Page 45 of All Wrong
The words came out before he could stop them. “I don’t want to be your brother.”
“What do you want to be then? A friend? A concerned citizen?” she asked with a wry smile. When he said nothing, she said, “Whatever. It’sgetting late. I should go. I have a lot of packing to do.”
For the second time that night, she walked away from him without looking back.
It was only minutes later when he realized what she’d said.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CORINNE
Anger, hurt, frustration, irritation. Corinne felt them all. But underneath, she felt something else too. Something far more powerful, even as subtle as it was.
A blossoming awareness. Not that she hadn’t been aware of Nick before, but it had always been one-sided. Until recently, the most interaction they’d shared were occasional commiserative glances.
Was it possible that beneath that cool, unaffected exterior, Nick Milligan cared about her? And if so, why? Simply because of the bonds that loosely tied them together through sibling marriages? Orbecause they were kindred outliers in a clan ofcroiesand kids?
Or was something else bringing that protectiveness to the surface? Something that put that dark, possessive glint in his clear, faceted eyes?
She shook her head at the ridiculous notion. Nick wasn’t jealous. He was concerned about the kids and what was going on, and perhaps as an extension of that, he didn’t want her caught in the crossfire. It didn’t mean anything. At the end of the day, she and Nick were still acquaintances of circumstance, nothing more.
And, while his concern was appreciated, it wasn’t necessary. She had no intention of getting involved with Brett beyond a casual friendship. Brett seemed like a nice guy, but he didn’t make her blood sing or her heart race, and therefore, he wasn’t the right one.
He doesn’t have to be Mr. Right to be Mr. Right Now, her neglected lady parts insisted, but she knew from experience that would provide only a temporary respite and leave her feeling hollow afterward. It wasn’t what she wanted.
No, what she craved was a real connection. Someone whose gaze softened and blazed when they looked at her, depending on his mood.Someone who wanted the closeness as well as the climax.
She wanted acroie.
Maybe her perfect match was out there somewhere. Maybe he wasn’t. The one thing she knew for sure was that it wasn’t Brett.
Now, Nick, on the other hand … hecouldbe, simply by the way her body reacted when she was around him. He was everything she desired in a man. Gorgeous. Quiet. Edgy. Danger and darkness simmering just below the surface. And regardless of how much he rocked the bad-boy persona, he was a good guy at heart. His work with The Zone was a perfect example. No one cared more about those kids than he did.
Gah!Couldn’t she go five minutes without thinking of him?
Pulling out a ginger ale from the fridge, she popped the top and took a sip. The food that had tasted so good only an hour and a half earlier was now sitting like a bunch of boulders in her belly, right down there with her mood.
She looked at the stack of moving boxes and a wave ofhow am I going to do thiswashed over her.
The eviction notices had come out, just as Mr. Katarsky had said. Tenants had ten days to leave thepremises, and her late-night searches for apartments available for immediate occupancy weren’t going well. With an entire building scrambling for other arrangements, affordable pickings in town were slim.
It also didn’t help that she wasn’t looking for a long-term lease. The way things were going at the bank, she wasn’t going to be there for much longer. Corinne’s workload had doubled since Becci’s promotion. When Becci actually did something, she ended up creating a mess that Corinne had to sort out. Mr. Gehman had gone selectively deaf on the subject, insisting that Becci’s piss-poor performance was a result of not being trained properly. In other words, it was all Corinne’s fault.
Which was bullshit, no matter how she looked at it, but it was what it was. The bank manager was never going to admit he’d made a mistake, and why should he when Corinne was there to clean up Becci’s messes?
Corinne grabbed a flat box and pulled until it became a viable container, using the packing tape to secure the bottom, all the while fantasizing about walking into Mr. Gehman’s office and laying a letter of resignation on his desk. It was a satisfying visual. Even more satisfying was imagining the ensuingchaos with Becci at the helm and no one around to fix her mistakes.
The more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea. So what if she didn’t have another job lined up? One of the advantages of understanding investment options was that she’d been able to create a nice nest egg for herself. If necessary, she could go months without a steady paycheck, and her credit rating was impeccable.
The idea warranted further consideration.
Right then, however, her immediate concern was finding another place to live.
Lacie wanted her to move into the old house with her and Shane and the kids until she found another solution. While Corinne appreciated the offer, she wasn’t interested in taking her up on it. It would feel too much like failure, and after the bank fiasco, Corinne’s pride couldn’t take another big hit.
Her father had agreed with Lacie—because of course Lacie had felt compelled to mention the eviction to their parents. He suggested that Corinne forget apartment-hunting altogether, move in temporarily with her sister and her family, and take the opportunity to find a permanent solution. He thought renting for more than a few years was amistake, as he liked to remind her every time they got together.
“Build equity,” he’d said. “Invest in real estate. Buildings and businesses come and go, but there’s only a finite amount of land.”
