26. Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
I kissed Brooks tonight
AMAYA
What in the world makes you think a text is an acceptable form of communication for that statement??
LANA
Wait! Mateo and I are driving home from a friend’s house. Give me 5 min and I’ll be able to video call
AMAYA
I might call without you . . .
LANA
NO
Don’t you dare Amaya
Teegs don’t you talk to her without me
I sit on my bed, quietly laughing at their exchange.
LANA
Mateo says I can call now and he’ll pretend not to listen but I told him no
Amaya’s video call comes through, and I laugh harder as I answer. “ Lana’s gonna kill you.”
She waves me off as Lana’s face pops onto the screen. “Beef! This is unacceptable,” Lana whines. “I just need a couple of minutes!”
“What? I thought we could spend those minutes rehashing the time you called to tell us all about your first kiss with Mateo,” Amaya teases. Now my laughter fully erupts.
“Oh, yes. Please do recount that story,” Mateo says in the background of Lana’s video. I can hear the giant grin in his voice.
Even though Lana’s face is dark in the dim light of the car, I can still see the blush forming on her cheeks.
“You were there. You don’t need the playback of that story,” Lana huffs.
“Yeah, but I don’t know the juicy version as heard by the Beefs,” his voice teases. Lana jerks suddenly, and I deduce that Mateo must have pinched her side.
“Let’s just say it was crystal clear that Lana was very into you,” I say loudly, grinning.
“Which was news to no one,” Amaya adds.
“What? It was an epic kiss!” Lana exclaims. Then she smirks, looking away from the camera. “The first of many epic kisses.” She leans fully out of the screen now, no doubt to kiss Mateo.
Amaya groans. Lana wags her finger at the camera. “You asked for it, Beef. You’re the one who started this.”
“She’s got ya there, Amaya,” Mateo says. “Lucky for you, we just parked, so I’ll pretend to get out of the car, but really, I’ll secretly sit here eavesdropping.” I see Lana playfully punch her fist in Mateo’s direction, then hear his deep laugh. His face leans into the screen as he says, “I’ll leave you all to your juicy stories.” After placing a quick kiss on Lana’s temple, his face exits the view, and a car door shuts.
“All right, dish,” Lana demands.
I give them the play-by-play of our fun snow day, capped off by our very romantic dance and kiss in the snow. I’m fully aware that my eyes are starry and my lips permanently frozen in a dreamy smile as I share the story.
“You really like Brooks, don’t you,” Amaya says, more as a statement than a question.
“I . . . I think I more than like him,” I admit, chewing on my lip.
Amaya’s eyebrow quirks. “Already? Two months ago, you were driving to KC to distract yourself from the pressure of deciding whether to even give Brooks another chance. And now you’re already thinking the ‘L’ word?”
Lana’s face is more sympathetic. “Maybe the piece of you that loved Brooks so long ago never really died. Maybe that’s why the love has been quick to come alive—because it was never quite gone in the first place?”
I nod, appreciative that she seems to understand. “I know it sounds a little crazy. And I haven’t said it to him. That might be a lot crazy. But my heart just . . . knows. Because it’s Brooks. The same, yet better. Like who we were and who we would become were always meant to be. The love of our lives.”
Lana looks teary, and although Amaya’s eyes still look slightly skeptical, she’s smiling.
“I’m so happy for you, Beef,” Lana says. “I mean, of course I still want you to be careful with your heart. But my gut has a good feeling about this. I’m glad we got to meet Brooks at your birthday party. I wish we could spend more time with him. When I needed help processing my feelings, it was really helpful that you both knew Mateo from Arrow and had seen us together.”
“Long distance friendship sucks,” I affirm. “But I’m grateful to still have you both in my life.”
“Seriously,” Amaya chimes in. “Just think—you may never have reconnected with him if we hadn’t pushed you to find some peers at church. Let me know whether to collect the finder’s fee from you or Brooks,” she finishes with a wink.
I giggle. “I think we’d both gladly chip in.”
“Sooo, anything new in your life, Teegan?” Sofia asks the question with so much sparkle in her eyes, you’d think she had diamonds in her irises. The rest of the girls turn to me with eager, knowing looks .
We’re sitting in my living room after our Bible study, eating brownies and sipping decaf coffee. I narrow my eyes and point my finger around the circle. “You’ve been scheming together, haven’t you?”
Sofia huffs and tosses her hair. “Come on. There’s no way you don’t like Mr. Murphy. You two made all sorts of googly-eyes at each other when you visited The Hangout. And you’ve been acting extra cheerful lately. We want the tea.” She raises her mug at me, but it’s filled with coffee, detracting from the punchline.
I mime zipping my lips, earning a groaned “Teegaaan!” from Sofia. The other girls immediately chime in with pestering remarks.
“Fine, fine. I can confirm that Brooks and I have been officially dating for several weeks now.” I say it with an exaggerated sigh, but I can’t help the enormous smile that spreads across my lips.
“I knew it!” Sofia yells triumphantly. “I’m telling you—I’m a good luck charm for love. Both of my life mentors wound up finding the guy of their dreams. First Lana, now you. I should start charging for my services.”
My well-aimed throw pillow smacks Sofia across the face, only causing a new uproar of laughter.
“Show us pictures! Sofia met him, but not all of us have!” one of the girls exclaims. I carefully select a few photos to show them, which they appropriately fawn over. I mean, let’s face it—Brooks is a very good-looking guy.
They’re greedy for more, so I decide to show them the snow dancing video we took, which they all immediately recognize from its viral rounds on social media.
“Oh, you two are the perfect social media couple,” Sofia remarks. “He totally matches your energy for the camera, which isn’t the case with every guy.” Her observation kicks off a long, giggling conversation about which guys from Arrow would engage in trending videos and which ones would never.
As they chatter, Sofia’s remark has my mind racing with a growing idea.