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Her head snapped up, her gray eyes pleading. “Is that what this is? Because I haven’t told them yet? I’ll tell them right now, I swear!”
“No, fuck, that’s not what I meant. You need to find the guy you’re meant to be with, and I’m not him. Obviously you’ve gotten too deep in this, but this should have never happened.”
“How can you say that? I belong with you . . . to you. I’m yours, Co
I watched as her gray eyes filled with tears, and I wanted to die.
I’d been looking for any kind of emotion since Cassidy had left. I’d searched for it in so many women. This girl . . . for so many reasons she shouldn’t have been the one to start evoking all these feelings again—and yet, she had been. My best friends’ little sister. My neighbor. The girl next door. Everything cliché and everything I had overlooked for years. I wondered for the hundredth time tonight why I couldn’t have actually seen Maci years before.
Another sob tore from her chest, and I wanted to take her in my arms and brush away the tears that had just started falling down her face. I wanted to tell her that she had all of this backwards. She owned me. But I couldn’t do this to her. Not only would her brothers never allow it, especially after tonight, but they were right . . . I would ruin her.
I had fears she couldn’t understand, a life that she’d had no idea about, and too many secrets I wasn’t willing to taint her world with. I would ruin her and our future family, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself when that happened.
My body was shaking, and I tried to focus on anything other than the way her expression was breaking my heart. I’ll destroy her. I’ll ruin her. I continued to chant those words and focused on the fact that I could never be the type of man that she needed.
Swallowing past the tightness in my throat, I scoffed. Scoffing was good. It made me sound like that much more of an asshole. “You can’t start crying every time you aren’t getting your way, Maci. You’re an adult, start acting like one.”
“Co
I stopped walking when I reached her door, but couldn’t look back at her when I said, “You don’t know anything about me. The fact that you somehow made yourself believe there was an us is proof of that. There is no us.”
“How can you sa—”
“Because we fucked, Maci, that’s all we did!” I turned to look at her beautiful face, filled with pain. “It’s not my fault you let yourself believe we could be something. It’s not my goddamn fault you don’t know how to keep your feelings and your needs separate.”
Her head shook slowly back and forth, and her hand came up to cover her mouth as a strangled sob left her. “You’re lying,” she choked out. “Please don’t do this!”
“Goodbye, Maci.”
“Co
I hurried into my apartment and threw the can of beer at the wall, suppressing an agonized roar as I stormed into my bedroom. For the rest of the night, I stood with my forehead and palms pressed against the wall that co
Chapter Eleven
Maci
“UP! COME ON, get up!” Amber yelled as she charged into the room we were sharing.
Glancing over at her when she jumped on my bed, I looked back up at the ceiling and suppressed a sigh. “I think I’m going to call it an early night. I’m exhausted from traveling up here.”
“Bullshit you are! You’re moping and being all stupid depressed because Co
My chest ached, hearing his name. “Amber . . . please, just let me be upset about this for a while.”
“Nope, no. Not going to happen. As your best friend, it is my duty to make sure you get back to being all happy happy because it’s almost Christmas, have an awesome fucking vacation, and get laid by some random hot ski instructor.”
I actually cracked a smile. “Ski instructor? Really now . . .”
“Yes, and it will be perfect. It will take your mind off the asshole, you won’t have to see the guy again until next year—if you even see him again.”
“Ahh . . . no thanks. But, really, have at it.”
Standing up, she grabbed my ankles and started dragging me down the bed.
“Holy shit! You’re such a fucking bitch. Oh God!” I wheezed when my back hit the floor with a hard thud.
“I’m your bitch, and it’s why you love me. So let’s slut it up, hit a few bars and—”
We both looked toward the hallway when one of my brothers yelled my name.
“Why do I feel like I’m about to be in trouble?” I whispered to Amber when she helped me up off the floor.
“Maci, get the fuck up here!” one of the boys yelled seconds before I heard him pounding down the stairs.
We stood there frozen as we waited, and I jumped when my door was thrown open so hard, I was sure it left a dent in the wall.
“Jesus, Dyl—”
“Shut the fuck up and get your ass upstairs. Now.”
“Excuse me? Don’t be fucking rude! Get out of my damn room, you son of a bitch!”
“Maci!” Came another voice from upstairs. Seconds later, Craig was standing behind Dylan. “You might want to come upstairs.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command, and he sounded just as pissed as Dylan.
I looked up at my ceiling when I heard my dad yell, “Calm down, Dakota! Let the man talk.”
Co
Grabbing Amber’s hand, I pushed past my brothers and tried to ignore the way their glares made my skin crawl. Ru
Co
The loss I’d been dealing with over the last twenty-four hours since Co
“What are you doing here?” I asked Bryce. His family vacationed here every winter, just another reason why we’d been close for so long. But when he’d texted me to see if we could talk while we were here, I’d thought my ‘Fuck off’ response had said it all.
“You lying bitch,” Dylan said under his breath as he and Craig shoved past me, pushing me into Amber.
“Hey, baby,” Bryce said, a smile lighting up his too-perfect face.
“Baby?” Amber and I said at the same time.
“Oh, hell no. I thought we were finally done with you,” Amber sneered.
Bryce sent a glare her way before looking at me again. “As always, Amber, what a pleasant surprise to see you.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
I held my hand up to keep them from going into one of their fights, and stepped forward. “Bryce . . . why are you here? I told—”
“I was just telling your father about our plans.”
Plans?
“Maci,”—my Dad began—“this young man has just informed me that you’re going to be getting married within the year . . . ?”
“What? No!”
“You don’t have to keep lying just because your brothers are here,” Bryce said as he stepped up to me. One arm went around my waist, the other cupped my cheek. His eyes roamed my face before zeroing in on my nose. When he spoke again, it was soft enough that only Amber and I could hear him. “I thought we agreed you were going to take that thing out? And please tell me your hair will be blonde again soon, I was pla