Alex and Valerie must’ve taken a detour along the way, because they’d all been at the bowling alley over twenty minutes, and they still weren’t there. Those two did that a lot. With Angel and Sarah off to buy drinks, and Romero showing off his bowling skills, Eric took advantage of the moment.

“So how come you hadn’t mentioned Brandon being back?”

Sofia lifted a shoulder. “I dunno. I forgot. I only ran with him a couple of times.”

“You forgot?” Eric didn’t want to be pissed. He didn’t want to ruin the weekend before it even started. But he knew if he ever forgot to mention something like that to her, she’d go postal on him. He knew he could trust Sofie. He just couldn’t shake the bad vibe he got when she exchanged glances with Brandon.

“It was in the morning and only for a few minutes. By the end of the day it had totally slipped my mind.”

That made sense to him. Still, he squeezed her hand. “Anything else you forget to tell me?”

She shook her head immediately. Eric leaned his forehead against hers. “Look Sof, if you forgot to tell me because you thought I’d be mad, that’s not cool. Remember just like I’m always reminding you that I’ve never given you any reason to doubt me, you’ve never given me reason, either.” He lifted her chin. “I’m okay with you taking a jog with a friend, it’s when you start keeping it from me that makes me wonder why, okay?”

“Okay,” She stared into his eyes.

He stared back. “Promise me you won’t keep things from me no matter how mad you think I’ll be.”

“I promise,” she said, then squeezed him tight, “I love you so much.”

They kissed until someone cleared his voice loudly. Angel stood behind them with a frown. She was still his little sister. “Will you two knock it off?”

Sofia laughed. “If you can keep your hands off Sarah for even five minutes, I will.”

Ignoring her, Angel turned to Romero. “So do we get to play or are we watching you all night?”

Eric turned back to Sofia, who leaned into him. He’d let the bad vibe go for now and hope that’s all it was. But he’d be damned if he was letting his guard down. The thing about knowing Sofia so long is he knew her better than most boyfriends knew their girlfriends. That’s what made him a little nervous. In all the years he’d known her, she’d never ceased to amaze him or surprise him, and yet he knew her like the back of his hand.

If her brothers so much as suspected even halfcteris of the things they’d done when they were younger, stuff usually suggested by Sofia, Eric had no doubt they’d blow a fuse, even now. Eric expected to be able to trust her. He knew she loved him as much as he loved her, and that she would never do anything to intentionally hurt him. But if there was one thing he’d learned over the years, with Sofia you just never knew what to expect. Very little, if anything, ever made Sofia blush, so her blushing was a red flag.

***

It is what it is, but sometimes it’s not.

What you get is what you see.

You get only what you think it is.

Always been that way. And will always be.

Sofia read the damn poem she found buried under other stuff she’d pinned over it. After all these years, she still didn’t get it. When Brandon emailed it to her back in high school, she read and reread it. As much as she loved to write, she didn’t get poetry. All poetry seemed to go over her head, and Brandon’s was no exeption. It made her feel stupid. If she wasn’t deep enough to get it, how could she possibly write it?

She wanted so bad to tell him she understood, but she didn’t. Finally, she ‘fessed up and told him she liked it, but didn’t get it. She remembered that conversation and Brandon laughing. “I thought for sure you of all people would get it.”

Sofia stared at him, feeling even stupider. “Me? Why?”

Brandon looked down at his notebook on the desk. “I guess because you can relate to me… at least I think you can.”

What did that mean? Good God, she felt dumber with each sentence he spoke. “I think I can relate to you. I’ve just never been good about deciphering hidden messages in poems.”

He finally lifted his eyes away from the notebook and their eyes locked. “There’s no hidden message, Sof.” The bell rang and Sofia realized she was holding her breath. She let her breath out slowly and they both stood and grabbed their books. Brandon smiled at her. “It’s right there, Sof. The words say it all.”

Sofia pinned the poem back on her tack board, frowning at all the useless junk she had tacked on over the years. She’d clean it off eventually.

Even though the weekend was over, Sofia still couldn’t get over the disaster she’d dodged that past Friday. As sneaky as she’d been through the years because her brothers had forced her to, one thing she’d never been good at doing was lying to Eric. He knew her too well. If he had probed even just a little more, she might have spilled her guts and begged him to forgive her.

She hadn’t gone running in the back walkway of her house since the day they kissed, hadn’t even seen Brandon again until Friday. The only thing Eric had asked her since then was if her running at the beach now instead of her usual place had anything to do with Brandon. Of course, she denied it. She told him it was because the days were so beautiful, and he knew how much she loved the beach, especially in the summer. He hadn’tr. 8"> < brought Brandon up since.