An hour later, I was impatiently waiting for my pizza to arrive. Since I hadn't gotten the delicious lunch my mother had undoubtedly cooked, I was ravenous.
I bounded off the couch when the doorbell rang and hurried to the front door. When I opened the door, money in hand, and saw who was on the other side, I froze.
Brody stood on my front porch, extra large supreme pizza in hand. "Hey."
I recovered from the unexpected surprise. "New career?"
He grinned. "Maybe. This is a trial run."
I reached out to take the pizza from him but he tugged it back out of my reach.
"Nope. You still have to pay me."
"Here," I said, waving the money in my hand toward him.
Brody shook his head. "Payment is information."
"Information on what?" I asked, my stomach growling as the incredible cheesy aroma floated into the house.
"On why you left your parents' house in a snit today. J.J. was locked up tighter than a bank vault."
Suddenly, my appetite waned and I backed away from the front door. Brody took that as an invitation to come inside and brushed by me into the living room. I shut the door behind him and followed him into the kitchen.
He set the pizza on the counter and looked at me. "Plates?"
I walked around him to the pantry and pulled out two paper plates. It was my day off. I definitely didn't want to wash dishes.
I handed the plates to Brody and stuck my head in the fridge to grab two Cokes. Thoughts zipped through my brain so quickly that I couldn't catch a single one. I didn't want to get between Brody and J.J. and I was worried that an honest answer to his request would put me squarely in the center. At the same time, we definitely needed to talk
"Couch or table?" he asked.
I walked to the couch in the living room without a word and plopped down. Brody grabbed a handful of paper towels and brought them with the plates.
He sat on the opposite end of the couch, handed me a plate, and asked, "What happened?"
I stared down at my pizza, my stomach heavy rather than growling.
"That bad, huh?" Brody asked.
I finally looked up at him. "Not bad. I feel awkward talking to you about this."
"Why?" He took a huge bite of his pizza and stared at me as he chewed.
I had to laugh because his cheeks were puffed out like a chipmunk's and there was no way I could take him seriously. I'd known him long enough to understand that he wasn't going to let this go. I was pretty sure he was the only person I knew who was as stubborn as I was.
I waited until he swallowed before I answered. "It was about you."
"What?" he asked. Then he choked. Which was exactly what I wanted to avoid and the reason I hadn't answered until he finished the first bite.
I put my plate on the coffee table and leaned over to smack the palm of my hand between his shoulder blades.
After a few seconds he waved me off and grabbed his Coke. Once he'd settled and taken a few sips, he turned to look at me.
"Why exactly was your brother fighting with you about me?"
Man, I wanted to lie so badly. I didn't want to tell him the truth because I was pretty certain that, despite what J.J. said, Brody Murphy didn't have a thing for me. And it was going to sting when he admitted it after I explained what happened.
Fuck it. I'd been embarrassed in front of Brody before. I was also a grown woman. I'd live.
"J.J. warned me not to break your heart. For some reason he thinks you've had a thing for me since high school."
If I hadn't been looking straight at him, I would have missed the change in his expression. I couldn't discern exactly what he was thinking, but he no longer looked quite as relaxed.
"Is that so hard to believe?" he asked.
I nearly laughed but tamped down on the knee-jerk reaction. Based on the strange expression on Brody's face and the tension in his upper body, he probably wouldn't agree that it was funny.
"Um, well...yeah, Brody. You weren't exactly flirty when I was in high school." My eyes flicked away from his. "Most of the time, you acted like you could barely stand me."
He took a deep breath. "I should have known he would see right through it anyway," he mumbled.
Wait. What?
My eyes moved back to his and I knew they were huge. "It's true?"
I couldn't figure out how I felt. It was an amalgam of euphoria, anger, hurt, and, strangely, fear.
Brody evaded the question. "This is what you fought with J.J. about?"
"Not exactly. It was because he seems to think I'm a man-eater leaving a trail of broken men in my wake. I would never intentionally hurt someone, especially if I cared about them."
"So does that mean you care about me?"
I gave him a dry look. "How about you answer my question first and then I'll answer yours?"
He didn't reply right away but eventually he said, "You've always been...special to me."
I could feel my eyebrows lifting as I stared at him. "And you're special to me too, Brody," I stated, my delivery as wooden as a two-by-four.
He huffed out a laugh. "Okay, so I had a thing for you senior year, but I knew better. You were too young for me. It wouldn't have been right."
"Had a thing for me?"
"You're not going to cut me an inch of slack, are you?" he asked.
I cocked my head. "You should know better than that."
He shook his head and laughed. "And to think I missed this."
My skin felt too tight for my body. I pulled my legs up, resting my heels on the couch cushions, and wrapped my arms around my shins.
"You've been...cold to me since then. Until this summer. Can you blame me for being skeptical?"
Brody leaned forward and rubbed his hands over his face. "I had to make sure you kept your distance," he admitted.
"Why?"
He met my eyes and chills broke out on my skin. His gaze was intense, as though he could see straight through me. Or he was inviting me to look into him. "Because if you didn't stay away, I wouldn't have been able to keep my hands off you."
Oh, my God. My nipples hardened and I was glad my legs were pressed against my chest so that he couldn't see the reaction he'd elicited.
"Do you realize how much it hurt?" I asked. "Before then, you were such a big part of my life. I spent so much time with you and Jay. I was lost when you put up that wall between us."
"I'm sorry."
His apology didn't magically heal me, but it did soften my heart toward him. Just a little.
"Apology accepted." I cleared my throat. "So what exactly are we doing now?" I had to laugh at the expression on Brody's face and lifted my hands up. "I'm unarmed, I swear."
"Unarmed?"
"You looked like I'd just pulled a gun on you."
He scowled at me. "Did not."
"Whatever you say."
Brody stared at me for a long moment. "Do you need a label on it?"
"Not as long as we're just hanging out," I answered with a shrug. "But it would be different if we were actually..." I trailed off.
"Dating?"
"Yeah, dating. If I'm making out with a guy on a regular basis, I like to have some kind of framework."