Page 58 of The Mistakes I've Made
“The hell you don’t.” He laughed. “I just witnessed it. Twice.”
I shook my head in disbelief but finally answered, “It’s being handled.”
My brother leaned casually against his desk. “It’s being handled? What is that supposed to mean?”
Shrugging, I replied, “It means exactly what it sounds like. I’m handling it. Just because I have feelings for her doesn’t mean I have to act on them.”
His arms folded around his chest. A flash of metal from his prosthetic caught my eye and didn’t go unnoticed by my brother’s keen gaze. Like always, he ignored the extra attention and carried on. “Why wouldn’t you act on it? You clearly like her.”
Like her? Were we in grade school again?
“Well, I could think of several reasons,” I said.
“Okay, shoot.” My brother wasn’t letting me off the hook quite so easily.
I let out an exaggerated sigh. “Well, there’s the fact that we’re working together. It creates a sort of a problem, don’t you think?”
Dean shrugged. “I guess so, but this isn’t an official job. You’re not being paid, and honestly, I don’t think anyone on the committee would care; especially if you have feelings for her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine. What about the fact that we can’t stand one another?”
“I highly doubt that’s true.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Well, if it was true, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, now, would we?” His smug grin widened.
Sometimes, I hated my brother.
“Running out of excuses, Taylor,” he said, his voice full of satisfaction.
But he was wrong.
I’d saved the best for last.
“She’s leaving,” I said, wiping that stupid smirk right off my brother’s dumb face.
And mine as well.
“She’s leaving. In less than six weeks. She’ll return to her life in Hawaii, and my life is here. We’re not destined to be together like you might think. We’re just two ships docked at the same harbor, bound for different destinations. We’re not meant to be.”
Dean stared at me, those green eyes deep in thought. Finally, he opened his mouth and spoke, “You know, Jake once said something similar to me.”
“Yeah, okay. So?”
“It was just after the ferryboat accident. I was still recovering in the hospital, and he’d just returned home to Ocracoke after a twelve-year absence.”
“And he was busy stealing your fiancée,” I added.
“I broke up with her, remember?”
“I know. And how long until she ended up in Jake’s bed? Doesn’t that piss you off?”
He let out a sigh. “No,” he answered, “it doesn’t. Molly was never mine to begin with. Stop interrupting me.”
I couldn’t help the sly grin that crept across my face.
“Anyway, one day, Jake came to visit me. He said things between Molly and him were hopeless. He had a life in Chicago, and she’d never leave Ocracoke.”
