Page 19 of Stealing Chances

“Of course not, but—”

“We supposedly have a life together, right?”

My chest heaved at the ‘supposedly’ he’d slipped in, and I willed the burning in my eyes to soothe. But before I could respond in any way, he went on.

Voice cold and so unlike the man I knew.

“What if you woke up tomorrow, and everyone told you your life was alie? Some fucked-up joke your own mind had played on you?” His stare dragged over me before meeting my own. “Don’t you think you’d be a little bitter? Broken?Wrecked?” His eyes rolled as he started past me again.

I pressed my hands to my chest and mouth to prevent the cry threatening to break free, my eyelids squeezing shut and tears slipping free when he spoke near the doorway.

“It isn’t that it’syou, Scarlet. I’m sure you’re a great person, and you’re—Jesus, you’re gorgeous. It’s that I have no idea who you are, and my entire being says I’m in love with someone else.”

The sob ripped from me, and my body crumpled at the crucial blow.

To my heart. My soul.

To our strained bond that used to feel indestructible.

It was two-and-a-half years past when I thought it was.

Harper wasn’t pregnant with our son. She was married to Brandon.

I understood that. I’d had to come to terms with that, as fucking devastating as it’d been.

Didn’t mean every reminder that it was the future didn’t trip me out. Didn’t mean my heart didn’t break all over again at every reminder that the girl I’d fought for and loved wasn’t mine. That none of it was real.

Didn’t mean it wasn’t weird as shit to be standing there with Brandon the way we always had before Harper had come into our lives and put a strain on our friendship.

Because that strain had apparently never happened.

Our friendship had never faltered.

Seriously.. .a fucking trip.

“You keep looking at me like that,” he said as he settled against the counter and folded his arms over his chest the next day. “Like you’re waiting for me to do something and want to beat the shit out of me, and I can guess why.”

“You can’t,” I said before he could continue. “You can’t imagine how this feels.”

He slowly dipped his head in a nod. “Never claimed to. But what do you want me to do, Chase? Avoid you until you get your memories back?” He waved a hand toward me before folding it again. “I get you think all this shit happened, and that has to be hard. But look at it from my side...I had to listen to you tell me how my wife cheated on me with you. I’m standing hereknowingthat you think you’re in love with her. But I’m not going to abandon you. You’re like my brother.”

And there was my problem.

I kept waiting for him to throw a punch because I couldrememberhurting him by sleeping with Harper when they were still together. I couldrememberhis hurt and betrayal when she’d left him, and we’d gotten together.

At the same time, it took constantly reminding myself that none of it was real to not be the one to swing first because he had her. He’dmarriedher.

Felt like I was going insane.

“I don’t know what I want,” I finally answered just as footsteps sounded in the far hall.

I slanted my head but didn’t look over my shoulder, listening as they faltered until Brandon called out, “Hey, Scarlet.”

“Hey,” Scarlet replied hesitantly.

“You okay after this morning?”

My gaze snapped back to him and narrowed as a hushed, uneasy laugh sounded from the living room.

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