Page 48 of What If We Break?
I couldn’t help but smile at his teasing, my body still trying to regulate itself. “I mean, wow. Like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”
“Now that’s rude, but whatever.” He kissed my forehead, his lips warm and gentle. “I’m glad you enjoyed it, baby,” he whispered.
21
BROOKLYN
“Do you want me to pick you up or do you think you’ll get to the arena by yourself?” Reece asked as he came walking out of our bedroom, now making his way over to the front door to put on his shoes.
“Rina said she’d drive me.” I watched as she nodded a confirmation.
“It’s on my way home anyway,” she chimed in, shrugging slightly.
“Okay.” Reece rushed over to me, pressing a quick kiss on my lips. “I’ll text you once practice is over.”
I nodded, watching as Reece made his way back toward the door, grabbing his bag and keys before saying goodbye and leaving.
Half of our classes had been canceled today, so we spent most of the day building up the remaining furniture that we’d been putting off for two days now and started cleaning up a bit. Up until an hour ago when Reece wanted to take a little break before having to leave for practice.
Rina asked if she could stop by and see my new place, and though I was in desperate need of a couple of hours ofjust doing nothing before having to spend half of the evening at the arena trying to get Reece competition-ready, I agreed.
He was quick to learn the program, which I knew he would, but there were a few things we needed to work on. Some jumps didn’t look as flawless anymore, so we had to spend as much time as we could at the arena to fix that. It had only been a week though, so only a few flaws were pretty good in that case.
“The apartment is cute,” Rina said as she looked around. She just got here five minutes ago. “A bit bland but cute.”
“It’s not done yet.” We moved in about two days ago. “At least all of the necessary furniture is standing and neither the sofa nor the chairs break when you sit on it.”
We could’ve hired people to do this or asked our family for help, but Reece and I wanted to do this on our own.
Rina laughed, then jumped up and ran over to the sofa, launching herself at it as if she wanted to test its stability.
To be honest, I didn’t think there was much to do wrong when setting up a sofa, but if someone was able to fuck it up, it was Reece and me.
She slightly bounced on the sofa and ran her hands over the soft material before falling back, then swung her head around to look at me. “This thing is almost more comfortable than my bed.”
“I was going to say the same thing before I checked the price tag,” I told her, making my way over to her. “The only reason we bought it was because Reece’s brother paid for it.”
“Damn. If my brother ever offered to pay for anything in my apartment, I’d immediately assume there was some sort of stipulation for it. Like, I don’t know, that I’d have to rob a bank first or steal a homeless person’s last two cents.” Her eyes rolled. “Something cruel, you know?”
“Your brother sounds like a nightmare.” I scootched back a little just to lift my legs and hug my knees to my chest. “But to be fair, if Eden ever offered to pay for anything for me, I’d also assume it came with some sort of condition.”
Elliot could be a sweet kid though, so I wouldn’t have been too surprised if he ever offered it when he was older. Then again, I was ten years older than Elliot so, maybe it would’ve been strange if he had to lend me money or something.
“So we agree that Reece’s brother paying for this sofa is odd?”
I shook my head but didn’t voice an actual reply.
Colin paying for Reece’s and I’s furniture? Yeah, that was pretty on-brand for him. I mean, he split the cost with my dad, but still.
He refused to let Reece touch his trust fund yet, so Colin even paid for Reece’s college tuition.
For a while, I used to think Colin did this because he just felt responsible for his brother since he was living with him. I was sure once his kids were older and ready to go to college and move out, he wasn’t going to let them spend their trust fund on things that every parent should’ve been able to provide for their child in some way.
Okay, perhaps a parent wasn’t supposed to pay the rent of the apartment for their kid, but college was almost every person’s goal, right? And before you have a kid, you know that stuff can cost you a pretty penny. I suppose that’s what a trust fund was for, to pay for tuition, but not really if you grew up in a Carter household.
Nonetheless, he wasn’t Reece’s dad, so even if Colin didn’t pay for Reece’s college, their parents would have.
So, the older I got, the more obvious it became that thiswas just Colin’s way of giving something back to his last remaining sibling. To do something good, though I wasn’t sure why he felt the need to, or if that wasreallythe reason he did it. I could’ve been totally wrong.
