Noah smirks at Elliot. “Seems El has himself a bit of a mystery woman.”
I reach over and snatch the phone away from Elliot. “What the fuck, Jord,” he sputters, glancing between the three of us.
“Mystery woman?” I ask.
He rolls his eyes, grabbing the phone back from me. “They’re being dramatic. It’s not a mystery woman.”
“Uh, yeah it is,” Cooper says, leaning back in his barstool. “Seems Elliot over there met a woman on a plane last week and fell, like, instantly in love with her or something. But then when they landed in Boston, she disappeared and left him with nothing but her first name. He’s been glued to his phone trying to find her ever since.”
“I have not,” Elliot mutters, putting his phone face down on the island and then immediately picking it back up.
Cooper snatches it away and glances at the screen. “Is that why you’re looking at property records for every property owner named Amelia in the greater Boston area?”
Elliot sighs, scrubbing a hand down his face. “I have no idea what’s wrong with me. We sat next to each other for a grand total of, like, six hours, and now it’s like I can’t get her out of my head.”
Noah leans forward and props his chin in his hand. “It’s like something out of a romance novel. I dig it, El. It’s romantic as fuck and I hope you find her.”
Cooper narrows his eyes at Noah. “This is the second time you’ve brought up romance novels. Are you sure you’re not reading them on the sly?”
“I’m not,” Noah says quickly. “But even if I was, there’s nothing wrong with men reading romance, okay? People think they’re less than because it’s art created by women for women, but that’s a hot load of bullshit. And anyway, we were talking about Elliot, not me.”
Elliot shrugs, tossing me his phone. “Hide this from me, okay? I think I’m starting to lose my mind. There was just…something about this girl. I’ve never felt this way before. I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”
I pocket his phone just as Jo walks in with my parents. The room immediately brightens with her in it, and my stomach swoops, my heart pounding as I watch them. Her head is bent close to my mom’s, ponytail swinging and green eyes sparkling as they chatter about something. Jo’s mouth is tipped up in a grin, and my mom grins back, linking her arm through Jo’s as my dad watches them both with a fond smile on his face.
The love that washes through me is sudden and strong and utterly undeniable. The words may still be getting stuck somewhere between my heart and my lips, but it doesn’t make the feeling any less real. I love Jo, I know it with more certainty than I have ever known anything in my life.
Mine.
“You don’t have to explain it,” I murmur to Elliot, my eyes still locked on Jo. “Some things just are.”
“Does she know?” Elliot asks, his words quiet enough only for me to hear. Not that Noah and Cooper would hear anything while they argue about the best way to locate someone with only a first name and no other identifying details.
“Know what?”
“That you love her.”
My instinct is to deny it, but then Jo’s gaze meets mine, and she beams at me before turning back to my mom.
“Not yet. The words are…a little hard for me to say.”
Elliot lays a hand on my shoulder, squeezing. “You’ll get there. She’s amazing.”
“She is,” I say quietly. “I don’t know what happens next, or what happens at the end of the summer, but I don’t want to let her go. I can’t let her go. She’s the best part of my life. The best everything. She’s just…I didn’t think I would get to have this again. Sometimes it’s scary, but then it’s not because it’s her and she makes everything better.”
“I like seeing you happy. I missed my brother.” He winces, giving me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry; that’s a shit thing to say.”
I shake my head. “It’s not. I’ve been a shit brother for the past two years.” I hold my hand up when he starts to protest. “Let me just say this, okay?” He nods. “I didn’t know how to be any other way. I don’t think I could have been any other way. I couldn’t have done this differently even if I had wanted to, but I’ll never stop being grateful for the way you guys showed up for me the past two years, even when I couldn’t show up for you, or even myself some days.”
Elliot’s eyes go soft and fill with emotion. “We’re brothers, Jord. Family. And family sticks, always and no matter what.”
“He’s right, Jord.” Cooper folds his arms across the island. “Now we just have to figure out a way to get you back to Boston permanently. New York sucks.”
“Totally sucks,” Noah says, tuning back into the conversation. “The four musketeers really need to be back together again. We owe it to Boston.”
I can’t deny the thrill that rushes through me at the idea of living back here, in my favorite city, with my brothers. But even if quitting my job in New York and finding one in Boston was a possibility, my brain rebels at the idea of being farther away from Jo. Pittsburgh to New York is far. Pittsburgh to Boston is forever. And I can’t shake the sense that I could be happy anywhere, as long as I’m with her.
Something to consider when I’m not in a room full of my family.
