Nobody But You Read online

  The people in the apartment across from them had a dog who’d shown up pregnant after being missing for two days. Two months later, she’d had pups in their bathtub.

  Hud and Jacob had gotten the bright idea to trade Bones for a new puppy, and aided by the neighbor’s son, the switch had been stealthily made one night.

  The next morning, the neighbor had blown a gasket and so had Carrie. “You made us work for the guy cleaning up after those puppies for two weeks,” Jacob reminded her. “Ten puppies, each with a loose digestive track. And this one…” He jabbed a thumb in Hud’s direction, “kept pretending to gag like he was going to throw up and managed to get himself excused.”

  “Aw,” Carrie said. “He wasn’t pretending. You know he’s got a weak stomach.” She ruffled Hud’s hair. “Don’t you, baby?”

  Hud grumbled something beneath his breath, and when Jacob laughed, he narrowed his eyes.

  And then stood up and stared at them some more.

  “What?” Carrie asked him. “What is it?”

  “I’m missing something,” Hud said.

  “Oh no,” she said. “I’m so sorry. Where did you last see it? Because your room’s a complete and utter wreck, Hudson. If you’d just clean it like I asked—”

  “It’s not a thing,” Hud said. “It’s something else.” He stared at Jacob.

  “What is it?” Carrie asked, but Jacob knew. He held Hud’s gaze and knew.

  “You two don’t seem like people who haven’t spoken to or seen each other in nine years,” Hud said.

  Carrie laughed. “Well, of course not, silly. I speak to him as often as I speak to you. And speaking of that, you have a big birthday coming up. You’re finally going to hit double digits, the big one-oh. What should we do to celebrate?”

  So this answered Jacob’s immediate question. They were ten years old today. Or would be next week.

  And she wasn’t in the present at all…

  “We don’t need anything special, Mom,” Hud said, and stood up. “You, I want to see you outside.”

  “Can’t, baby,” she said. “My ankle—”

  “Jacob,” Hud said.

  Jacob casually reached for another piece of pizza and leaned back against the headboard. Because he knew what was outside. A fight. One he didn’t want to have.

  Carrie took Hud’s hand. “Honey, whatever it is, just say it.”

  Hud pinched the bridge of his nose and then dropped his hand and looked at his mom. “You heard from him. All this time, when he was”—Hud looked at Jacob—“gone, you heard from him.”

  Carrie, confused on the timeline or not, knew she’d stepped in it. She bit her lower lip, her expression dialed to an unbearable sadness that Jacob couldn’t take. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I called every week,” he told Hud.

  “He used FaceTime,” his mom said. “And sometimes he came in person.”

  Hud’s eyes widened as he stared at Jacob. “You came here. You came here to Cedar Ridge?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many times?”

  “Hud—”

  Hud pointed at him. “How many times, Jacob?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Nine,” Carrie said, and winced when both boys turned to her. “I kept count. Was I not supposed to keep count?”

  Hud swore and paced the length of the room, glowering fiercely. Then suddenly his temper drained and he shoved his fingers in his hair. “Jesus, Jacob,” he whispered. “You kept up with her?”

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t?”

  Hud’s eyes hardened again. “You kept up with her and not me.”

  Yeah, okay, that one was more difficult. He took a deep breath to speak, but Hud closed his eyes and turned away. “Forget it,” he said.

  Forget it. He’d said the same thing all those years ago to Jacob, turning away from him then too. If you want to be like Dad, go. But know that if you do, we’re no longer brothers.

  And Jacob, not exactly an innocent party to the fight, had let those words fester deep inside. It’d taken him a shamefully long time to realize that what Hud had said had been in anger.

  But what Jacob had done, walking away, he’d done with a purposeful calm. He’d walked away.

  He’d been the bigger ass.

  He knew that.

  What he didn’t know was how to fix it.

  When the pizza was gone, Hud dropped Jacob off at the lake, not saying another word.

  Jacob got out of his brother’s truck and turned back. “I’m still going to work at the resort.”

  “Fine,” Hud said tightly. “We need you.”

  The knot in Jacob’s chest unloosened a little. “Fine.”

  “Fine,” Hud said again. “As long as it doesn’t involve you writing a goddamn check.” He drove off, leaving Jacob in his dust. Fair enough, since Jacob had once done the same.

  He sat on the porch as the sun set, waiting for Sophie.

  But she didn’t come back. Not that night.

  Or the next.

  Or the next.

  Chapter 16

  Sophie stood on the deck of The Little Lucas, her hands on her hips, trying to control her temper as she glared at the guy standing on North Beach’s public launch dock a few feet away.

  His mouth was moving as he went on and on about how she’d illegally moored last night, blah, blah, blah…

  What he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him, but the truth was, she’d been illegally moored several nights in a row now. The first night she’d stayed in a quiet cove, but she’d been awakened at four in the morning by fishermen. And five. And six…The second night she’d found what seemed like a deserted private dock. She’d learned her mistake when the moon rose and a bunch of teenagers had shown up to smoke weed.

  She still had a contact high.

  Last night she’d started out near the campgrounds but had left when she’d seen a bear going through the trash cans right outside the women’s restrooms. She’d ended up having to move several times throughout the night, and what she needed more than anything was eight straight hours of sleep.

  “I’ll be moving any second now,” she promised. “I’m just waiting for the rest of the fam to get here.” She smiled in a way that invited him to join her.

  He declined.

  “It takes my sister forever to get out of the house,” she said, hoping she was coming off as charming and not as batshit crazy as she felt. “And my mom…well, let’s just say my dad’s probably going nuts right about now. You know how dads are. Everything’s on a timetable and no one listens, and then it’s one big yell-fest instead of a good time. But no worries. They’ll be here soon and we’ll get going in no time.”

  He didn’t look impressed. “It’s almost dark. You can’t still be here after dark.”

  “I promise,” she said, “because that would be totally and completely illegal.” She flashed another smile.

  Nope, still nothing. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Okay,” she said. “Here’s the truth. My family’s not coming.”

  He gave her a duh look.

  “But I have a really good reason to be here. I swear,” she said, waiting for her brain to come up with that great reason.

  “It’s for the resort,” an unbearably familiar male voice said from above the dock.

  She turned her head and watched as Jacob lithely leapt over the railing and landed with easy agility on the dock. She hadn’t seen him for three days, something she told herself she’d been relieved about. She’d been working her ass off during those three days, at a myriad of temp jobs, and knew he’d been doing the same because she’d had lunch with Kenna yesterday.

  She and Jacob would be working together on a bunch of upcoming lake events as the resort kicked their summer season into high gear.

  Jacob’s military-short hair was growing out. He’d gotten some sun too. He stood there in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt advertising the resort, his eyes hidden behin