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She couldn’t swallow. She stared at the dark eyes fixed on her. Something other people were beginning to notice. Including her brother.
“If you love someone, it’s worth the risk. Whether it’s for two weeks, two years…or forever. But something is better than nothing.” He shook his head. “I need more than nothing.”
She cupped a hand over her mouth.
“Hear, hear!” someone shouted, and everyone toasted.
As Bass walked off the platform, people went back to their conversations.
And now Bass was walking toward her.
But Ryder stopped him, and the look in her brother’s eyes was a deadly one.
…
“What the hell is going on?” Ryder asked.
“I’ve been seeing Penny,” Bass said, figuring he might as well come out and say it.
“What do you mean you’ve been seeing her?” He blocked Bass’s path. The man was large, about the same height as Bass, but built more like a bruiser than any of their other friends. “You mean you’ve been dating her?”
He paused. He could take the lawyer’s way out and argue semantics, but he knew what Ryder was asking, and the answer was—
“Yes.”
Ryder’s face turned a shade of red reserved for people he was ready to punch or run over with his truck. He ushered Bass into the corner and out of earshot. Not that it stopped everyone from glancing at them.
“You mean you’ve been fucking her,” he growled.
“It’s not like that,” Sebastian said.
“I know you,” Ryder said. “I know what you do with women. I know how you operate.”
“Maybe it started out like that. But without me meaning for it to, without me realizing it was happening, it turned into much more.”
Ryder took another step toward him, fists clenched at his side. “Did you hurt her? Use and then abandon her like you do all the other women you see?”
“I didn’t use her.” But he had abandoned her. Something he was anxious to rectify.
“Bullshit! How long has this been going on?”
“Two weeks.”
“Two weeks? For two weeks you’ve lied to me? Shamed my sister in whatever way your twisted mind felt like and walked around like nothing was going on?”
Ryder was beyond pissed, and Bass had no choice but to take whatever he dished out. He knew this was the consequence.
“I know I fucked up when it came to lying to you. And I know I’m not good enough for her. That’s why I broke it off. But I can’t take it anymore. I want Penny. I want to be with her—”
“Well you can’t have her. She’s the sweetest, kindest person in the world. She deserves better than someone who’s just going to leave her.”
“I’m not going to leave her,” he said. “It scares the hell out of me, but I’ll stay with her for as long as she’ll have me.”
Ryder clenched his fists. “You and I both know Penny deserves way better than you. Look me in the eye, all bullshit aside, and tell me you of all people are the best man for her.”
Bass stared at his friend. He couldn’t deny the facts. Ryder had thrown in reasonable doubt. Was Bass “the best man for her?”
He sensed movement on the sidelines. It was Penny, making her way to the front of the crowd. He looked at her as he said, “I’m not the best man, but I’m damn sure going to try to be.”
