Page 56 of All for Love

“How is it unfair?” I frowned at him. “If it is true, and I’m not saying it is, but if it is true, I’m the one who got his heart broken. That’s not unfair to anyone else. I’m the one who’s hurting and I’ll deal with it.”

“No, see, that’s the thing. It’s unfair to Dad. He’s been looking for love for a long time and now that he’s finally found it, you find it in her daughter. That’s just messed up. How many women have chased after you? How many prospects have you had? Yet you didn’t give anyone else a chance. No one.”

I sighed, lowering my head to scrub my palms over my face as reality set in. “Okay, look, I honestly don’t know if you’re right. Maybe it’s true. Maybe I do love her, but it doesn’t matter and it’s not going to affect Dad because it’s over.”

“Is it really, though?” he pressed. “Are you one hundred percent sure that it is absolutely, completely over? There’s zero chance of you acting like you’re in some romantic comedy and making a grand romantic gesture at Christmas dinner?”

“I am one hundred percent sure that it is absolutely, completely over,” I repeated dutifully after him. “I also know that I live in the real world and that I’m not in a rom-com. I’m definitely not going to make a grand, romantic gesture and ask Mercedes to marry me while we’re all sitting down for Christmas dinner.”

For a beat, we just sat there, staring at each other. Eventually, after his mouth had opened and closed a few times without a sound escaping, he swallowed hard. “Did you just say the M-word?”

“I did.” I picked up my beer and downed the rest of it while signaling the bartender for another round. “I don’t know where that came from, but it was some kind of slip. I’m pleading temporary insanity.”

Kaden drained his beer as well, flagging down a server and asking for two shots of tequila before turning back to me. “This is a real problem, bro.”

“I know. It could’ve been, but there’s nothing to worry about now. She ended things. Not me. Mercedes. After Thanksgiving.”

I was expecting another lecture, but instead, he winced and wrinkled his nose. “I’m sorry. I mean, I’m glad it’s over, but I’m sorry you got hurt. I really didn’t think that was something I had to worry about.”

“Yeah, well, it happens to the best of us, right? The point is that there’s nothing going on between us. It was a slip-up. An error in judgment and I’m moving on. If I really did fall for her, I’ll get over it. People do it every day. It’s not a big deal.”

“Maybe, but it’s not easy,” he said. “If you’re serious about moving on, then you’ve got to make a real effort to do it. It’s not just something you can wish for and make it happen.”

“Nothing is.”

He shrugged. “Either way, you’d better mean it that you’re letting this go.”

“I do mean it. I just told you she ended things, and trust me when I tell you she was serious. Pissed as hell about I don’t even know what and serious as a heart attack. That’s what we argued about and that’s what’s causing the tension. It ended on a bad note and I still don’t know why.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to make your peace with it,” he said. “Do what you need to do to get over it, and get the fuck over it.”

“I will,” I said, even though I had no idea how. “Uh, any ideas on making it happen?”

He thought it over before he shrugged. “Bring a date to the Christmas party at the estate next weekend. Send the message home that it really is over. That’s as good a place as any to start. If the door is closed, it needs to stay closed. The best way of making sure it does is to make her think you’re moving on for real.”

“I am moving on for real,” I insisted. “I mean, I don’t know how to move on when I’m not even sure if I have feelings for her. But I am moving on. She and I are over.”

“Good,” he said. “Let me know if you need any help finding a date for the party.”

My eyebrows jumped as I pushed back a laugh, shaking my head at him. “When have I ever needed help finding a date? I’m possibly heartbroken, man. I’m not fucking dead.”

Our drinks arrived. He laughed and raised his bottle for a toast. Waiting until I was holding mine in the air as well, he leveled me with a serious look. “To the end of your fling with our stepsister and new beginnings.”

“I’m not drinking to that.” I crashed my bottle into his and drank anyway, but not to that. I was drinking to me and to never fucking feeling like this again.