Page 62 of Borrowing My Bestie's Brothers

That question felt like it was torn from my chest. I didn’t want to know, not really, because his mistake made sense. He hadn’t crashed and burned by taking Jamie somewhere that made her uncomfortable. It was worse, far worse.

“I told her the truth.” Hunter had said things along these lines before, because my brother was like a child. He just blurted shit out, thinking his little truth bombs were some kind of public service announcement.

“About what?”

But I knew.

“About me, about Brock, about all of us.” All traces of a smile were gone now as my brother stepped up to me, the tension growing by the second. His stare dared me, begged me, to make an issue of this. “About what we’ve all been hiding from her.”

“And why the fuck would you do that?” I snapped. My hand was up and shoving into his chest without thought, the rush I felt when he stumbled back addictive. “Why the hell would you think now was the time to drop that on Jamie?”

“Because I was sick of lying.” As Hunter straightened up I stared him down. “I needed to know. What she was thinking, feeling. That she knew this was real.”

“And how did she react?”

But I knew. I didn’t need to hear my brother say it, nor even try to read his expression, though I did both. I knew, because this was why I’d never said anything before.

“She ran.” His jaw locked tight and he stared me down, as if this was somehow my fucking fault. “She ran and then she rang an Uber, and I assume she went home.”

“You assume? You didn’t bother to find out?”

I was biting off every word now.

“When I tried to come after her, she ran further down the road, and when I called her, she wouldn’t answer,” he replied. “I made sure she got into the Uber safely?—”

“You idiot…” I said that softly, but only at first. “You fucking idiot.” I shoved him again, but this time he locked his knees and refused to be moved. “What the hell did you think was going to happen, Hunt? That you’d take her somewhere swanky and flutter your eyelids at her and all would be well? That all it took was for you to throw some money at her and a pretty face and she’d fall to her knees in gratitude?”

“Hey, my face is your face, remember?”

He tried to smile his way through this, but I wasn’t having it.

“Why didn’t we say anything?” I barked out the question. “Why didn’t Brock? Why did neither of us think to say something to Jamie before this?”

“I dunno, because you’re fucking pussies?” he said with a sneer.

I stood there, stunned, just staring at him, wondering how someone who looked just like me could have no clues whatsoever.

“Because she wasn’t ready.” I stepped back because Hunter was no longer my focus. My phone was snatched up from the coffee table and I was scrolling through my contacts. “Maybe she was never going to be ready, and that’s OK.” I looked up at him when I found Jamie’s contact. “It’s not about us, that’s what Brock and I have always understood, but you haven’t.”

I put through the call, listening to the phone ring, but with each buzz, tension wound tighter inside me. I’d heard horror stories about Uber drivers doing things to women at night, and when it rang out, I knew what I needed to do. I grabbed my keys and headed to the door.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Hunter asked, but I let the screen door slam behind me, not stopping until I reached my van. “Hayden? Hayden!”

“What you should’ve.” I climbed inside and started the car, revving the engine before taking off for Jamie’s place.

I rang her number as I wound my way through the streets, but the phone just rang out again and again until finally it only got a few rings in before the call was rejected. My foot pressed down on the accelerator, taking corners with far too much speed, only slowing the engine down to idle when I arrived up her street, because there, under the streetlight, her hair turned to gold, was a familiar figure.

Jamie.

I watched her pay the driver, then pull away, the line of her body telling me everything. She looked done in, holding her slippers in one hand and her phone in the other, so that’s when I called her one last time. My heart was in my throat as I saw her stop, look down at the screen and then move…

To answer it, that’s what I needed. To hear her voice, clear or husky or even choked up. Something. But instead she tapped on the screen and I saw that the call was rejected.

Part of me wanted to feel the same way.

That confronted with the reality of how we felt, she took off, found her own way home and declined any attempt at communication. It wasn’t the way I’d thought tonight would go after that kiss. Because I still felt the imprint of her lips on my mouth, the taste of her on my tongue and that kiss had given me hope.

Only for Hunter to ruin everything.

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