Page 53 of Rhodes

“Hey, speaking of Libba,” he says, “she brought up Grandbank's crawfish boil yesterday and is still telling the story wrong.”

I snort. “There is no wrong version. You let the pot boil over.”

“I did not let the pot boil over.”

“You absolutely did. Daddy told you to back the flame down. You were too busy trying to impress Mary Catherine.”

“That is revisionist history.”

“That is eyewitness testimony.”

His eyes narrow. “You know what? I have an eyewitness. I'm adding him.”

My stomach gives one stupid little dip.

"Coop, do not⁠—"

The screen splits. Rhodes drops in from the cab of his truck, one hand on the wheel, sunglasses up on his head.

"Buenos días, muchacho."

"Crawfish boil, junior year," Coop says. "The overflow. Tell Tilly that was her fault."

"That was one hundred percent Tallulah's fault."

"Oh, that's rich." I laugh before I can stop it. "You weren't even standing at the pot. You were on the phone with some girl."

"I was supervising."

"From forty feet away."

"Distance is how you supervise a boil," Rhodes says, dead even, "everybody knows that," and Coop loses it. All three of us are talking over each other, and it feels like old times.

All that worry that it would be awkward was for nothing.

I think there was some petty little part of me that wanted him rattled, just a flicker of it. I'm embarrassed the second I catch the wish, because I'm the one who called it nothing.

"Cain's wedding's coming up," Coop says. "I didn't think I could make it, but since he's doing the Amalfi Coast, I'm thinking I can sneak over there for a night or two. I'm pumped to get the whole gang back together."

"Good," Rhodes says. "Be like the old summers. Maybanks and Stones."

Rhodes gets out of his truck, and a beat later I hear the front door open.

"Alright, I gotta go, they're calling us in," Coop says. "Love you, Til. Eat a dick, Rhodes."

The screen goes dark.

Turns out pretending a kiss never happened is easy right up until your brother unknowingly puts both guilty parties on the same FaceTime and starts reminiscing about family vacations.

Rhodes's footsteps come down the hall, toward my open door. He stops in my doorway, one shoulder against the frame, phone still in his hand.

I close my laptop and decide to lean in instead.

"So that was normal," I say. "Being on a video call with my brother twenty-four hours after I kissed his best friend. Very relaxing. Ten out of ten, would recommend."

That gets the corner of his mouth. He pushes off the frame and comes in, and instead of standing there like a hovering RA, he sits on the edge of my bed, forearms on his knees.

"We should probably talk about it."