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“Wow,” Miranda is looking at me like I just fell from the sky. “That is… is… Just wow,” she doesn’t seem to be able to get more creative than that.
“Same,” Brooke mumbles from next to her.
They’re both sitting huddled together on Zach’s couch, their eyes big as saucers as they took in every detail of my rehashing my relationship with Zach.
“So romantic though,” Brooke breaks into tears, taking both me and Miranda by surprise.
“What’s romantic?” Miranda demands to know. “The way he was an asshole to her when he found out she lost the baby?”
“The way he still loves her,” Brooke cries harder.
“Girl,” Miranda takes a deep breath like she is trying to calm herself. “Is Ridge brainwashing you? What’s going on with you?”
“I don’t know,” Brooke continues to sob like the world is on fire.
“Hunter,” Miranda brings her attention back to me. “I hate to admit, but the goofball here,” she points to her best friend, “may be right.”
“In what way?” I am confused by what she is saying, and by their interaction.
“I think he still loves you, too. He probably never stopped,” she looks at me with sad puppy eyes, so unlike her normal ball buster attitude.
“I don’t know,” I try to hold back my tears. “I think he just wants to punish me for leaving him then. I just have a bad feeling about all of this, Miranda.”
We stare at each other in silence, neither one of us sure of what else to say. The moment is broken by Brooke when she blows her nose really hard.
“I seriously don’t understand how your brother lives with this,” Miranda looks at me and points her at best friend. “Can you imagine?”
“He loves her,” I choke on laughter, “snot and all.”
“Well, excuse me for being an emotional mess,” Brooke sounds all stuffy when she speaks. “I just had a baby. My hormones are all over the place. I’m so sorry, Hunter,” she looks at me apologetically. “I didn’t mean to ruin your story.”
“Awww, I was just teasing you,” Miranda pulls Brooke into a hug and kisses the top of her head. I miss Chloe. I want to be friends like this with her.
“How did you guys hear about this?” I finally think of asking.
“Marco,” they both say at the same time, then bust out laughing. “Jinx!”
“He really loves gossip,” I admit. Or I should say that he loves gossiping with my brother, other than that, Marco is pretty aloof and minding his own business.
“Thank you for coming here today, girls,” I rub at my eyes, pretending like I don’t have tears about to spill out of them.
“We’re sisters now,” Miranda reminds me. “We’ll be here anytime you need us, Hunter.”
“Slayer,” Brooke teases me. “I always loved your nickname. I’m jealous. I want your dad to give me a badass nickname like that, too,” she is still sniffling.
“Dude,” Miranda pokes her in the ribs. “You can’t be crying again. I will not take responsibility for this when I return you to your husband.”
“I just can’t help it, you asshole,” Brooke wails, making me laugh through my own tears.
Just then, we hear the front door opening, then closing, footsteps echoing through the foyer. I can tell it’s Zach without even looking, his voice only confirms it when he notices that I got company.
“Brooke, why the hell are you crying, girl? I just had it out with your husband. Things won’t end well for anybody if you go home crying now, too.”
My heart starts beating out of my chest. He went to talk to Ridge. I wonder how that visit went. Ridge and I are not crazy close through no fault of his, but we are close enough where I know he would kick Zach’s ass if he thought he’d hurt me.
“Zach,” Brooke stands from the couch and walks toward Zach with arms wide open. The look of horror on his face makes Miranda snort under her breath. “I am so happy for you,” she cries into his chest.
“What is happening?” he looks at his sister. “Mir? Help?”
