Chapter 3

My phone buzzed. A company-wide email.

HR was asking if any employees would volunteer for a transfer to the Denver office. Three years.

I replied, filled out my information, and hit send.

A ticket out.

The first thing I did when I got back to the room was keep packing.

I'd barely unzipped my suitcase when the door was pushed open again.

My brother stood in the doorway, eyes on my open case.

"What are you doing?"

Reid came in behind him. The softness from earlier was gone, draining out of his face bit by bit.

"Where are you going?"

I folded a shirt into the case.

"Home."

Sadie hovered at the back, her voice small.

"Mouse… is this because of me?"

My fingers paused.

She always had this talent. The second she opened her mouth, every pair of eyes in the room landed on me.

Sure enough, Reid looked at me, waiting for me to answer her.

I huffed a laugh.

"You're overthinking it."

My brother stepped forward and plucked my passport right out of my open carry-on.

"I'm holding onto this. You're not flying anywhere alone."

I stared at him.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm your brother." His voice dropped. "Mom and Dad would lose it if I let you fly home solo while you're pissed off like this."

Trevor was the oldest. He'd been raised to think he always knew best.

And I'd been raised to let him.

Reid sighed and came over to touch my hair.

"Come on, babe. Don't make this a whole thing. We booked a sunset booze cruise for tonight — you're always saying we never take you anywhere. You've got a seat this time."

I looked at my passport in my brother's hand.

My passport, my ID, and the last scrap of leverage I had to leave — all in his grip.

My brother tapped it against his palm.

"Enough. You'll get it back tomorrow. We already paid for tonight. No point wasting the money, right?"

I bit down hard, but before I could speak, Reid had already looped an arm around my shoulders and was steering me out the door.

On the yacht, Reid pulled out my chair at the window seat and murmured:

"There you go, princess."

I sat. My brother started ordering. He asked the server about peanuts in every single dish, seriously, carefully.

I lowered my head. Pathetically, my heart softened.

When the yacht reached open water, the DJ cut the music and the host grabbed a mic for the couples game.

He swung by our table, grinning. "Couple?"

I was about to answer — but Sadie had already looped her arm through Reid's and stood up, bright and loud.

"I'll go! I'm so good at these!"

Reid glanced at me on reflex.

I looked right back.

All he had to say was "Sutton's my girlfriend," and the whole ridiculous show would stop.

But what came out of his mouth was: "Don't be mad. If I win, you get the prize."

Three couples went up. The challenge: pick up your partner and do squats.

The moment Reid's hands landed on Sadie's waist, she doubled over laughing.

"Reid! Not the ticklish spot!"

Reid was laughing too.

He held her in his arms and did squat after squat, like first place actually mattered to him.

The whole deck was clapping. My brother and Caleb were the loudest in the room.

Reid lived at the gym. Of course he won.

Sadie came skipping back with the prize — a pair of matching friendship bracelets available only on the cruise.

She slipped one onto her own wrist and held the other out to me.

"Here, Mouse — bestie set!"

I didn't move.

Her hand hung awkwardly in the air. The silence stretched.

Reid took it from her and slipped it on his own wrist.

"I'll hold onto it for her."

My brother rubbed his temples.

"Sutton. It's just a bracelet."

Right.

Just a bracelet.

Just a snorkel spot.

Just a seat.

Just a first-aid kit.

Just, just, just. Always just.

But all those justs piled up until I could barely breathe.