This Much is True - Tia Louise Page 0,9

two years younger than my brother, three and a half years younger than me, and she’d just celebrated the grand opening of her own restaurant Pancake Paradise in the Embarcadero when the lockdown happened.

“It was my dream happy place.” Her voice is clear as a bell, a little on the high side but not annoying.

Her jacket is off, and she’s in a thin yellow dress with spaghetti straps over her shoulders that show she’s not wearing a bra. The sun shines through her wavy, light blonde hair, and she holds a Red Vine to her full pink lips, slipping her small pink tongue out to taste it.

I look out the window, to distract my body from the primal response she provokes. For the last eighteen months, my fist has been my dick’s only friend.

“It was like hibachi?” Scout hasn’t changed a bit since I saw him last. He’s as ready to make friends as ever.

“Mm-hm.” She nods. “But with pancakes. You’d get this plastic squeeze bottle like a ketchup bottle but clear. It had your special batter in it, and you could make shapes or write your name or use one of the molds we provided. You could even mix the batters to do like a marble effect.”

“What’s special batter?”

“Whatever you want!” The wind pushes her hair off her soft cheeks, and her nose wrinkles. “Plain, chocolate, vanilla bean, cinnamon, red velvet… we even had whole wheat and gluten-free options. Then once it was done, you could decorate it with whipped cream and sprinkles or fresh fruit or fancy syrups.”

My brother exhales a laugh. “I would have never thought of this, but it sounds really fun.”

“It was.” Her voice goes quiet, sad, and my chest tightens protectively, which is fucking ridiculous. “I invested everything I had in it. Then I lost it all.”

“Man.” Scout pats her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Hope.”

For a minute, she glances out the window, and her full bottom lip disappears into her mouth. It’s like when a small cloud passes over the sun on a perfect summer day, a moment of shadow.

Then she shakes her head and blinks quickly. “It’s going to be okay! My dad says you’re going to stumble when you start to run. The trick is to get back up when you fall.”

“He’s right.” My brother nods. “Hell, I’d just gotten my first callback to be a paid extra in the new Chris Nolan film on March 20, and bam! Shutdown.”

“Oh…” Her face falls into a sympathetic expression. “Still, that sounds so exciting. It’s going to come back, right?”

“I think so. The question is when.”

She blinks at him in a way that makes me feel tight and angry. She’s curious and cute, and she reminds me of a time when I believed I could do anything, conquer the world if I just got the right chance.

Clearly thoughts of a man who has been driving ten hours straight without a break. “I’m going to pull over and let you take the wheel soon.”

“He’s alive.” Scout looks at me and laughs. “Thought you had mind-melded with the car.”

“Like it mattered with you two talking nonstop.”

Her eyes meet mine in the mirror again, and again, it’s like a sucker punch. She’s been doing that the whole drive—glancing at me every few minutes as if she’s afraid I’ll pull over and leave her on the side of the road again. I should have done it. I should do it now. She’s a grown woman, for Christ’s sake. As usual, I caved to my little brother, and now I don’t know what the hell we’re doing with her.

“I blame quarantine.” My brother laughs. “After three months of being alone, I’d gotten to where I was stalking the mailman for somebody to talk to.”

“Anything’s better than being stuck in the house, right?” She smiles, and that little nose wrinkles again.

“Three months alone is nothing,” I grumble.

They fall silent, and her eyes drift to mine again. I’m sorry I said anything. We pass a green sign for Joshua Tree National Park, and it informs us the next gas stop is in 47 miles. I glance at the tank. We’re good, but I’m exhausted.

Smooth brown boulders rise in prehistoric shapes in the distance, and the spiky shrubs and desert palms rise above the parched earth.

“To think most people just fly over this.” Hope looks out the window. “It’s gorgeous.”

“I read it gets as hot as 120 degrees some days.” Scout reaches down and pulls out a bottle of water.

“Give me some of