the table nearby and handed it to him.
They got to talking, and I sat down, taking in the sunshine.
David came out of the house with a big bowl of Mom’s homemade salsa, Mom trailing a few feet behind him with paper plates.
He set the salsa down, greeted Aaron, and then he sat down next to me.
For a while, we didn’t say anything. We just watched Aaron and Dad talk.
Then David laughed. “He’s so nervous, can you tell?”
I giggled. “So nervous.”
Then he turned to me. “You’re right, you know.”
I quirked a brow. “What do you mean?”
“About Aaron being your friend first,” he replied.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” I told him. “It was—“
“True,” he replied, turning to me. “And you guys have always been good friends. I just never really saw it.” He paused. “Or maybe didn’t want to.”
For a second, we just sat there.
Then he cleared his throat. “I’ll be leaving for college soon,” he said, “but I’m glad you’ll have Aaron. He’ll look out for you.”
I smiled. “And who’s gonna look out for you?”
He grinned playfully. “Mom will, if she can figure out a way to be in two places at once.”
David’s graduation was in a couple of weeks, and already, the tears had started.
Dad called David over, and he left. A minute later, Aaron sat down with me.
“How’d it go?” I asked him.
Aaron blew out a breath. “I’m alive, aren’t I?” he said, blowing out a breath.
I leaned on his shoulder. “You’re doing great. My whole family loves you. They’ve always loved you.”
He wrapped his arm around me and kissed me on top of my head. “Good because I plan on sticking around for a while.”
I looked up at him. Then I kissed him.
The sound of David’s voice made us stop a second later. “Guys, at least warn a guy first.”
Aaron and I started laughing.
Fair enough.
I got up and pulled Aaron up with me. “Come on,” I told him. “Let’s go for a walk.”
He looked kind of hesitant, though. He turned back to my Dad. “Sir, may I?”
I liked the increased respect and fear for my Dad.
Dad nodded, giving his blessing.
He finally followed me. We walked down the road and past the creek.
I told him about the day he’d helped me and given me his hand getting off that fallen tree. “I think that was the first time I realized I had a crush on you,” I told him.
“Yeah?” he said. “I already liked you by then.”
I gave his hand another squeeze.
“I just never could see why a girl like you could ever like me back,” he went on.
“Why?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I just always thought there was nothing special about me, especially compared to my brothers.”
I stopped so I could turn and face him. “You’re wrong about that, Aaron Garcia. Never forget it.”
He bent down and kissed me. “Never.”
Epilogue
Cade
Aaron came home, closed our bedroom door behind him, and fell back on his bed with a sigh.
I looked up from my math textbook and smirked. “I should grab a mirror and show you the cheesy grin on your face,” I joked.
“I don’t care,” he replied. “Rachel is officially my girlfriend, my best friend no longer hates me, and her dad didn’t kill me. I’m good, man.”
I laughed at that. “So I take it that the cookout with her family went well?” I asked.
“Yep,” he said. “I didn’t say or do anything stupid, and I got to kiss her good night. Doesn’t get any better than that.”
He lay there all dreamily for about ten more minutes until he finally got up and headed downstairs to play video games.
I went back to my math homework.
Aaron and the rest of my brothers probably had just as much homework as me, but they weren’t ones to do it on a Saturday night.
They hated the tedious thing that was homework. Math problems. History papers. Reading assignments for literature.
I liked all of it.
It was what I was good at, same as Ben with football and Aaron with basketball.
Drake with his music and avoiding people. And emotions.
And Eli, our youngest brother, was another up and coming football star.
The rest of my brothers excelled at things that naturally made them stand out and be cool.
I was the opposite.
I was good at school. That was about it. It was tough sometimes, being surrounded by charming athletes and a bad boy music genius, but it was what I had.
Now that both of my older brothers had girlfriends, it was definitely the only thing I had.
Drake had his music,