“When?”
“Tomorrow.” He looked and sounded sincere. “I would have told him tonight, but I figured it was best to have that conversation in private.”
“You’re really going to tell him?”
“I already have plans to swing by the office tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to tell him the truth while I’m there.”
“What about us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you plan to tell your brother about us, too?”
“There’s an us?” He smirked with a repeat of her earlier question.
Alex’s heart felt like it would burst out of her chest. “I don’t know, is there?”
“That’s up to you, sweetheart.”
Was she ready to put herself out there again?
If not now, then when? And if not with this man, then who?
She questioned her sanity because, in that moment, Alex found herself wanting to say yes. To the dating. The dinner and movies. Because deep down, she also wanted more.
So what’s stopping you?
Not a what.
A who.
Evan, or rather, the pain and heartache she’d suffered because of the cheating asshat, is what kept her from an immediate yes. If they did this, if they actually attempted to be together as a real, normal couple, it would open her back up to the possibility of being hurt.
On the other hand, if she continued living a life of guarded solitude, she’d end up all alone. And wasn’t that the very reason she’d used to push Avery into taking that cruise?
It’s where her sister first met Garrett and what brought both him and Colt into both their lives. And as scary as strings and roots were, Alex knew she’d be a giant hypocrite if she didn’t follow her own advice.
Don’t you want more out of life?
That had been the question she’d asked Avery all those years ago. Back when Alex was spending a lot of nights out on the town, still fresh off of her breakup with Evan.
She and Avery had been sitting at a bar, and Alex had been encouraging her introvert sister to put herself out into the world. She’d dared the other woman to goon an adventure by taking a cruise to the Bahamas all by herself. If memory served, the exact words she’d used that night were?—
It’s time you crawled out of your shell and start living.
“If not now, then when?”
“Sorry, what?”
Alex blinked with the realization that she’d whispered the words aloud.
The question was one she’d asked Avery that night at the bar. She hadn’t meant to actually say them aloud. But now that she had, Alex couldn’t bring herself to think of anything else.
If you don’t take a chance on something real now, you might wake up one day to realize it’s too late.
Colt lifted a hand slowly toward her face before palming one cheek. “Alex, you and I both know how short life can be. We’ve witnessed too many close calls not to see it. And I know that, whatever’s going on between us, it might seem like it’s coming out of left field. But the truth is, you and I have been dancing around each other for years, and frankly I’ve decided it’s time for us to stop.”
“Stop what?”
