Page 38 of My Brother's Best Friend

Maddie froze. “With me?”

And I had to act like I hadn’t just said what I said because if I tried to explain it, I might drive her away. I might say something stupid. I couldn’t do that. Not now. Not when I had admitted to her my darkest secret and she believed me.

“What am I going to do, Maddie?” I asked, my mind buzzing all over the place. “I don’t want to be a fucking father now. All I wanted was to play hockey, and now … now, that’s all over. Nobody believes me.”

“We’ll figure it out,” she whispered. “I promise we will.”

CHAPTER22

ALEC

“You probably think less of me, huh?” I whispered over breakfast.

We had skipped school and gone back to Maddie’s place for the day.

Maddie glanced over her shoulder and pulled some milk out of the fridge. “What?”

I shyly looked back at the pancakes on my plate, feeling guilty and shitty for the way I had reacted earlier, for what I had admitted to her. I wanted her to like me, finally, after all these fucking years, and not feel sorry for me.

“You heard me,” I said, twirling a forkful of my pancakes in syrup.

She filled two glasses of milk and set them at the table in front of our plates, and then she sat next to me and placed her small hand on my bicep, squeezing gently, her gaze piercing into me from my side. “Why would you think that?”

After setting down my fork, I sighed and leaned back. “Because I’m fucked up.”

“How?” she asked. “Because someone sexually assaulted you?”

I stayed quiet, but so did she. Which confirmed that she thought so too.

“Well, if that’s the case”—she pulled her arm away—“then I’m fucked up too.”

Snapping my head in her direction, I gritted my teeth. “Who? Who fucking?—”

“Spencer did,” she said without hesitation. “He didn’t just hit me and bully me. He had sexually assaulted me many more times than I could count. I thought it was normal, but I didn’t want it either. And I didn’t say anything to anyone, except Vera.”

My hands balled into fists on the table, and I flung my chair back to stand. “I’ll kill him.”

She grabbed my bicep and pulled me back down. “No, this isn’t about me. Sit down.”

“He raped you, Maddie,” I said.

“And someone did the same to you too,” she said, tugging on my arm. “Please, sit down and eat with me. I didn’t tell you because I wanted you to feel sorry for me, just like you didn’t tell me so I would feel sorry for you.”

Once I let out a soft sigh, I collapsed in my seat and glanced over at Maddie. She offered a smile and then began cutting her pancakes. I grabbed my fork and dipped another piece of pancake into my syrup. But before I could eat it, Maddie stuffed her fork into my mouth and giggled, the sound soft.

I wrapped my lips around the utensil and tore the pancake off with my teeth to eat it. She pulled the fork out of my mouth and grabbed a bite for herself, strands of her red hair falling into her face.

God, she is beautiful.

So fucking beautiful.

I had been waiting to be with her for so long, but the world had screwed me. It sucked that this was what had brought her to me, that I couldn’t find the confidence to tell her what I really wanted to on the night of the party. Maybe if I had, that wouldn’t have happened.

“I promise I’m not always an utter emotional mess,” I said, wanting her to know that I would do anything I could for her.

I would protect her with everything that I had left if Spencer decided to return. She wasn’t alone either.

“I know,” she hummed, smiling softly. “I’ve seen you on the ice.”

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