Page 151 of Her Ex-Husband's Brother

“So many times.” Her laugh shakes. “I would find an old account or some dead link, and then I’d convince myself that reaching out would only make everything worse.”

“I did the same thing.”

“Of course we did.”

We stare at each other through tears.

Then Harper starts laughing.

It spills out of her, helpless and happy. I laugh too, because apparently we lost ten years being exactly the same kind of idiot.

She wipes beneath her eyes with the heels of her hands. “We are so stupid.”

“We really are.”

“I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I can’t believeyou’rehere.”

She looks past me toward August’s booth, then back at the badge hanging from my neck. “Are you working the convention?”

“August is.”

Something flickers over her face.

“August?”

I nod.

She studies me for a second, not pushing. Harper always knew when there was more beneath the surface. Even before either of us understood how valuable a tool that was.

“My husband’s brother,” I say. “Well, ex-husband’s brother.”

Her eyebrows climb.

“It’s a long story.”

“I hope it’s a scandalous story.”

“It begins in a hot tub.”

Her mouth falls open. “Marie!”

“It’s Lennon now,” I laugh. “Lennon Marie. And hey, I was having a difficult evening.”

“You slept with your husband’s brother in a hot tub, Lennon Marie?”

“We did not have sex in the hot tub! That would be unsanitary.”

Harper laughs so hard she has to grab my arm.

The sound cracks something open inside me. Not painfully this time. It feels like a window being thrown wide after a house has been sealed up for years.

She links her fingers through mine.

“Come on,” I say. “You have to meet him.”

“I absolutely do.”