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“Digging into my fucking private life?”
“For Brandi? Fuck yeah.”
I stare up at the sky, blue with some streaks of cloud, almost like the storm had never happened. Slipping my thumbs in the belt loops of my jeans, I sigh, then make myself look at Brian.
“I’m not an idiot,” I say quietly. “I don’t care that you know she looks like Jessica, but that’s not why I slept with her. Their resemblance is why I stayed the hell away from her for as long as I did.” Even telling himthatmuch has my neck turning red. I don’t like to share, and he’s prying more than I let anyone else.
Brian’s eyes narrow. “Do I need to explain she’s not—”
“What? A one-night stand? I never said she was.”
“Then what is she?”
A cool breeze starts up and in the near distance traffic moves along the roads now that they are clear and life can return to normal. Or as normal as it can for those whose homes might have been damaged. Still, this is a good day because no lives have been lost, and… and there’s Brandi waiting for me at the school. Whatever the hell that means.
Because Brian’s question gets to me. I haven’t even had time to process what happened between us, and I don’t know how to answer him without admitting that I hadn’t been thinking about the future with her when I’d been buried in her heat. But I want to know the answer. I want to be able to answer him.
But not yet.
“You ever think, Brian, that one of the reasons I kept away from her was the attraction to her I didn’t expect? I should hate her on sight, and you know why. But I didn’t. They’re nothing alike,” I say.
Brian shakes his head. “That’s not an answer, and you know it. You’re not a fucking kid. She is.”
“Are you even listening to yourself here?” I drop my hands and straighten up as an anger and deep stubbornness starts to rise in me. “She’s not a kid. Hell, I’m not a fucking kid. Bottom line, Brian—we’re not teens and you’re not her father.”
“You don’t even know about her past, and—”
“That’s for her to tell me. So keep your mouth shut. Honestly, I’d think you’d want something good for her, or a chance at it, you know? And I like to think of myself as the type of person who has his shit together and might just be good enough to give her that.”
“Not what I meant,” Brian says. “And you know it.”
I suddenly pivot away and wipe a hand over the back of my neck, then stare down at the reflection of Brian in the window of my car. “I can’t tell you what this is, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay.”
I breathe in deep, trying to keep everything calm inside because I like Brian and don’t exactly want to punch him in the face right now. Even if he deserves it.
“You’re asking if this is a one-night stand”—I ignore the softly spoken son of a bitch—“and what my intentions are. I’m not an idiot. If I tell you it’s not a one-night stand, I’d be lying. Right now, it is. I haven’t even talked to her about it yet. But I’ll tell you what I haven’t told her, because you’re determined to sit on a high horse where she’s concerned and act like the big brother in a situation that’s none of your business.” I tap the roof of the car, letting some of the tension I’m feeling out so I don’t break it. “I’m not going to treat her like some chick I picked up at a bar. That’s not because of where we work. Last night we got talking and… I got to see past my own assholery to her. Who sheis. She’s nothing like my ex. Not where it counts.”
Brian doesn’t speak as a car pulls up nearby and one of the Serenity Harbor officers arrives for work. We wave hello, but it isn’t until we’re alone again that Brian speaks. “If you hurt her, you’re not just hurtingher, Trav. She’s one of our dispatchers, yeah. But she’s the one who kept Maya safe when I couldn’t. I owe her my life. You hurt her, and you’re making an enemy of me and most of the department that has nothing to do with sleeping with a dispatcher.”
“I’m not planning on a ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ situation. Beyond that, it’s none of your business. I know she’s not my ex. I know she’s your friend. I know all this shit. And Brandi knows about the similarities. I want to see her again, but like I said from the start… what happens between us is none of your business.”
Brian breathes out hard, then nods curtly. “You’re right.”
“I always am.” But I nod back at him and say, “And I’m not setting out to do anything except spend as much time as possible with her. If she’ll let me.”
“Okay. But if you break her heart, you won’t get a chance to live long enough to regret it.”
And with that, my friend stomps to his car and drives away.
I find myself waiting for Brandi outside the school later. She frowns at me just moments after her green eyes light up and in a way that makes my dick harden.
“Hi.”
“I thought I’d drive you to work and your car.” Heat starts a slow burn in my neck and face. “You’re working tonight, right?”
She nods and stops a little way from me. “I don’t need you to check up on me. I won’t break.” Brandi swallows and looks up and past my shoulder and I really want to cup her cheek so that I can get those green eyes back on me.
