Page 27 of Reaching Hearts

Chapter Fifteen

Rebecca

They both looked at me. Brendan, like he wanted to say something angry, but Tommy chuckled and stood up, thwarting any potential words with a sexy smirk that made light of my question. “Of course there was a meeting, Rebecca. What, dya think I set him up?” He held out his arms and looked from me to Brendan. “You two have a good day.” He grabbed the bottle of Macallan 18 he’d left on the table the night before. “Like you, B-man, I have a hot date tonight. That’s why I had to come get this, you see. Good scotch for a good woman.”

“What’s her name?” Brendan shot at him, and there was a meaning behind his words that I didn’t understand.

But Tommy did. He smirked and shook his head to himself. “It was nice talking to you, Rebecca.” He smacked Brendan on the shoulder and passed him. “You’ve got a good one here.” Behind Brendan’s back, he mouthed to me, yikes, like he had no idea why Brendan acted that way.

I waited for the door to close before I asked, “What was that about?”

“You two have a nice talk?” he growled and walked into the kitchen.

I stared after him, wondering if I should do something to make him feel better. But the jealousy was pleasing, so fuck it. I stayed put on the couch and picked up my book to ignore the banging kitchen tantrum.

It wasn’t long before he came out and glared at me. I put the book down. “Yes?”

“What do you want, Rebecca?”

My eyebrows flew up. “What do I want? Well, you must know I’m looking for someone to share my life with, Brendan.”

My frankness quieted him. “I didn’t know that, no.”

I sighed. “Don’t get freaked out. You’ve made it very clear you’re not looking for that, but most of the world doesn’t think like you. Most of us want someone to share our lives with. That’s just human nature.”

Frustrated, he leaned with his back against a wall. He couldn’t have stood any farther away. “Yeah, well, not me. I’ve got my friends. And I’ve got you.”

I leaned my head and narrowed my eyes. “And how do you have me exactly?”

Silence.

“How exactly do you expect to hold people at a distance like this for the rest of your life. Like with Tommy.”

He stiffened. “What about Tommy?”

“Well, he says you shut him out.”

Brendan laughed sardonically, and sucked on his teeth, his eyes on the floor. “He told you that, huh?”

“He did. He talked to me. Which is more than you do, most of the time.”

Brendan’s head flew up, his eyes ablaze. “We talk.”

“We talk, yes, but never about what’s really going on. How you feel about your job. Who this ex of yours was, the one who did such a number on you? Why you’ve held onto that, like it’s a badge of honor that you got hurt. You know we all get hurt, right?”

I watched his wall go up. But I couldn’t help myself. I had a window to be honest and I opened it. I needed the air.

“I made you a sandwich,” he muttered, and walked back into the kitchen.

I stared after him. When I left that day, he called me a cab and didn’t drive me in.

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