The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(71)

The boxes were labeled with her name. She stared at them, the room suddenly so quiet she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. “What is this?”

“Your stuff,” Kinsey said. “Or what’s left of it anyway. Your landlord apologized for not realizing what had happened.”

Brynn stared at her, feeling her face heat. They’d found out her things weren’t in her trunk. “You drove the three hours to Long Beach and retrieved my stuff.”

“I wanted to also hunt down Asshole, but someone stopped me,” Kinsey said, looking at Eli.

“Not worth the jail time,” he said.

Brynn hadn’t taken her eyes off the boxes. “All of you went?”

“Yes,” Max said. “I’m sorry I lied to you when I said Eli was in the water. He was dealing with your landlord.”

Watching her carefully, as if maybe she was on the very edge, Eli nodded, still holding on to her hand. “Before you got up this morning, we decided to do something for you. So we . . . borrowed your keys to get your boxes from your trunk.”

Where they’d found no boxes, because she’d lied. She’d lied outright—when she’d flung their lies back in their faces.

“When we figured out that you couldn’t unpack because you didn’t have your stuff,” Kinsey said, “we wanted to fix it. Your moms gave us your old address. I really wanted to punch your ex,” she said with feeling, still sporting the bruise in the center of her forehead where Brynn’s serve had smacked her. “But I controlled myself.”

“With some help,” Max said mildly.

Brynn stared at Kinsey’s bruise, at the fury on her face, both of which were because of her. She took in Max’s stance. He’d been really quiet, but he also looked pissed off, though not at her. He’d taken hours and hours to help her out, and he wasn’t getting anything out of it except her friendship.

And then there was Eli, who she had a feeling had been the captain of this mission. Like others before him, he’d claimed to care about her, but unlike the others, he didn’t seem to want anything from her that she wasn’t willing to give. That was very new, and very . . . discombobulating.

His eyes were warm on hers, still worried, watching as she slowly came undone by their gesture. “Brynn? You okay?”

In her mind, she answered with sincere gratitude.

In reality, she burst into tears.

Kinsey’s face fell. “Wait. What is she doing?”

“I believe she’s crying,” Max said, looking pained.

Brynn was so mortified, she let herself be pulled into Eli’s arms. “You’ve got all the power here,” he murmured, mouth to her ear. “We just want to help.”

This only made her cry harder.

“Stop that,” Kinsey said. “There’s no crying here.”

“Right.” Max was awkwardly patting Brynn on the back. “Because telling someone not to cry always works.”

Kinsey blew out a breath. “Brynn, that asshole doesn’t deserve your tears.”

“I’m not crying cuz of him!” she sobbed. “I’m crying cuz of you idiots. I can’t believe you did this for me.”

Kinsey huffed out another sigh and slowly joined the hug.

Brynn lifted her head in shock. “Are you . . . hugging me?”

“Yeah, and if you tell anyone, I’ll . . .”

Brynn sniffled. “You’ll what?”

“I don’t know, I can’t think of anything that won’t permanently scar or maim you.”

“Good to know you have some boundaries.” Brynn sniffed and then stared at Kinsey some more. “Why do you smell like my mom’s dry-skin salve?”

“I don’t.”

“You do. You smell just like it even though you said it smelled like dirt.”

“It’s turmeric, not dirt,” Kinsey said with a straight face.

Brynn shook her head. “I can’t with you. And why is your hand on my ass?”

“That’s not me.”

“Oops,” Eli said.

Brynn laughed through her tears and knew that’s what he’d intended all along. So she hugged him again, keeping one arm around Kinsey. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Kinsey untangled herself. “Okay, well, this has been fun and all, but I’ve gotta go be with people who aren’t crying right now.”

“She’s allergic to hugs,” Eli said. “Watch.” He snagged Kinsey around the neck with a long arm and pulled her in tighter.

Kinsey screeched and smacked at his head until he let her go.

“See?” he said to Brynn. “Allergic to hugs, kindness, and cats.”

“Wait. You’re allergic to cats?” Brynn asked. “You never said a word at my moms’ house, either time.”

“She took two Benadryl pills before we got there for dinner,” Max said. “The other time, that first time, she came home all swollen and slept it off.”

“Oh my God.” Brynn’s eyes filled again. “That was so sweet.”

Kinsey looked at Eli while pointing at Brynn. “She’s doing it again. I’m going out.” She headed to the door.

“Is that a euphemism for going to Deck’s to get laid?” Max asked.