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“I’ve got about a dozen.” He hands my phone to me and waits as I scroll through them.
“Just take a few more.” I get into the lotus position. “Make sure you get the plants in the background. And the water bottle on the table. They want me to promote that too.”
Josh takes my phone again and takes a few more. As he scrolls through the pictures he’s taken, I realize half a second too late that I don’t want him scrolling too far. But I can see by the look on his face that he has. And he’s riveted—and shocked—by what he’s looking at.
Why the hell didn’t you think of that, you idiot!? You should have deleted them! You shouldn’t have taken them in the first place.
I’m so used to Josh helping me with my content, I completely forgot I have a ticking time bomb sitting only a few swipes back.
“Josh—”
“What the fuck is this?”
I get up—which takes me a few seconds because I’m still in the lotus position—and by then he’s already zooming in. “Josh.”
Josh’s eyes are dark and his glare is full of questions. “Why do I get the feeling you skipped yoga class this morning, Ivy?”
Damn it
“I didn’t skip it. I just took a detour after.” I reach for the phone but Josh is so much taller than I am he easily holds it out of reach. “Give me my phone.”
“You went to his house? When? Today?”
I’m trying to snatch my phone back out of my brother’s hands, but he just holds it higher. He’s got a good five inches on me plus he’s strong as hell now.
“Did you see him?” His question is more hurt than angry. Both emotions are twisted up and awful-sounding.
“No. I didn’t see him. I went to tell him…that you’re graduating and that you got into Columbia. Because I’m proud of you. And I was hoping?—”
Josh holds up a hand in a stop gesture. “If you continue that sentence I’m going to smash this phone to smithereens, Ivy. You were hoping what? That he might be proud of me too? Well, let me guess. He isn’t. There, mystery solved. I could have saved you a trip.”
“Please don’t smash my phone. We need it. Can I please have it back?”
“Sure. Right after I email these photos of our asshole father’s Bahamas bank account to myself. What do you know, the snake is even more loaded than we thought.” He continues swiping. And then he goes quiet.
“Josh?”
He’s staring at the photo of our twin brothers. “And here are the little apples of his eye. Getting their own framed photograph on a shelf and everything, how touching.”
Josh turns away from me and strides across the balcony. For a second I think he’s going to throw my phone over the edge out of anger, but then he sits in one of the chairs sort of heavily.
“Josh, it doesn’t matter,” I say gently. “We know why. He wasn’t in a good place when we were young. He and our mother ended up hating each other and he just wants to forget about it and move on. Just like we’re doing.”
“If you’re over it then why did you go to his house?”
“To try for the very last time and now I’m done. We don’t need him. We’re okay and we’re only going to get more okay. Now, please, give me my phone.”
After Josh finishes sending the photos to himself, he gets up. He walks over to me and he hands me my phone.
“Thank you,” I tell him, searching his eyes for some kind of sign that he’s okay. “Josh?”
“What.” It’s not a question. It’s a deep, emotional scar.
“I love you.”
He stares down at me, his golden eyes stormy. They aren’t really words we throw around that often but I want him to hear them. And now feels like a good time.
“I love you too. And if that prick shows up at my graduation I’ll fucking throttle him.”
