Page 135 of Winning Brynn

“Kinda weird that you’d call your sister hot.”

He finally raises his gaze to meet mine, his nose scrunching in disgust. “I was going more for thoughtless and destructive.”

“Ouch.”

He shrugs as if to say,well, what were you expecting?

Blowing out a long breath through pursed lips to stop myself from losing my shit, I roll my neck. “We need to talk.”

“Oh no. Are you breaking up with me?”

“Stop being such an ass,” I snap. Evidently, my deep breath didn’t work out for me.

“You’re callingmean ass after whatyoudid?” His eyes widen in incredulity. “And then you force your way into my apartment, wearing my best friend’s jersey to rub it in? Are you for real right now?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “I don’t want to have this conversation here.”

“I don’t want to have it at all.”

“Tough shit.” I disappear into the hallway, grab his coat off the hook on the wall, then reappear only to throw it at him. It hits him square in the face. “Put that on.”

“Ow.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t be a baby. It’s a coat, not a fist. How do you think Leo is feeling right now?”

He flinches at the reminder but quickly tries to cover it with a scowl. “Where are we going?”

“For a walk.”

Gravel crunches beneath my sneakers as the sun filters light through the Douglas firs lining either side of the Olympic mountain trail. It’s been years since I last hiked through this forest beside my brother, and though I wish we could have returned to the place that used to be so special to us under better circumstances, I figured that if we could work out our shit anywhere, it would be here.

The scent of pine and earth surrounds me, smelling so similar to Leo that it calms me just enough to get through the coming conversation without a show of violence.

To my surprise, it’s Alex that breaks the silence first. “Why him?” Gone is the earlier petulance in his tone, and in its place is a mourning note of utter sadness.

“You ask me that like it was a choice.”

Alex shoves his hands into his pockets with his brows pulled tight. “Wasn’t it?”

“No.” I couldn’t have stopped falling in love with Leo if I’d tried. “Neither of us went looking for it. It just happened. I guess it began when he started comforting me through my nightmares, and you know how ridiculous they are sometimes, but he never made me feel silly. He even helped me try to work out the meaning behind them then reassured me when I worked it out.” I trail off, remembering the first time I woke up in Leo’s arms. “He saw me. Not just the perpetually happy, sunshiny mask I wear with everyone else, always hiding how I really feel, never letting anyone close enough to see who I really am.”

Maybe that’s why it’s him.

Because he’s the only person I’ve never had to wear it with.

“I see you, don’t I?” Alex asks, his voice rough and strained. “Isn’t that enough?” Above us, birds click through the rustling leaves, their wing beats echoing through the trees as we walk farther into the forest. I stare up at them, counting the colors of their feathers as I consider my words. “I don’t think you do,” I whisper finally. “Not anymore.”

His steps falter. I pause with him, turning around to see his face falling with absolute devastation. “How can you say that?”

Tears prickle my eyes as I look at him. God, I hate hurting my brother, but my mom was right all those weeks ago at the soccer game. His overprotectiveness is killing me, even if it comes from a place of care.

My chest heaves with heavy, pained breaths. “You treat me like a child, Alex. You pick apart every relationship I have—not just my romantic ones, but my friends too. Even Ivy. You’re so dead set in trying to protect me from getting hurt that you don’t see it’syouwho’s hurting me the most.”

I just broke his heart. And it hurts so bad that I almost wish I’d never said anything at all. But resentment has been festering inside me for months now—longer, even—and though it’s crushing me, I know this conversation is critical if I don’t want to lose my relationship with my brother.

He’s been my rock since I was six. My best friend. My whole world. Losing him would be catastrophic, but I can’t keep living like this. It isn’t healthy, and it isn’t fair.

His nostrils flare, his lip trembling as he fights for control over what he’s feeling. “I’m hurting you?”

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