gather her against me. Is she regretting this already?
“Nova?”
“I missed you,” she says. “I missed you and I hated missing you. You make me weak.”
I hold her tightly against my chest. “I missed you, too. And I was weak.”
My shoulder grows wet and I hate I ever caused her to cry.
“We can fix this, can’t we?” I ask. “I’ll spend my life trying to fix this.”
She wraps her arms around my neck. “You can. You will.”
I rock us back and forth on the bed, reveling in how close we are right now.
Not all broken things are lost. Sometimes knowing how fragile they are makes you realize their importance.
And we are definitely stronger after a fall.
36
Jace
You can think you’re fooling the Pickle family, but in reality, you can never actually fool the Pickle family.
Even though Nova and I carefully orchestrate a five-minute delay between when she and I walk into the first meeting of the morning, everybody seems to know.
For one, they played a joke on us. While I was busy tucked in bed with Nova, dear old Dad changed the start time of the meeting from ten a.m. to nine-thirty.
This means that Nova and I, who were paying attention to absolutely nothing but each other’s naked skin, missed the texts and emails about the change.
So, we are both very late.
Which makes our situation quite obvious.
Grammy sits at the head of the table with Dad. When she sees me, she starts a slow-clap.
The managers and staff don’t seem to be in on it, but of course they follow her lead.
Max’s expression is pure snark, and Anthony shakes his head with amusement.
Dad doesn’t clap, but stands with his arms crossed, looking from me to Nova, and back to me again.
I sit down between my brothers.
For a moment no one speaks. Finally, I say, “Are we having a meeting or is everyone just going to stare at my impressive good looks?”
The table laughs, and I glance over at Nova, hoping she isn’t mortified. She shrugs.
I realize I don’t want to be this far from her and stand up again.
“Audra, let’s switch places. I need to sit next to the most amazing woman in the room.”
Audra hops up immediately as eyebrows raise throughout the meeting space.
Grammy Alma slams her hands down on the table. “And I assume you mean after me.”
I squeeze Grammy’s shoulders as I walk around. “Of course, Grammy. Of course.”
I sit down and take Nova’s hand in front of Dad and everybody. No secrets. No more.
That night Dad arranges for karaoke in the bar downstairs. When the managers seem hesitant to get up and sing, Anthony kicks it off with an impressive low-throated version of Louis Armstrong’s “Hello, Dolly.”
This breaks the ice, and two of the Manhattan Pickle managers take their turn singing, or rather, shouting, old Beastie Boys.
I sit in the corner with Nova, holding her hand.
As a third group heads to the microphone, Max drags a chair over to our table.
“This is a table for two,” I say. I know I should probably apologize for punching him yesterday, but we’re brothers. And brothers have a whole different set of rules.
“Well, you stole my girl. It’s only fair I should get to sit next to her now.”
I kick him under the table, and he laughs. “Jace, bro, you are too easy.” He turns to Nova. “So, I was thinking about singing a soulful duet about love. Jace won’t get up there. He’s too cool for karaoke. Will you sing with me?”
Nova’s eyes get wide, looking back and forth between me and Max. “I’m not sure I’m a big karaoke singer.”
“All right. Then I guess I’ll have to sing to you.”
I kick him again. “Damn it, Max. What the hell are you doing?”
“What I do best.” He stands up and claps me on the back. “Making you look bad.”
Max takes off to go speak with the woman running the karaoke machine.
Nova takes a chug of her drink. “So, do you boys really hate each other, or is this some weird brotherly love I don’t understand. I do only have a sister.”
“It was always weird growing up. I was the big brother. Max was the most outspoken one. It made for a bit of a rivalry.”
“Anthony seems like the softy of the group.”
“Yeah, he’s the only one with any sense. We ought to be looking up to him.”
“Max said something yesterday about a competition for the franchise. Will it affect Austin Pickle if you lose?”
I shrug. “We all get to keep our