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“Jesus.” I followed him along the hallway and up the stairs. “She did it to try to make you jealous.”
“She failed. All it did was irritate me. I have no patience for such petty mind games.”
“Has she done it before?”
“Yes. Twice. I didn’t respond on those occasions, either. That evidently didn’t deter her from doing it again.” Tossing back more beer, he prowled into our bedroom.
Propping my hip against the doorjamb, I remained silent as he pottered around—setting down his bottle, removing his wristwatch, emptying the pockets of his slacks and placing the contents on the surface of his dresser.
The hardness in my gut from earlier was melting away, because I felt bad for him. If Lake had a twin that not only made it clear he cared for me but pulled silly stunts to get my attention, I’d be seriously conflicted. On the one hand, I wouldn’t want to hurt the brother of the man I’d loved and so I’d prefer to dismiss his behavior—even if only because Lake wouldn’t have wanted us to be at odds. But at the same time, I’d be so goddamn angry that they’d persisted in their advances.
Would I have been uncomfortable sharing that with Dax? No. But we were different kinds of people. Maybe too different to ever really be friends.
I pushed away from the doorjamb and walked into the room. “You have a choice to make here and now.”
His eyes flew to mine as he took another swig from his bottle.
“I don’t like that you kept Mimi’s calls from me. But I can’t force you to be open with me—you have the right to keep stuff to yourself if it’s really what you want. And if it is, I’ll respect that. But it’ll have to be a two-way street, Dax. That’s the only fair way to do this. Either we’re both honest even when we don’t want to be, or neither of us are expected to be. Choose.”
Again, he set his bottle down on the dresser. “I already chose. I want honesty between us.” Rubbing at his jaw, he crossed to me. “I should have told you that Mimi tried to contact me.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You would have asked why she’d do that. Would have asked why I hadn’t called her back. Would have guessed the situation I’m in with Mimi.” His jaw tightened. “I don’t like to talk about it.”
“You don’t like to admit out loud that she wants you,” I clarified.
His nostrils flared. “I don’t like that she won’t accept nothing’s ever going to happen between us. I don’t like that she doesn’t respect how I feel and, more, how Idon’tfeel. I don’t like that she makes a point of looking so much like Gracie in an effort to manipulate me.”
Mimi might think the latter would instead make her more attractive to him, but in reality it would only serve to remind him of what he lost. “The whole thing is messed up. Selfish. Cruel, too.”
“And pointless. I made that clear. Repeatedly. She always nodded, smiled, apologized, blamed the alcohol. But then she’d do it again.”
I suspected he wouldn’t have tolerated it from anyone else. He’d given her chance after chance because she was the sister of the woman he consideredthe one.For Gracie, he’d held back, hoping Mimi would stop.
“Now that you’re married, she’ll surely give up. I mean, she’ll assume you care for me.” I felt my brow pucker as something occurred to me. “Then again, she’s also convinced you’ll never let Gracie go, so she might not take your commitment to me seriously.”
His shoulders lifted and fell. “There’s no telling with Mimi. Personally, I think there’s a good chance she now hates me enough to walk away and never come back.”
Maybe. But considering she’d been so persistent all these years in trying to wangle her way into his affections, I wasn’t certain she’d let marital bliss stop her. Cocking my head, I asked, “Was it really so hard to share all that with me?”
He hesitated. “It’s not something I do.”
“I get that you’re not much of a sharer. But we said we’d be friends. As things stand, we’re not. We don’t need to be besties. I’m not asking you to devote lots of your time and attention to me. I’d simply rather we weren’t bed-buddies occupying the same house, you know?”
His brow furrowing, he inched closer, eliminating the tiny bit of space between us so our bodies now touched and his scent blanketed me—inadvertently making my belly flutter and my pulse get all excited. “I don’t think of you as a bed-buddy, Addison.”
“You don’t treat me as anything else, whether you realize it or not,” I gently pointed out. “It may not be your intention, but that’s how things currently are. Unless you want them to stay that way, we need to build some level of friendship.” Otherwise, all we had was sex.
A long, shallow sigh eased out of him. “I’ll work on it,” he eventually relented.
My snort was soft. “Don’t betooenthusiastic about it.”
“It isn’t in my nature to befriend people.”
“I’ve noticed. But you’re tough. You can handle it.” Flashing him a small smile, I added, “I might even get you a ‘friends forever’ necklace as a reward.”
His lips quirked. “A ‘friends forever’ necklace?”
