“Don’t hate,” Margot balks indignantly at Halle who must have said something I missed. “I need slow in my life otherwise my brain short-circuits. Relationships can only be fed to me in small, easy to swallow pieces like I’m a ninety-year-old after a stroke. The trip is overload.”
“You’re annoying,” I tease. “The man is head over heels in love with you. Get over it. And seriously, such a hardship, going to the Bahamas for a vacation.”
“Fine,” Margot relents. “Point made. Someone tell me something else that’s not about stupid men.”
“Speaking of being pregnant, Jonah and I are talking about trying.” Halle blushes about a million shades brighter than the sun. Her eyes flicker to Jonah who is still nursing his drink at the bar, but his gaze is forever and always on her. “Maybe in the next few months.”
“Holy crap,” Aria squeals. “That’s amazing.”
“It really is,” I say with gleeful joy, hugging my friend and kissing her cheek. “I can’t wait to be an aunty again. I’ll babysit whenever the hell. Stella loves me. Ask her. I’m the best.”
Halle laughs against me. “We’re not there yet. We haven’t even started trying.”
“Babies. Wow. I mean, just wow. I cannot wait to see your pretty belly all big and beautiful with life.” Aria is practically in tears with this idea, and I watch as she casts a longing glance in Wes’s direction. Oh boy. I think Halle might have started something here.
I take this effusive happiness as my moment and after downing another large gulp of my martini, I blow out a silent breath and say, “Since we’re all for shock value right now, I’m contemplating getting down and dirty with Brecken as we’re the only two singles left standing.”
And that’s when Aria topples backward off her chair.
Like actually arse over teakettle as my mother would say onto the dingy bar floor.
What the fuck just happened? Maybe that wasn’t the right way to phrase it? Down and dirty? Seriously, Rina? For real?
“Shit,” I gasp, pushing Margot aside. Scrambling out of the booth, I rush over to my friend who is shooting daggers up at me.
Oh my god. I suck in a startled breath.
That wasn’t shock.
That was anger.
My heart thrashes violently in my chest as I help her up. I blink at her, trying to organize my thoughts. What do I say? Do I tell her that he and I are a couple or in a relationship or just having fun or…? God, he says we’re in a relationship, but he’s leaving. He says we’re a couple, but he wants to move back to New York as quickly as he can. In fact, if his boss offered him asylum back in New York, he’d take it tomorrow without so much as a backward glance.
What the hell am I doing?
“I was kidding. Christ. Over-the-top reaction much?”
My palms are sweating, and I chance a quick glance at Brecken only to find both him and Wes standing, staring over at us. Our eyes lock for a half second, and I frown. Brecken does too, and I immediately return to Aria whose arms are folded across her chest, gawking at me like I just told her her art sucks.
Wow, this is bad. Really bad.
“Brecken is a notorious womanizer and an eternal self-proclaimed bachelor so, no, not over-the-top reaction. I don’t want my friends getting involved with my brother. I wasn’t joking about that. He’s bad news.”
“He’s your brother,” Halle points out. “Doesn’t that seem, I don’t know, harsh?”
Aria stabs a finger in her direction. “Exactly.”
“She’s not wrong,” Josh agrees with a glint in his eyes. “He’s a fine piece of man candy for sure, but a total asshole to date. He used to ruin girls in high school. Just ask some of Aria’s former best friends.”
“It’s true,” Aria goes on. “I lost my best friend. Well, my female best friend.” She grins at Josh, but it doesn’t meet her eyes. “He broke their hearts and they all blamed me for it. All the girls did and by the end of high school, I had no one left except Josh. It was brutal.”
“That wouldn’t be us,” I say meekly.
“I mean it. I don’t want you doing anything with Brecken.”
I laugh. It’s awkward and strained. My stomach churns as I think about all that she just said. All that I’ve been doing behind her back.
“Fine. No getting naughty with your brother. Better now?”
And all that churning acid tries to come up the back of my throat. I have to swallow it down along with my guilt and my heart. But... I mean, I don’t think he’s quite the womanizer she says he is. In fact, he hasn’t so much as looked at any other woman in my presence.
Not once.
And they look. Trust me on this. They freaking look with longing, lustful eyes. He doesn’t notice them. Because he’s looking at me, not them. He’s always looking at me.
But it’s clear Aria doesn’t want it to happen. Hell, she fell off her damn chair over it. And like I said, he isn’t sticking around. I’m putting my heart and my friendship with Aria on the line for a man who could be gone at any second.
“Yes,” Aria grumbles, rubbing her ass before reclaiming her seat as I reclaim mine, falling dejectedly into it and taking another sip of my drink because I don’t know what else to do. “I’m just looking out for you,” she explains, her tone softening. “For us. I won’t lose my friendship with you the way I lost those others.”
I nod numbly.
But I can feel her watching me. Same with Margot and likely Halle and Josh, but I can’t look at any of them.
Instead, I polish off my drink.
I finish my drink, look up, and lie to my friend. “I’m not doing anything that requires that sort of oversight. Like I said, it was a joke.”
Only it wasn’t.
I’m sleeping with her brother. We’re involved in something he refers to as a relationship.
Does that make him my boyfriend? Jesus. Now what do I do? I never wanted any of this. Relationships. Complications. Lies. I should have never started this in the first place, and I knew it. I fucking knew it.
I have to end it.
For my sanity. To protect my heart. For the sake of my friendship with Aria. I can’t lose Aria. I didn’t realize when this started that Aria would react so strongly. I had no idea the extent of what happened between Brecken and Aria’s friends.
I may like Brecken. I may like him a whole lot. And though the idea of ending it hurts more than it should at this point, it’s the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do, I remind myself.
I can’t lose my friend. I can’t risk my heart. Especially over a guy who is nothing but temporary.
29
Brecken
“How long have you been hooking up with Rina?” Drew asks, and I smirk into my whiskey.
“A few weeks.”
“It getting serious?”
Yes, I want to say immediately, but how can I? Things are coming to a boiling point at work. I’ll admit, it’s taken longer to get to this point than I previously anticipated, but yeah. Today alone I made two trades for James Darcy. I have no idea if they were on the up-and-up or not. I stopped looking because I can’t stomach the truth.