Page 49 of My Ex-Boyfriend's Brothers

I cringed when he put his arm over my shoulders but there was nothing I could do. I tried to look back at the guys but Brad was right there, in my face. There was no getting past him.

I was silent on the walk to the dining hall, lost in thoughts of the guys being upset with me for hiding our…thing. Whatever it was, I wasn’t sure what to call it. I was worried they’d feel like I was choosing Brad over them. I wasn’t, though. I was just trying to do my job and finish out the wedding with enough of a reputation to get a few more jobs.

Brad didn’t make my life any easier. He asked about moving the meeting to somewhere more private about a dozen times. He was worried someone would hear his vows. After his last shannanigan with the wedding invites, though, I wasn’t budging. I led us straight to a table at the back of the dining hall and sat down with a finality that must’ve shown Brad that I wasn’t budging.

He sat across from me and blew out a deep breath. “Where’d you really go?”

“I already told you. Come on, Brad. We work on the vows or I’m going to my room. I’m tired.”

He looked like he was going to argue but then he stopped and nodded. “Alright. Fine. Let’s work on the vows.”

“What do you have so far?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your vows. What have you written of your vows so far?” I saw Gregor stick his head out of the kitchen and spot me. He didn’t look surprised, though, and I got the feeling that Luke had called him and asked him to check on us. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or annoyed.

Brad stared at me with a blank expression. “That’s why I asked you for help. I don’t have anything.”

I barely resisted the urge to scowl at him. “What you say in your vows matters a lot, Brad. Christina is going to expect tohear your feelings for her wrapped up in them. You want to make sure you tell her how you feel and tell her what you love about her. You’re committing yourself to her in front of all your friends and family. Let everyone know how amazing she is.”

He had the nerve to scowl at me. “That’s too much. Christina isn’t going to expect me to be all emotional in front of everyone.”

“She asked you to write your own vows. That’s a sign that she wants you to be emotional. Come on, Brad. This is the woman you’re marrying. You’re spending your life with her. You know all the reasons you love her. Just start naming them. We can put it together in a nice way after.”

He winced and blew out a long sigh. “Fine. Let’s do this, I guess.”

41

***Maggie***

If I knew Christina better and if Brad wasn’t my ex, I would’ve told her to run. Hours of sitting across from Brad, slowly extracting even the lamest bits of emotion from him, had been painful. It was also a painful reminder of how little I’d cared for myself in the thick of things with him. He spoke about Christina, a perfect angel of a woman, like she was a set of golf clubs. His reasons for loving her, not that he would actually say the word love, were all…surface level reasons. I fought with him until well after midnight to get even the most pitiful expressions of romance. If he had that hard of a time feeling the special, butterfly feelings of love for Christina, I couldn’t imagine he’d loved me at all.

I was exhausted on the walk back to my room. I considered going to one of the cabins to be with the guys but no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t make myself leave the lodge to walk to them. Mentally wrestling with Brad for hours had left medepleted. I just wanted to fall into my bed and pretend I didn’t have to wake up in just a few hours.

I let myself into my room and made it halfway to the bathroom before I realized I wasn’t alone. I screamed before I could stop myself. Sitting on my bed, waiting for me, were all three of the older Heath brothers.

I clutched my chest and bent forward. “Oh, my god. You guys scared the crap out of me! What are you doing?”

“Waiting on you.” Jackson didn’t get up to hug me.

None of them did. They all looked cranky. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I needed to pee but their energy was so off that I couldn’t make my legs carry me the rest of the way to the bathroom. “What’s wrong?”

Luke lifted his eyes to mine and I saw something haunted in them. “Is there something going on with you and Brad?”

I just stood perfectly still and stared at them, waiting for the punchline. I’d spent the entire day with them before coming back to the lodge, withmy mother. They couldn’t seriously be questioning me. Seconds ticked by, though, and they didn’t laugh it off as a joke. My exhaustion slowly turned into anger and then bubbled over into something darker, something closer to fury. My emotions typically didn’t shift so far so fast but the idea that they seriously thought I was hooking up with Brad made me want to break things.

I could see them considering my silence and thinking about what it meant, considering if it was some kind of admission of guilt. It just pissed me off even more. I’d just spent hours with Brad trying to make sure he didn’t let Christina down because he was a complete and utter waste of space and they were questioning my loyalty. Beyond my loyalty, they were questioning my worth as a human being.

“You should all leave.” My voice didn’t sound like my own. It shook with anger. “Right now.”

Ryan held up his hands and stood up. “Let’s just talk this out.”

“No!” I felt a wave of power as they flinched when I shouted. “After the day we had, you’d seriously ask me if I’m-what? Fucking Brad? You think that I’m that horrible of a person that I’d not only do that to you three, but to Christina? Honestly? I don’t want to look at any of you. Get out.”

Jackson sighed. “Come on, Bubbles. It’s weird. You disappeared with him for hours.”

“Disappeared with him for hours? I was in the dining hall! And I know you know that because Gregor was checking in on me the entire time. How dare you ask him to stay up just to do something so beneath him. That’s an abuse of power.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and blew out a sharp breath. “I am planning his wedding to Christina. Even if I had loose morals when it came to breaking up a marriage, something I wholeheartedly believe in, that would mean that I didn’t give a crap about you three. If you truly think that, you’re idiots. I’m sorry. I just… I want you to leave.”

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