Page 47 of Falling For My Best Friend's Brother

Nina was too young for me. She was practically a baby. I didn’t like feeling like some kind of emotionally superior predatorwhen I was with her, even though her childishness was kind of cute sometimes.

Stop that. It’s not cute. It’s annoying.

Long story short, it was stupid of me to be jealous. Matter of fact, the best thing for Nina would be to call that piece of shit. I swallowed the remaining of my scotch with that thought and immediately felt like throwing up. It was with great effort that I made it stay down.

Of fucking course, I didn’t want her to call him. I didn’t even want her to think about the asshole. If I could erase him from her mind, I would.

I wanted her to think of just me. To miss only me, to kiss and fuck onlyme.

Running a hand roughly through my hair, I gathered the strands and stuffed them into a bun at the back of my head with the rubber band on my wrist. My gaze lingered on the now empty glass as I pondered the practicality of ordering one more shot.

I had to be the biggest idiot on planet Earth. Not only should I have been more concerned with my company hitting rock bottom, but I absolutely should also not have been thinking about my little sister’s best friend in such a possessive way. But the undeniable truth was that I’d fallen for Nina.

Sometime in the last few weeks, I’d come to appreciate her as a person and see that every single viewpoint I had toward her waswrong. I thought her to be fake and vain. But despite her family’s affluence, she was humble to a fault and didn’t think the entire world should bow at her feet like some of the wealthy people I’d worked with.

God, I’d been so hard on her at the beginning, and she still didn’t disparage me when she had the chance to. I had hope for my company because of her. This would have been a lot easier if she wasn’t such a nice girl. Everything was so messed up.

Fuck my life, man.

“Staring into that glass will not make whatever’s got your panties in a twist disappear, you know.”

I turned to the source of the voice, frowning at how familiar it sounded. It took a second for the blurriness in my eyes to fade into focus.

“Claire?”

It was her. She raised both brows, amusement mixed with concern dancing all over her face.

“What’s wrong, Knox?” she asked. “You look like shit.”

“How did you know I was here?” I looked around for the first time since I walked in.

Claire took the stool next to me, turning her body to face me. “I’m not stalking you, if that’s what you’re asking. You might be hot, but I have better things to do with my time.”

“Right.” I cleared my throat, swallowing copious amounts of air as if it would help the inebriation. “How have you been?”

Claire scoffed, swinging her head to the side. I realized then that she was the brunette the bartender had been talking to earlier.

“Funny that you should ask that, actually. We connected last week, remember? And you didn’t seem to care because you had a shiny new thing on your arm. What, trouble in paradise?”

I let out a sigh, suddenly exhausted. “I didn’t invite you here, Claire. You came of your volition, and I sure as hell don’t need any shit tonight. So, if you won’t answer the fucking question, then walk.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’m as good as can be, if ‘good’ is almost fucking up my entire life and career, because I can’t get over a breakup.”

I frowned. “What happened?”

She sighed dejectedly, and I could tell it was serious. “I gave the wrong medication to one of the players last weekend and just caught it today while reviewing my files. Thankfully, he never took it, but it could have been bad, Knox. Really bad.”

“How bad?”

With a tired smile that didn’t reach her eyes, Claire propped her head on her hand, leaning against the countertop. “It might’ve ruined his career.”

I felt bad for her. I knew how much Claire loved her job. I could still recall how over the moon she’d been when she got the position as the head nutritionist for the New York Jaguars, the city’s hockey team.

“That’s rough. I’m sorry, Claire.”

The smile didn’t leave. “It’s alright. It’s not your fault that I can’t stop thinking about you.”

I held her gaze for a long time, as silent words passed between us. It might have been the alcohol at play, but I thought back in time to when we were together and how good things were between us.

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