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Author: Kat Singleton
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-20 16:42:14

MARE - PRESENT

MY FEET ACHE. I’m four beers and two shots deep into the night. Shockingly, I’m having the best time. It feels good to let go for a bit. Life doesn’t feel as heavy here. Not right now. Not in this moment.

Pippa and I laugh freely as I miss so many of the steps; my line dancing skills are a bit rusty from the years I’ve been absent. With every drink and every new song, I get more comfortable. The steps come back to me, and I’m reminded of all the nights Pippa and I spent here before we went off to college.

Pippa and I almost keel over in a laughing fit when we bump into one another by accident. The impact was so abrupt that we almost topple over.

A hand grasps my arm, steadying me before I can get too off-balance. Looking up, I find a smiling Brendan looking down at me. I’m reminded of how much I appreciated him at nineteen. I liked that I was never guessing if he was interested in me or not—unlike with Cade. Even now, it seems like the interest is still there. He hasn’t
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  • Rewrite Our Story: Best Friend's Brother Second Chance    87

    CAMDENI’m sitting in my tiny office in the Sutten gallery, reviewing new pieces I’m having shipped here, when the bell to the gallery chimes. My eyes fall to the time in the corner of my monitor screen. It’s barely seven in the morning. We aren’t open yet. We aren’t open at all today. Almost every piece of art had sold at the opening over the weekend. And anything that didn’t sell that night sold on Monday. It’s Wednesday, so the gallery is empty, and I won’t have new inventory until this weekend.Sighing, I push my chair away from my desk and head down the hallway. I hadn’t bothered locking the door to the gallery because I thought the closed sign on the door and the lack of lights would inform anyone curious enough to wander by that we were closed.I’m ready to tell the customer I have nothing to sell them when my feet come to a halt. It isn’t a customer in the gallery. It’s Pippa.She doesn’t notice me, her eyes trained on a piece of art on the far wall that isn’t for sale. It was

  • Rewrite Our Story: Best Friend's Brother Second Chance    86

    “What’s that?” Lenora yells, sitting forward slightly. Her forehead bumps against the bowl of the dryer. She tries to swat it away, but it doesn’t work. “You said you and him have already boinked?”“No!” I screech, sitting forward so quickly I almost fall out of my chair. “Definitely not. Never going to happen.”“You had a hot encounter with the new art owner?” Rosemary asks, equally as loud as her friend.I didn’t think it could get any worse, but it does. It totally does because I know this town, and I know even if I stood on my chair and addressed every single person in here to tell them Camden and I most definitely have never slept together, the rumors would still spread like wildfire, thanks to Rosemary’s outlandish question.This can’t be happening. I begin to think of what alias I’ll live under when I move halfway across the country. I always wanted to be named after a princess when I was younger. Could I pass as an Ariel? Or maybe Aurora? What was Snow White’s name again? Was

  • Rewrite Our Story: Best Friend's Brother Second Chance    85

    PIPPA“Pippa, darling, who are you getting freaky with lately?”I’d respond to the sweet old lady sitting in the salon chair next to me, but I’m too busy choking on the latte I’d been sucking down. I sputter, trying to swallow the iced coffee that’d gone down the wrong pipe.“Stop wiggling,” Rhonda chides, holding on tight to a chunk of my hair as I try not to die at the words from a lady who hosts her bible studies at Wake and Bake some mornings.“What?” Rosemary asks innocently, like the question she asked me was completely normal conversation for a Saturday afternoon at the hair salon.“You can’t just go asking young ladies who they’re boinking, Rosemary,” Lenora chides from next to her friend. They’re both old enough to be my grandmother. In fact, they both were very close with my Grandma Pat before she passed.“Who uses the word boinking?” Rosemary fires back, her focus on the gossip magazine in front of her. I wish I was underneath one of the hair dryers so I could pretend this

  • Rewrite Our Story: Best Friend's Brother Second Chance    84

    CAMDENI take a second before going back to the event. Pippa walked out the door a few minutes ago, yet I haven’t moved since she left. It still smells like her in my office, the scent of her surrounding me, even though I’d prefer it not to. I don’t like how she smells unlike any woman I know. I’m used to the scent of a few different expensive perfumes. All women in my circle wear the same handful of fragrances. They’re either way too flowery or way too overpowering.Pippa doesn’t smell like either. Everywhere she goes, she leaves the scent of vanilla and strawberries. I find myself taking a deep inhale, hating myself for wanting to get another waft of her.I stare ahead of me at the statue in the corner of my office. It’s something I almost didn’t bring with me from Manhattan. It wasn’t intended to be sold; there was no reason for me to bring it with me. But I couldn’t help it.And now after watching Pippa marvel at it, I’m wondering if maybe it has a chance to sell. Maybe I should g

  • Rewrite Our Story: Best Friend's Brother Second Chance    83

    PIPPAI don’t know if I’ve ever seen something so beautiful that it took my breath away. I’m speechless, allowing my finger to gently run over the carved curves of the statue.It’s of a couple, but only from their waist up. They clutch one another so delicately, so fiercely, that it’s obvious they’re in love. You look at them and it seems like something is trying to keep them apart, but they’re clinging to each other so tightly, like they won’t let anything come between them. The way her back arches, it appears as if some outside force you can’t see is pulling her from him.“This is stunning,” I whisper, running my finger along their outstretched arms.“You think?” Camden keeps his voice poised, but I can feel his gaze hot on me.“Why isn’t it on display out there? It would sell immediately.”“The artist doesn’t want to sell it.”I look at him in shock. Who wouldn’t want to sell this masterpiece? I don’t know anything about art, but it’s so intricate I have to imagine so many people w

  • Rewrite Our Story: Best Friend's Brother Second Chance    82

    CAMDENPippa tries to wiggle out of my grip, but I don’t give her any leeway. She isn’t leaving. But this sorry excuse of a human I regret ever inviting sure is.“You can’t be serious,” Jason hisses, outstretching his hands to try and play it cool.It isn’t.He just called Pippa stupid in multiple different ways, and he thinks everything is cool? Absolutely pathetic.“Camden, it’s fine,” Pippa insists from my side. “I can go.”I don’t even give an answer. There’s no way in hell she’s going anywhere when she’s done nothing wrong.“Jason, don’t make any more of a scene than you already have. You can leave, or I can make you leave, which would make me very, very upset because I don’t like drama or theatrics.”“You’re going to defend a server over me? I’ve been friends with your father since before you were born.”I hate the feeling of all eyes on us. I’ve never been one who enjoys attention. It reminds me of when I was a child and my parents would parade me around to all of their friends

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