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He chuckles deeper and casts his eyes over me. He takes me in his arms and hugs me. Tug is a great hugger. “There’s the smile I love to see. Now, tell Tug what’s up with you. I have a sneaky suspicion my brother’s to blame.”
He’s right, of course, but I won’t be the one to tell him about it. If Brady wanted Tug or Liv to know, he would have told them already. I inhale a deep breath. “He’s just hard to figure out, that’s all.”
“You’re right about that. Just don’t give up on him. I saw him with you last night, and I’ve never seen him look at anyone that way before. My brother doesn’t think he deserves you.”
My heart aches. Brady doesn’t think he deserves happiness in any form after Vanessa. He’s punishing himself.
Tug kisses me on top of my head. “You’re good for him, Tori. I hope it works out.” He leaves the kitchen.
I hope it works out, too.
While I’m making a cup of non-alcoholic coffee, Liv enters through the door that connects the garage to the kitchen. Her hair is a rumpled mess, and her eyes look like a raccoon’s. Obviously she didn’t sleep here last night, and she’s been crying.
She throws her stuff down on the table and glares at me ferociously. I stand wordlessly, waiting for her to demand answers, although I don’t have any to give her. I found out about Vanessa when she did.
“That fucking asshole is cheating on me! Can you believe it?”
“Tyler?” I clarify, because with Liv you never know.
“Yes, Tyler.” Her eyebrows reach the sky, and she shakes her head. “While you were losing all our money to Brady, I left with him to go to his place. I told him from the first date that if we were going to get serious, then I wanted to be exclusive, he agreed and I thought he meant it. Last night I finally slept with him, and it was incredible.”
“Okay,” I say, and wait for her to explain the part where Tyler cheated.
She pours a cup of coffee and sits at the table. I take a seat next to her and rub circles with my hand over her back. “When I woke up, he was still out cold. His phone alerted that he had a new text, and I couldn’t resist. I peeked. It was from some girl named Heather. She said she missed him already and had such a great time with him yesterday.”
I study her a moment, thinking about what she said. I guess I was expecting the text to say something more detailed, like Thanks for the fuck.
“Did you ask him about it?”
Guilt creases her brow, and she looks away. “No.”
Uh-oh, I know that guilty look. I remember how she keyed her last boyfriend’s car when she found out he’d cheated on her. “Liv, what did you do?”
“Nothing horrible,” she admits. “But I wanted to. Instead, I wrote ‘fuck off’ on his bathroom mirror in lipstick and came home.”
I smile and brush my hand up and down on her arm. “Liv, I love you. I think you need to talk to him. The text didn’t exactly give much away. Maybe he can explain.” I try to reassure her. She’s never been happier and I hate to see her give up on a good thing without clarifying first.
With her mouth still turned down, she shrugs. “You’re right. I’m going to go call him.”
Liv leaves, and I slink in my chair. Neither Tug nor Liv knows anything about last night. Now if only Brady would come home, all would be wonderful in my world.
Brady
A tapping on my window alerts me, and I bolt upright in my truck. My head hits the roof, and I recoil in pain. When I look out the window, Rodrigo is there and he doesn’t look happy. I grab my head with one hand and open the door with the other.
“What the hell are you doing, sleeping out here in your truck?” Rodrigo asks.
I shield my eyes with my hand to look at him as the bright sunlight shoots pain to the back of my eyeballs. “It was late wh
en I arrived, and all the lights were off.”
“And you’d obviously drunk too much to be around kids.” He fans his hands in front of his nose. “You look like shit, too.”
I chuckle, and it sends a wave of nausea through my gut. “Rough night, Rodrigo.”
“Let me guess, you ran her off.” I nod because talking makes my head pound harder.
“Why do you do this shit to yourself? I think this one likes you even.”
