24. Preston
PRESTON
I can’t believe it.
It’s Monday morning, and I’m actually looking forward to going to school.
Texting Emma over the weekend wasn’t enough. It didn’t matter how many times she said she was fine and getting rest or whatever. I need to see her for myself. I need to know.
This was definitely one of those times I regretted sticking to my word. All I wanted was to go to her house and take care of her, whatever it meant. No matter what it took.
Instead, I killed time volunteering, which is almost funny when I look back on it. I went from dreading the idea of spending time at the hospital to being glad I had something to do to keep me occupied.
It’s like I’m addicted to her. She fills my thoughts, my dreams, every minute of every day.
Wondering what she’s doing, how she’s feeling, if she’s tired or sick or scared of what the future is going to look like because everything is uncertain.
What would it be like, feeling something hanging over me all the time the way she must feel?
All those bills sitting by the front door, a symbol of her illness and our broken system.
If she turns me into some kind of crusader, I might just laugh myself to death. Since when do I give a shit?
Since now. Since her.
So maybe I drive a little faster than I need to because I’m in a hurry to get to campus.
Anticipation is pumping through my veins, making my heart race.
I barely recognize myself by the time I park and almost jump out of the truck, ready to search every inch of campus if I have to.
I won’t be satisfied until I see her. I know Easton feels the same way.
One of those twin things. We don’t have to say a word to understand what the other one is thinking.
And that’s why I know he’s just as confused as I am when a head full of blonde curls comes bobbing our way.
“There you are. Assholes.” There’s the face I’ve been hoping to see, the one I was living for all weekend long.
She’s flushed and snarling, and her eyes burn as they bounce back-and-forth between us.
“Why did you have to do it? Why? When is it going to be enough?”
“What are you talking about?” Easton looks at me, and all I can do is shrug.
“You know damn well what I’m talking about.” Her eyes fill with tears and her chin trembles, and it damn near takes my legs out from under me. She is so hurt, and I don’t know why.
Until she blurts it out. “My pearls. I opened my jewelry box this morning, and they were gone. It’s not bad enough you broke the necklace? You had to steal the pearls, too? When are you going to stop?” The whimper she releases sends a sick shiver down my spine.
“Would you let us?—”
“What?” she snaps, cutting Easton off. “Are you going to give me all the reasons why you had to do it? Why I deserve it? Just when I think we’re past all that shit, you go and pull something like this!”
We’re going to have an audience pretty soon. As it is, a handful of people glance our way, some of them smirking as they observe Emma working herself up. Pretty soon they’re going to stop to watch. I don’t feel like being anybody else’s entertainment today.
“We were going to surprise you.” This isn’t how we wanted to do the big reveal or whatever, but she’s kind of forcing my hand. “It’s supposed to be a present.”
Her chest is heaving as she glares up at me. I can almost hear her teeth grinding. “A present?” she grits out.
Fuck it. “Yeah, this isn’t the way we wanted to tell you, but it’s too late to do anything about that now. You can log in later and get whatever assignments you missed, right?”
Did she mean to take a step back? Her forehead crinkles before she asks, “What? Why would you ask that?”
“Because there is an errand we were going to run later, but if you come with us, we’ll run it now.
” The necklace was supposed to be ready for pick up today, anyway.
We don’t need to wait until later. And now that she’s losing her shit, I’m kind of in a hurry to see her figure out how wrong she is.
I don’t want to wait another minute longer than I have to.
“So what? You’re just going to skip class to run an errand?” Her mouth pulls downward at the corners.
“Yeah. And I think you’re going to be happy about it.” I mean, I hope she is. This whole thing would be a waste if she’s not happy with what we did.
She’s still so untrusting. Eyeing us warily, though at least it doesn’t seem like she’s on the verge of tears anymore. “Do I even have a choice?”
“I promise. Everything will make sense once we get there.” The madder she gets, the more I can’t wait to show her what we did. Maybe now she won’t immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion.
I don’t care that we’re missing class. I mean, not that I would’ve cared all that much in the first place, but now there’s nothing I would rather do than take her to the jewelers.
She digs her feet in a little at first, because of course she has to do that.
Making it harder than it has to be to pull her toward the truck. Like we’re kidnapping her or some shit.
She doesn’t drop the attitude until I park across the street from the store, but she’s still doubtful. “What are we doing here?” Her teeth scrape her lip as she looks around before climbing down onto the sidewalk.
“Come and see.” I’m way too excited as I take her by the hand and lead her across the street. My heart’s pounding, and my reflection in the big front window of the jewelers reveals a huge smile. Borderline cheesy.
But once she puts it together when the store’s owner opens a velvet box to reveal her new necklace, I don’t feel so cheesy. “Oh, my god,” she whispers with her hands crossed over her chest. “Am I dreaming?”
Easton’s smile is as wide as mine. “We told you, didn’t we? It was supposed to be a surprise.”
“But…” Her eyelashes are fluttering when she looks up from the necklace. “I didn’t find all of them. There are too many on the strand.”
“We asked for matching pearls to be added.” Since she hasn’t taken the necklace out of the box, I do it for her, then unclasp it. “Turn around.”
“This must’ve cost you so much,” she murmurs, but at least she does as I asked so I can clasp the necklace at the back of her neck. A small miracle. “Too much.”
“There’s no such thing as too much.” Besides, it wasn’t all that much. Nothing compared to the hospital bill burned into my memory.
Easton’s facing her, and he’s smiling before he leans in to kiss her forehead. “This is our way of saying we want to make things right. Whatever it takes.”
She looks up at him. She turns and looks up at me. Her eyes swim with tears. “I don’t know what to say.”
I do. “Fuck, going to school today. I’m in too good of a mood, and it’s too nice out.”
“You think we should only have class when it’s gross outside?” Emma rolls her eyes—but also touches a hand to the necklace resting against her skin. Like she needs to remind herself it’s there.
“Now that you mention it, I think that’s a good idea.
We should talk to Carter about it, have him bring it up with his dad.
” Easton is riding just as high as I am.
We’re both grinning like idiots as we leave the shop.
Instead of going back to the truck, we take our time walking down the sidewalk.
Emma seems content to go along with us. There’s no arguing, no questions.
She even lets herself relax enough to window shop a little.
I make a note in my head of the things she seems to like the most—simple things, nothing too flashy, but that is not a surprise. She’s not a flashy sort of person.
“I’m feeling good today,” she insists when Easton asks if she’s got the energy to walk around like this. “I always feel the best a couple of days before I go in for a treatment. Then the whole cycle repeats itself.”
I wish there was something I could do about that, but I’m not a miracle worker.
“How about getting something to eat?” I ask once we approach a diner on the corner.
Somebody opens the door to go in and the aroma of coffee and bacon makes my stomach twist. I never did eat breakfast this morning, did I?
I was in too much of a hurry to get to school and see her.
“Sure.” She’s in a good mood, too. Riding high like we are.
She doesn’t want the feeling to end—I know that without her having to say it, because it’s exactly the way I feel.
I want to live in this feeling as long as I can, while Easton looks damn near blissed out as he holds the door open for Emma to walk in.
“Order whatever you want,” he announces when we sit in a booth, the two of us across from her.
I would rather sit next to her, but then I know he would too, and there’s not enough space for the three of us on one side.
It kind of makes me wonder where this is going and how we would navigate an arrangement or whatever we would finally come up with.
Three of us. Because the alternative is neither of us being with her, or one of us killing the other.
Otherwise, I don’t see either of us backing down willingly and not losing our minds, seeing her with our twin.
“C’mon. You already did so much for me.” Again, she touches the necklace, and the same feeling of deep warmth and satisfaction fills me.
She’s so happy, and we made it possible.
Okay, we also fucked things up in the first place, but we made it right.
That’s something I can’t remember us ever bothering to do in the past. If somebody had a problem with something we did, that was their problem, not ours.
So much has changed without me really noticing.
“I think we can handle brunch at the diner,” I decide. She clicks her tongue and shakes her head, but she’s happy, and that’s all that matters. It almost seems unfair, really. But it’s so easy to make her happy.