concern and her attention, I’d also never wanted her to feel as though she had to give it all to me. “It’s good to hear your voice. Are you boys having a good time?”
We’d always be boys to her. Never men.
I ran my hand over my eyes, almost wishing I hadn’t called. “I’ve messed up, Nina.”
Her pause lingered for only a moment before she said, “What do you need me to do?”
It was that simple for her. No question of how or why I’d made the mistakes I’d made. No question of who I was as aperson, only her concern for me and what she could do to help, like always.
“Nothing,” I answered too quickly, then sighed. “Actually. I don’t know… listen to me talk this out? Would that be okay?”
“It would be an honour, Henry. Talk to me.”
“Andy’s mad.”
She huffed out a small laugh. “Tell me something I don’t know. He’s always mad, that entitled boy of mine.”
“No, I mean he’s mad at me this time.”
She paused again. “Because of Lillie? Still?”
“Always,” I breathed out before I let myself fall back onto my bed to stare up at the ceiling again. “But I haven’t helped things on this holiday.”
“You’ve met someone out there,” she said, and I could have sworn I heard a smile in her voice.
“Yeah.” I swallowed down more shame. Shame I didn’t really feel, because how the fuck could I regret Phoebe now? Tomorrow? Ever? Even the thought of her body beneath mine, the smile she wore as she looked up at me, that fucking coconut lotion she poured all over herself… it all had my heart beating in a fashion it had never done before meeting her. “I’ve met someone.”
Nina’s sigh came heavily down the phone. “Finally! Henry, I’m so happy for you.”
Happy?
What the hell did that mean?
How could she be happy when I’d broken her only daughter’s heart?
“You like her, huh?” she went on when I said nothing. “Wait. Don’t answer that unless you really want to. I know how private you like to keep everything. I never want you to feel like you have to tell me?—”
“I like her, yeah. Probably too much.”
“Wonderful.” There was that grin I could hear in her voice again. “And now Andy is making it difficult?”
“Pretty sure he hates me at this point.”
“He could never. He’s only trying to do what he thinks a brother should do, don’t you see?”
