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I grinned up at him. “Seeing Anita.”

He grinned back. “Cool. Oh, let me grab your suit jacket. Jake’s sleeping on it. Sorry.”

“No worries.” I tried not to look too horrified by the dog hair coating it as he pulled it out from under Jake, who just rolled onto his back and went back to sleep.

Greid tried to brush the hair off it, his ears fluttering. “Sorry.”

“Totally fine, bro.” I didn’t really want to put it on, so I hung it over my arm and stuffed my shirt tails back into my pants. I still looked a complete mess though. There were little sticky patches on the front of my shirt from the dried fruit.

“I think your cab’s here.” Greid nodded toward the window as the beam of headlights sliced through the glass.

“Cool.” I took an awkward step forward, hesitated, then lunged at Greid in a hug.

How could I have ever been mean to him? He was the best. There was still a hard, painful knot of guilt in my chest beneath the mellow calm from the shade, but I didn’t want to start crying again with Beryl in the house, so I hugged him tight for a few seconds longer before pulling back.

I cleared my throat. “Okay, so… see you soon.”

“Yeah.”

He followed me out into the hallway, and Beryl appeared in the kitchen doorway. I gave her a slightly nervous smile.

“Bye, Beryl. Sorry about the mess.”

“No problem. Bye, Nuni.” She watched, still looking a little cautious and unsure as Greid and I walked to the front door.

I gave him one last smile before leaving, breathing in deep lungfuls of cool air as the door closed behind me. I was definitely still high, so the cab had been a good idea.

“Hey, man,” I said to the driver as I climbed into the back. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“No problem. Where to?”

I opened my mouth to give him my address, then remembered the link Greid had sent me. “One sec.”

Hurriedly pulling up the website, I found the store’s address on their contact page. The listed store hours indicated they were still open.

“Upper Birch,” I told the driver, already grinning as he pulled away from the kerb.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Nuni

D espite sleeping hard thanks to the shade, my head felt groggy and slow when my alarm woke me up on Saturday morning.

Rolling over and reaching out for my phone, I did something I hadn’t done in years—I shut my alarm off and went back to

sleep.

I could tell I didn’t doze for long though. My body clock roused me again a short while later, but I still didn’t move. I felt sluggish, and even though Greid and I had left things on a great note the night before, now that I was awake and no longer high, I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d told me.

You used to torment me.

You were a bully.

I stared blankly at the frog print on my bedroom wall. Now that I thought about it, I could vaguely remember Greid and I looking for frogs in the garden together when we were little. Before Dad left. When I’d been less stressed out, I guessed. Less of a total fucking asshole to my brother.

How was I so bullheaded that I’d never realised my brotherly teasing hadn’t actually just been brotherly teasing? Was I still a bully now? Did the rest of my siblings secretly hate me too?

Fumbling for my phone, I called Laki. It was still early on a Saturday morning, but I knew they’d be up. They were all about making the most of their weekends. They were probably already hiking or fermenting their own kombucha or whatever.