“I’m the one who dropped the guys off. I’ll be ten minutes, max. Can you keep him safe in the meantime?”

I glanced up at Finn, who had stopped stroking Brooke, wandered across the room toward me, and started the process of climbing up one of the bookshelves like it was a ladder. I grabbed his arm and held him steady, and he looked at my hand in confusion, like it was attached to nothing and shouldn’t have been there. “No guarantees, but I’ll do my best.”

“Wait, I didn’t make myself clear enough. Keep him safe, totally guaranteed, no buts.”

“Better get here fast then,” I said. Brougham started replying but I hung up on him and shoved my phone in my pocket so I could use both my hands to guide Finn back down.

Ten minutes.

We just had to keep him safe for ten minutes.

With a sigh, Finn walked with great purpose toward the center of the room, stopped in the middle of the shag rug, then lay facedown with his arms straight by his side. Brooke and I looked at each other.

“Do you think his friends are this bad?” I asked.

“They were fine when I was downstairs. I’ll text Ray and check. Also, um, why do you have Brougham’s number?”

Damn, so I hadn’t dodged the question after all. I decided to tell half the truth. “He uses the pool after school to train, and we’ve chatted a few times while I waited for Mom to finish up.”

“Oh, random,” Brooke said, but she didn’t look particularly perturbed. “You’ve never mentioned that.”

“Never came up.”

“Brougham is the best friend,” Finn piped up from his spot on the floor. The words were muffled by shag rug, but still comprehensible. “You guys don’t even … know. You don’t even know him.”

“Darcy knows him, apparently.”

Finn lifted his head—and from the stiffness of his neck, that was apparently a ten-ton feat—and shook his head with a stern expression, eyes squeezed shut. “Nope. Nope.”

“You stand corrected,” I said with a grin.

“I think Darcy is The Best Friend, actually,” Brooke said, and I suddenly realized just how much I’d been wanting her to say something affectionate like that lately. I could forgive her for ditching me a million times over, I felt, as long as I knew I was still her best friend. Still important to her.

My phone buzzed. “Brougham’s here,” I announced. I was a little disappointed he’d arrived so fast. I’d been enjoying the quality time with Brooke. Because, yes, compared to how things had been recently, pairing up to watch Finn was practically a weekend getaway for two.

“Hurry back,” Brooke said. “I—Finn Park, don’t lick the carpet, oh my god.”

I hurried.

ELEVEN