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Becca gasps while Maya stands there, mouth agape. Theo grins and says, “Nice.” Maya elbows him and his expression quickly sobers.
“I’m kidding.” Tyler chuckles before gazing down at me. His smile has softened. He looks sweet and doting now. It makes my skin tingle.
He turns back to his family. “We just finally realized our feelings for each other. You guys kind of helped us do that.”
I nod, remembering what we discussed. “Last night we were hanging out and got to chatting,” I say. “Your back-to-back engagements had us in kind of a romantic tizzy.”
“We decided to say screw it,” Tyler says. “We’ve got a solid friendship as a foundation. Let’s give this romance thing a try.”
I smile up at Tyler, impressed at how smoothly the two of us delivered that. But when I look back at everyone, they still looked confused and shocked.
Just then Gage steps up to Tyler and claps his hand on his shoulder. I step back. Gage is a couple of inches shorter than Tyler, but he’s got more muscle. And judging by the hard expression he’s trained on his brother, he’s pissed.
“Let’s go have a talk,” he says to Tyler.
My stomach drops. This is about to turn into a brawl. Crap.
Chapter 6
Tyler
Gage pulls me to the hallway by the restrooms.
“Dude, what are you?—”
“What are you thinking?” he says, cutting me off.
“What do you mean?”
He doesn’t answer me at first, he just frowns at me, like he’s disappointed in me.
“Hooking up with Tori? Are you serious?” he says.
I hold up a hand. “We’re not hooking up. We’re dating.”
“You expect me to believe that you, the textbook definition of a manwhore, who’s never dated the same woman longer than a week, is suddenly ready to date his closest female friend?”
The brutal way my brother has described my situation has me feeling embarrassed and defensive at the same time.
“His female friend who’s a sweetheart and doesn’t deserve to be dicked around by you,” Gage says.
I let out a heavy sigh. Everything my brother is saying is true. It still stings though.
For a second, I just stand there, processing Gage’s harsh words.
“Manwhore? Really?” I try to joke, but even my tone falls flat. I can’t deny that’s exactly how I’ve acted my entire dating life.
Gage’s expression changes. His frown fades. He looks guilty at what he’s said.
“Sorry. That was a shitty thing to say,” he says. “I didn’t mean it like an insult. And I didn’t mean to shame you. That’s messed up. I’m sorry, man.”
I can tell he feels awful for what he said.
“It’s okay,” I say.
He sighs. “It’s just… You’ve never been the kind of guy who’s ever wanted to be in a relationship. We’re all just supposed to believe that in the space of one evening, you changed your mind? Now you’re Mr. Commitment?”
A weird discomfort rattles me. Is the thought of me being in a relationship really that unbelievable? Am I really that hopeless?
