Page 17 of Pretend

He was a fucking idiot,Eric decided as he watched Morgan frown in confusion as she asked, “Who sees you as a brother?”

“Forget it,” Eric said as he returned his attention back to the ceiling and-

“You know that I can’t do that,” came the muttered reply with a heartfelt sigh seconds before the little brat managed to steal her pillow back.

“Just let it go,” Eric said, sighing heavily as he reached back and adjusted the remaining pillow behind his head.

“You can’t say something like that and really believe that I’m going to let it go,” the little brat said as she stole his pillow, letting him know that she wasn’t going to stop bugging him until he told her what she wanted to know.

God, she could be such a pain in the ass sometimes, Eric thought as he rolled back onto his side so that he could glare at her as he said, “You, for one,” watching as her curious expression slowly turned confused before quickly morphing into disgust.

“I don’t see you as a brother. Where the hell did you get that from?” Morgan demanded.

“You told your mother that you saw me as a brother,” Eric said, not really in the mood to reminisce about something that was better left forgotten.

“When?” she asked, looking genuinely confused.

“My family’s Christmas Eve party when we were fifteen,” Eric said, watching as her frown deepened as she thought that over, only to roll her eyes seconds later.

“Was this the party where your father decided to fry ten turkeys in the driveway during a snowstorm because Uncle Jared said that it couldn’t be done?”

“Probably,” Eric said, although, to be fair, he really didn’t remember anything beyond having his heart ripped out of his fucking chest that day. He-

“I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about Jason,” she said, making everything in him go still.

“What?” Eric asked, sure that he’d misheard her.

“He followed me around with a mistletoe all night and my mother wanted to make sure that I didn’t like him before she let my father shove him head-first into a snowbank,” Morgan said around a yawn as she shrugged it off and rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes as she mumbled, “I’m going to sleep. We can deal with your deeply disturbing issues in the morning,” against her pillow.

“Say that again,” Eric said hollowly as he told himself that this wasn’t happening.

He did not fucking ruin everything because he-

“We’ll deal with your issues in the morning,” the evil woman repeated as she slapped her hand against his face and shoved him back. “I’m tired, cranky, and if you don’t let me get some sleep,I swear to god that I will kill you!”

When he opened his mouth to argue, Morgan cracked one eye open to glare at him as she bit out, “Violently.”

That was followed by Morgan burrowing beneath the blankets, leaving him lying there and-

He couldn’t fucking breathe.

Trying not to fucking lose it, Eric climbed off the bed and quickly made his way to the French doors, onto the patio, and kept going until he found himself standing on the beach and-

“This isn’t fucking happening,” Eric said hollowly, shaking his head in disbelief as he released a humorless chuckle as he reached up and rammed his fingers through his hair, telling himself that he didn’t wreck his fucking life over a simple misunderstanding.

There was no fucking way that he walked away from the only woman that he’d ever loved because she’d been talking about the little bastard. He just…

Couldn’t fucking believe this was happening.

Eleven fucking years wasted for nothing, Eric thought as he glanced from the moonlit waves gently rolling in to the dimly lit patio doors behind him as he slowly exhaled. They’d lost so much over the years, so many firsts, and now…

He had no fucking idea what he was supposed to do.

CHAPTER11

She should have known this was too good to be true, Morgan thought, shaking her head in disgust as she took in the large man sprawled out on the couch, pouting as only a Bradford could as he released a shuddering sigh seconds before asking the question that she’d never been more tempted to answer than she was at that moment.

“How did I fuck up this badly?” Eric asked, sighing in disgust as he threw his arm over his eyes as she stood there, debating snatching that pillow from beneath his head and smothering him with it.

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