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Wes bristled. “Far enough.”
I had to walk it back without appearing to. “Don’t be so grumpy. I’m dying for a nice long walk. Tell me about it. Are walks still the same? Let me live vicariously through you, brother. See any cute chicks?”
Wes flinched. “Unlike you, I can think of something other than women for a second.” His nostrils flared.
He didn’t fool me. I know this walk had to do with one woman in particular, Jen. Every day for the past few weeks, he’s sat here like a puppy and waited for her to come in. The first day he’s gone is the first day Jen brings someone into the room. Something happened between them, and I needed to figure out what it was. To help, of course. I decided to jump right into it.
“You missed her.”
Wes scrunched up his face in an exaggerated look of confusion. He knew exactly who I was talking about. The more he tried to hide it, the more I believed I was right.
“Who?” Wes asked.
“Your girlfriend, you idiot.” He was really starting to piss me off. Did he think I was stupid? We were a part of the same tribe and family. Our blood and bone matched. What did he have to gain from hiding anything from me?
Wes’s face softened. “She’s not my girlfriend.” He said wistfully.
My heart softened. Perhaps he wanted her to be, but she had rejected him?
“Is that because you don’t want her to be or because she doesn’t want to be?”
A shadow crossed Wes’s face. “She’s got an ex-husband.”
I suppressed a laugh. He said it in the same tone one might vocalize a cancer diagnosis. “An ex-husband. What’s that got to do with you?” Although I was familiar with my brother’s insecurity and jealousy, I wanted him to vocalize what was bothering him, for his sake.
“Nothing. Well, everything,” he paused. “She told me she has a complicated life and she doesn’t want to get involved with anyone because of that.”
Wes actually brought up a relationship to her face? I was impressed. His feelings for her must be deeper than I initially thought. And she didn’t turn him down? A stab of jealousy entered my heart. I’ve been trying to ignore my growing affection for my caregiver, but it was undeniable. She’d wiggled her way into my heart, and I had no idea what to do with it because she had also caught my brothers’ eyes. What a mess. But Wes never had any luck with women. I saw the way she looked at him. She opened and her light spilled out into the room when he made her laugh. There was something between them. I couldn’t let either of them ruin it. “Read between the lines dummy.”
Wes’s face crumpled as if I’d slapped him. “You think she’s blowing me off? But, is being polite?”
That’s the exact opposite of what I think. I tried to put my palm over my eyes to fake a dramatic faint, but it simply made me tired. “No dummy. I think she’s telling you she feels the same way, but rudely.”
“What?” Wes looked genuinely confused.
“She didn’t say no. Jen told you about why she’s afraid. So, do you know what you need to do with that information?” I was confident in my observation skills. People always let their guards down in front of me. Letting me know who they truly were.
“Tell me. What am I supposed to do? I need to fix this.”
“You don’t need to fix anything. She likes you, it’s as obvious as how much you like her. However, her ex-husband was obviously a tool. For whatever reason, she’s been hurt and is nervous about putting her heart out there again.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a ‘no’ to me.”
“It’s not really. It’s a ‘not now’. She doesn’t feel safe or ready. You only have to do things to make her feel safe and wait until she’s ready.”
“What if she’s never ready?” Wes warbled.
He chewed on his cuticles. Wes’s tell for when he was anxious about something. Jen had really wor
med her way under his skin. “If she likes you as much as she seems to, it won’t take her long. You’ve just got to show her you’re trustworthy.”
“Well how the hell am I supposed to do that?”
I did my best to turn over, dragging several tubes with me. “Well, brother, you’ve got to figure some things out for yourself.”
I felt him hover for a few minutes, then leave the room. Good boy, I thought. He’s my brother, so I couldn’t let him sit around and get his heart clobbered, but you could bet your ass I was going to make him work to land the girl of my dreams. Now, we only had Jared to worry about.
Chapter 11
