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I rolled my eyes. "You don't think we need to talk?"
"I'm guessing you'd like some better explanations about Miranda. And maybe about Messina too. Am I right?"
I crossed my arms irritably, but nodded, short and quick.
Brandon laid back into the pillows. How could he could make himself at home so easily? Even in my own room, I felt completely out of place in this moment.
"All right, then," he said. "I'm an open book. What do you want to know?"
"I want to know why you never told me about Miranda."
The question popped out before I had time to think, surprising even me. I would have predicted my first question would have been about Messina. But no, I realized, I was still pretty damn upset about the fact that Brandon was married and had chosen not to tell me.
He sighed. "Going for the jugular, aren't you?"
"Don't do that," I snapped. "Don't do that thing where you deflect my questions and try to be charming."
He rubbed a hand back through his hair and sighed. "Yeah. All right. Well, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? I knew you wouldn't stick around if you knew the truth, and I was already too in love with you to want to take that risk." He blinked with wide, guileless eyes, as if to say, "it's the truth."
I watched him for a moment more, and once I determined that he wasn't lying, my shoulders relaxed at least a half-inch.
"You should have told me," I said, to which Brandon nodded.
"Yeah," he agreed. "I should have. Would have saved us both the last two months."
"So what's the status on it?"
"There's an arbitration meeting in three weeks," Brandon replied. He looked at me hopefully. "I swear it, Red, just three weeks."
"Three weeks of what?"
He twisted his mouth into an odd, uncertain expression. "Well...it probably would be best if you and I weren't seen together until she signs the papers, for one. You probably picked up on it already, but Miranda has a jealous streak, and it makes her...unpredictable."
I pressed my lips together, remembering her contorted, angry face when she had walked in on me and Brandon in the most intimate of positions. But then she had been unnervingly calm. Miranda Sterling was the kind of person who obviously didn't get angry; she just got even.
"Maybe we should just hold off until then," I said, even though it physically pained me to say it.
I wasn't sure what we were deciding here, although clearly, we both wanted to be together. But I didn't want to be with someone who was still legally tied to someone else. And I didn't want to screw things up for Brandon either.
"No," Brandon said vehemently, sitting up fully and scooting so he was close to me and his knees were touching my toes.
I tucked my knees tighter against my chest. He tipped my chin around, forcing me to look at him. I pulled away, out of his grasp again, but remained close.
"Please, Skylar," Brandon said, blue eyes searching, but a bit icy. "Don't run again."
We stared at each other for a few moments, with tension between us so thick you could practically see it. Brandon's gaze broke first, drifting down to my lips, which parted almost instinctively in response. He leaned toward them. But just before our lips met, I turned my cheek. As much as I wanted to lose myself in his touch, it was just another form of distraction.
"I'm just hungry. Can we eat?"
"Um, yeah. Of course." Slightly confused, Brandon stood and helped me up too.
He followed me back into the kitchen, where I went about taking Eric's plain white dishes out of the cabinets and setting them on the counter. Brandon put our food onto the plates, and watched with obvious approval while I shuffled around, setting the table, pulling out wine glasses, and putting on some music.
"Hey!" he crowed happily when the familiar opening of "Thunder Road" came on. "Springsteen! My man!"
I grinned from where I stood in the small living area, adjusting the volume on the mini speakers. "It's just an unplugged version. I figured the original would probably be a bit much for dinner."
In response, all I got was another massive grin, the kind that made my heart speed up directly in response. When he looked at me like that, all the problems we had faded that much more.
