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“So you lied to the other ninety-five guests and made her look like the piece of shit?”
Brady’s eyes widened. “Jesus, man. Relax. I lied to take the easy way out and get off the phone quick. I didn’t kill anyone. You look like you’re about to pop me.”
He wasn’t wrong. When I looked down at my hands on the table, they were balled tight. I had to make a conscious effort to unfurl my fists.
“Look,” he said. “I’m sorry if I misrepresented the facts. But let’s not let that get in the way of your visit.” He reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. “I miss you, brother.”
I needed to pull my shit together. Brady wasn’t going to buy that I was pissed off because of what he’d done. Plus, I wanted more information. Like what the fuck happened between them? So I reined myself in.
“Yeah. Okay.” I blew out a deep breath. “So…why did you do it? Call off the engagement?”
Brady sipped his wine. “I don’t know. I’d met this woman at work.” He shook his head. “Athena…Greek…a real bombshell. I started to think about only ever being with one woman for the rest of my life. That’s a long-ass time.”
I squeezed the wine glass so hard I thought it might break. “So you dumped Maddie because you wanted to screw some other woman?”
Brady’s eyebrows furrowed. “Maddie? Who’s Maddie? Wait…isn’t that the woman you met on your road trip?”
Fuck. “Yeah, sorry. Hazel, I meant Hazel.”
“Anyway, Athena and I… We—”
The waitress interrupted our conversation to deliver a giant platter. It smelled delicious, though I had no appetite anymore. She set the giant tray of pasta and seafood down in the middle of the table and used tongs to serve us two heaping plates.
“Would you like some fresh pepper?” She held up an oversized grinder.
“That would be great,” Brady said. “Thanks.”
When she was done, she turned to me. I shook my hand back and forth, even though I’d normally put pepper on anything. “No, thanks.”
After she walked away, I waited for Brady to finish his sentence, to tell me if he’d cheated on Maddie. But instead, he shoveled a huge forkful of spaghetti into his mouth and spoke with it full while pointing at my plate. “Dig in. This stuff is fantastic.”
I tried to not come off as overly interested, but I needed to know. Picking up my fork, I twirled it into the pasta. “So, continue your story. You were talking about this woman, Athena?”
Brady waved me off. “It’s not important. What matters is I’ve come to my senses, and I’m getting my girl back.”
I had no idea how I was going to swallow this forkful of pasta. “She wants to get back together?”
Brady shrugged and plucked a little-neck clam from his plate. He forked the meat off the shell and shoved it into his mouth. “She’s getting there. She wants to make me work for it, though, of course.”
He looked over at my plate and pointed again. “What’s the matter? You don’t like it? I figured it would be right up your alley. Remember that little shack we used to go to off Route 70 for all-you-can-eat fried clams? You always took home a doggy bag and a waitress. Well, that was before you met Z…” He frowned and caught my eye. “Sorry.”
I looked away. “It’s fine. I can talk about her now.”
Brady nodded and offered a sad smile. “I’m glad, buddy. Really glad. Now tell me what’s going on with you. I know something is off, so don’t try to bullshit me again.”
I tried to come up with an explanation he’d buy, but I couldn’t. My mind was too fucked up to formulate a lie. So I went with the truth—a version of it, anyway. “It’s no big deal. I met this girl back in Vail.”
Brady popped a shrimp into his mouth. “Maddie? The one you went on the road trip with.”
“Yeah. I, uh... I guess I fell kinda hard. I thought maybe it could go somewhere, but it turned out she’s unavailable.”
“Unavailable? So, what, she’s married?”
I shook my head. “No. But…she’s sort of seeing someone. I guess it’s been off and on.”
Brady smirked. “So steal her away, Romeo. I’m sure women still fall at your feet. I mean, I think you’re ugly as sin, but the ladies always found something about you appealing.”
Steal her away.
“I wish it were that simple,” I said.
He picked up his wine glass and tilted it toward me. “Are you in love with her?”
My heart started to race. I’d asked myself that very question a few hundred times over the weeks since Maddie had walked out the door in Atlanta. And not until this moment did I truly know the answer. Great fucking timing to have an epiphany.
My shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I think I am.”
