Chapter 103

He cocked his head, studying her. “I was saying, I called the other night to see if you were free this weekend. I’d love to take you out on another date.”

Regret tightened her stomach. Considering what she’d just admitted to herself, she hated having to reject someone.

“Stoner, you’re incredibly kind and sweet, and I really enjoyed our date, but I’m sorry. I have to say no. I can’t this weekend. Or any other weekend. I—”

He squeezed her elbow, cutting off her explanation. “Let me guess,” he said, a wry smile curving his mouth. “Nick.”

Her lips parted on a soft gasp. Was she so transparent? Damn, how pathetic. “How did you...?”

“How did I know? I might be a little slow on the uptake but looking back on it, you two are very close.”

“We’ve been friends for a long time.”

“Okay, but the way my brother has looked at you is not very...friendly.” He shook his head. “And neither was that kiss at the club, regardless of the story he spun for me. If I hadn’t wanted to get to know you so badly, I would’ve dug deeper into that explanation instead of just accepting it on its face, but...” He shrugged. “The signs have been there. Nick's in love with you. So while I’m disappointed, I’m not shocked.”

“You’re wrong about that.” Oh, how she wished he wasn’t, but he couldn’t be more wrong. “That really was an act that night just to get your attention.” She winced. “This thing between your brother and me—it’s new.”

His mouth tightened, and she had the impression he was fighting back a smile.

“Okay.”

She narrowed her eyes on him, but after a moment, huffed out a chuckle. Then, sobering, she said, “Stoner, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“No apologies necessary, Michelle.” He pulled her into his arms, hugging her. “If anyone deserves happiness, it’s my brother. And he deserves you.” He brushed a kiss over her cheek.

“Well, this is sweet.”

Michelle jerked out of Stoner's arms, whirling around to face Nick. His beautiful, frigid gaze roamed over her before shifting over her shoulder to Stoner. The stern, forbidding lines of his face didn’t soften as he smiled. If anything, his expression hardened.

“Please, don’t let me interrupt,” he said in that same, pleasant voice that carried a bitter undertone.

“Nick, this isn’t...” She trailed off. Jesus, she couldn’t utter that cliché.

But he didn’t have a problem finishing it.

Arching an eyebrow, he drawled, “It isn’t what it looks like? Really? C’mon, Michelle, you can do better than that.”

“Nick,” Stoner murmured. "Take advice from your brother. Don’t fuck this up.” Squeezing her shoulder, he said, “Goodbye, Michelle.”

Stoner walked off, leaving her and Nick alone. Well, as alone as they could be on a busy sidewalk.

“Nick,” she began, “I know how that looked, but honestly, there’s nothing going on between me and Stoner.

Actually, we were talking about—”

“Let me guess. This is a case of believing you or my lying eyes, right?” He let loose a harsh chuckle that abraded her skin. “Sorry, sweetheart. I’m not that gullible. Or rather, I’m through being that naive.”

Confused, she frowned. What did that even mean? Taking a step toward him, she ignored the people around them, focusing only on the man—her best friend, the man she loved with her whole heart—before her. The man who currently looked at her as if he didn’t know her...and didn’t care to.

“Nick, if you’d only listen to me. I just happened to bump into Stoner. I was worried about my brother and was going out for some air, and I ended up talking to him. Nothing other than that happened between us.”

“Other than a kiss, Michelle.”

He glanced away from her, but not before she glimpsed the slip of his hard mask and the tortured expression that replaced it. Her hands jerked to her chest, pressed there over her aching heart. What the hell was going on?

“Nick—” she whispered.

“No,” he interrupted, his voice cold. “I’m through blindly accepting lies. I’m done being someone’s secret and their Plan B. Never again.”

“I don’t know what the hell that’s supposed to mean,” she said, her hands fisting over her chest, desperation and anger curdling inside her. Deliberately, she stretched out her fingers and stared down at them, as if she could literally see her future with this man slipping through them. Yet, she tried. She fought. For him. For them. “I have a lot on my mind right now but you should know that ’ve never lied to you, and you’ve never been a secret for me. I’ve never been ashamed of you, never hid you. And I don’t even understand what a Plan B means. Nick, you’ve been my best friend and—and...”

She swallowed, shifted closer to him, slid her hands up his abdomen to his chest until her palms covered his heart. Hope crashed inside her at the heavy, wild beat under her hand. “And I love you, Nick. Yes, as my friend, but also as more. As the man who makes me whole, gives me joy, is the other half of my heart. I love you.”

The air stalled in her lungs, and her pulse echoed in her ears, that hope, so fragile yet strong in its will to grow, beating, waiting. But as she stared at his shuttered, aloof face, it died a slow, excruciating death.

The pain in her chest expanded, though, threatening to explode until she sucked in a breath. She stumbled backward, and Nick reached for her, but she batted away his hands, not able to bear his touch. His rejection.

“You don’t believe me,” she rasped.

“Maybe the kiss was platonic.” His eyes dipped to her mouth, and for a moment, she caught a flicker of heat in the bright depths, igniting that traitorous hope again. But when he returned his gaze to hers, the emptiness there gutted her. “But in love with me? No. How could you be when not just weeks ago, I was helping you try to win my brother? Few months before that, it was Sledge you were after. I've been around for so long but you've never seen me. Now suddenly I’m supposed to believe your heart is mine?”

His mouth twisted into a hard—cruel—caricature of a smile. “No, I’m not that lucky. Not that willing to believe in fairy tales anymore.”