Page 27 of My Ex-Best Friends

“Honey?”

“I saw you fucking Meredith, Finn. You’re a cheating pig.” I shook my head. “You know I know. What are you doing? Why are you pretending like you don’t know?”

He came at me and I swiped the paint brush at him. It got the tips of his fingers and he reacted like I’d drawn blood. “Brooke! Jesus. This is a brand new suit.”

I sent him a nasty smile. “Then you’d better get away because this paint doesn’t come out.”

He took a few protective steps back and regrouped. “What you think you saw isn’t real, Brookie. I wasn’t sleeping with Meredith. She’s your boss, for god’s sake. She asked me for a meeting to talk about your work… You weren’t doing enough.”

That stung. I’d worked hard for Meredith. I’d done things way above my job description to make sure she looked good in front of her bosses, even in the short time I’d been there. “Bullshit.”

“Baby, just stop this. You belong at home with me.” He sighed and ran his hand through his perfectly styled hair, somehow not budging a single piece. “I miss you. You want me to get on my knees and beg you? I will.”

I nearly threw myself backwards to get away from the very image. “No! God, Finn, no! Just go home. I’m not leaving Beaumont.”

He chanced ruining his suit and came at me again. Before he could grab me, though, a deep bark of anger came from the street.

“Hey! Get the fuck away from her!” Colt. He was a giant ball of rage as he came towards me.

I’d never felt so relieved to see him look so angry. When he moved to stand in front of me, blocking me from Finn, I stayed behind him and inhaled the complex scent of him. He’d been working so his usual delicious scent was teased with salt water and sweat.

“Who are you? Go away. This is a private matter between my wife and I.” Finn was really losing it.

“We’re not married, Finn. We’re never going to be married. I’d rather cut off my right tit than marry you. Go back to Meredith or whoever else you’ve been screwing behind my back.”

Colt grunted. “Not the right one. That’s the bigger twin.”

Finn’s face went deep red. “Have you been sleeping with this…this man?”

I was still reeling from hearing Colt talk about my tits. “Wait. What did you just say? My boobs are the same size.”

“Nope. The right one is slightly bigger.”

“He’s right.” Finn pouted.

Colt growled. “Go away. Now. Before I take you out on my boat and throw you overboard with a few bricks tied to your shiny, new shoes.”

“This isn’t over, Brookie. I love you.” Finn backed away. “We belong together.”

“Go!” Colt waited until Finn was gone to turn to me. Whatever he saw in my face made him step back like he was the one being threatened with brick shoes. “What?”

He’d saved me. Not that I thought Finn would hurt me, but still. He’d come to my rescue. Maybe he didn’t completely hate me.

I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him. “Thank you, Colt.”

He stood there for a moment before he brought his arms up to rest around my waist for the briefest of seconds before he pulled away. “Painting looks like shit so far.”

I sighed. There he was, the man who wore the face of a boy I’d once loved, the man who hated me as much as he’d ever maybe loved me. I watched him stomp away and wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly chilled in the hot summer sun.

23

***Colt***

Imet the guys for lunch the next day at the diner. Maybe it was stupid to have the conversation I wanted to have within earshot of so many of the nosy Beaumont citizens but I was getting desperate. It wasn’t like we could talk at home. Brooke was always there, always around, even if it was just a trail of her sweet scent lingering.

I arrived first and grabbed us a table in the back. Noah and Logan arrived together, their eyebrows raising as they saw me hidden away in the darkest corner the diner had.

Noah slid into the booth across from me first. “What the fuck is this? I feel like we’re spies and our mission just got a little more complicated.”

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