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He shrugs. “I had to catch you before you left. I never fucking see you anymore.” Hopping up on the counter, he stares me down.
“What?” I ask, not giving him my eyes. I don’t want to talk to him about his sister, and if I’m being real, I know that’s exactly where this is going.
“You seriously just letting her go, then?”
I snap my head up, his bluntness catching me off guard. “What do you know about it?” No, but seriously, what does he know about it? I’m half-curious about what he has to say, half-curious if I’m about to be knocked out for sleeping with his sister.
“Look, I don’t really want to get involved, but I’d also rather never see my little sister sob again either.”
“Sob? What? When?” I set the mug down on the counter with a heavy hand.
“Last night at family dinner.”
“I wasn’t invited,” I state, wondering why. I wouldn’t have gone. It’s not fair of me to show up to her family’s events after what happened… but an invitation would be nice.
“I know, I needed to talk to her without you there and I didn’t think she would if you showed up. Not that you would have shown up.” He lifts a brow. “I hear you’re pretty good at not showing up.”
There it is.
I’ve never had to deal with “pissed-off big brother Enzo,” at least, not directed at me. But I was ready for it.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” I say softly. “I love her, man,” I tell him bluntly. “I didn’t mean to, but I fell for her years ago and the feeling never ceased. If anything, it got stronger.”
“So, why are you letting her go then?”
I lift a brow at him. “Seriously? You’re not going to beat the shit out of me?”
“Listen.” He runs a hand over his stomach. “I work out, and I know I can handle myself in a fight, but I don’t have death wishes and one punch from your giant ass and I’d be in the ground. So no, I’m not fighting with you.” We both chuckle at that. “But I am asking, are you going to let her go? Or are you going to fight?”
I sigh and let my head fall forward, leaning my body back against the counter behind me. “I don’t know how to balance this stuff, man. She’s important to me, the most important thing in my world, but I have to work crazy hours to finish this house and I don’t know how to make her see all that I’m doing.”
“Have you told her all that’s involved? You know she works for a living as well. I’m not under any illusions that she doesn’t understand hard work.”
I frown. “I never thought she wouldn’t understand, but she’s already working like crazy and doesn’t need to know about how stressful this job is.”
“Why wouldn’t she need to know that?”
I lift my head and glance at the clock. If I leave now, I’ll beat everyone to the site by at least an hour. It’s unnecessary but keeps me busy. “Why does she need to know? My job is to make her life less stressful, not add to it.”
“That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.” If possible, he sarcastically cocks his head. “Have you been hanging out with War? ’Cause you sound a lot like him.”
I roll my eyes. “I do not. He was dense.”
“Whatever, we’re not talking about them. What are you going to do about Viv?”
I rub my neck and sigh. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. I feel… lost. Like I’m missing a fucking limb.”
“So why haven’t you talked to her?”
“Because she dumped me!” I say, my voice rising, my frustration getting the best of me. “She dumped me after a few missed dates, she didn’t even try.” I lift my hands to my sides before balling my hands into fists, the memory of that night firmly at the forefront of my mind. “Every time I think about it, I still can’t fucking believe it.”
Enzo stays quiet, watching me carefully.
“Do you know why she did it?” There’s a desperation in my voice that I don’t even try to mask. If he knows I’m in love with his sister, then he’s going to have to deal with the fallout of that. I didn’t pursue this confrontation, but I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to solve this problem. “Why didn’t she talk to me?”
He sighs and shrugs his shoulders. “She just said you missed some dates. But I gathered that wasn’t the only reason. Something about you two not being ‘official’ or whatever.”
I groan and let my head fall into my hands. “I didn’t officially ask her to be with me, but we’d beentogether.”
