Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(104)

He blinked at me blankly for a moment before he blew. “What the f*ck, Colton? You and Julianna?”

When a door across the hall from us creaked open, Julianna waved Brandt forward. “Maybe we should talk about this inside,” she said in a hushed voice.

When Brandt merely transferred his stunned gaze to her, I sighed and grabbed his arm, yanking him into the apartment.

Juli quickly shut the door behind him.

In a daze, Brandt gaped between us before sputtering, “Since when?”

“Uh…” I glanced Juli’s way, not sure how to calculate that. I’d wanted her since the moment I’d met her, damn near a year ago. Or maybe we should go from the night of his wedding when we’d nearly hooked up. Probably shouldn’t measure from the night I’d slept on her couch; we hadn’t exactly been the best of friends then. I guessed we could start counting from the first time we’d had sex, but that didn’t seem like the starting place at all.

But when Juli quietly answered, “A couple weeks,” I nodded in support. Sounded good enough to me.

“You...” He pointed a finger threateningly at me. “You lied to me, you little *.”

“Me?” I pressed a hand to my chest, my eyebrows rising. “I never lied to you. When did I lie to you?”

“Last week or so,” he explained. “I texted you after hearing a rumor from Ten and specifically asked you if you were seeing a new girl.”

“Mmhmm.” I nodded, remembering that text. “And how did I answer?”

Brandt sighed and rolled his eyes. “Something stupid like you sit next to them all the time in your home economics class.”

I grinned, still loving that line. “I was quoting Forrest Gump.”

Brandt’s scowl turned dry as he set his hands on his hips. “And then you said the only thing you hadn’t been seeing were ghosts.”

My grin widened, and I had to glance at Julianna before adding, “A Sixth Sense reference.”

She groaned. “Dear God, you’re an annoying pest to everyone, aren’t you?” But there was a smile playing around her lips and amusement in her eyes.

“Everyone,” I murmured before returning my attention to my brother. “And my texts answering that question were clearly a diversionary tactic if I ever heard one. You’re the dumbass for not catching on.”

Eyes narrowing, Brandt grit out, “Thanks, little brother. You’re the one who lied to me, and I’m the dumbass?” Then he pierced a probing, stern glance toward Juli. “And you.”

I swear she sank closer to me. Then her throat worked as she swallowed her dread. “Me?” she whispered.

“I thought we were friends,” he charged softly, hurt and betrayal coating his expression and making her grip on my hand tighten. Then he tightened the screw on the guilt trip he was winding into her by adding, “Confidantes.”

But instead of making her blurt out an aggrieved apology, she narrowed her eyes. “Confidantes?” she repeated in a low, hard voice. “Confidantes? If I was such a confidante to you, why didn’t you come to me with your worries when you thought I was still into you? I would’ve been open and honest and told you that wasn’t the case. But no…you sent your little brother over to distract me at your own wedding? That doesn’t seem very confidante-like to me.”

Brandt’s mouth fell open before he sniffed. “I’m sorry, but the way you were staring at me that night said you weren’t over shit. So excuse me for loving my wife and wanting to be faithful to her. I—wait.” He shifted his gaze suspiciously between us before he whirled to me. “You told her about that?”

I winced, unable to answer. But my non-answer made Brandt’s face clear as if he’d just figured something out. Pointing between us, he asked, “So…curious question. Did you tell her about that before or after she first slept with you?”

My mouth opened, but it took me a second to remember the answer.

Brandt started nodding as if he already knew, though. “Uh huh,” he murmured. “I’m guessing you told right before the first time. I bet learning I pushed you at her pissed her off so much she thought she’d get her revenge against me by f*cking my susceptible little brother.”

I blinked, never having even thought up that notion before.

Next to me, Julianna huffed out a sound of outrage. “Wow,” she muttered. “That’s quite an insulting theory.”

My brain kicked back into gear, and I nodded. “Hell yes, it is,” I agreed, as I took a step closer to Brandt. “To both of us. Do you think I’m so stupid I would really fall for such an awful scheme, or do you really think she couldn’t possibly like me for me?”

Brandt straightened and sent me a look as if he couldn’t believe I’d apply either label to his thought process. “I think you need to find someone who does like you for you,” he murmured, “someone who loves you without a doubt. That’s what I think.”

“I don’t have any doubts,” I told him, staring him straight in the eye, when okay, sometimes I did, like twenty seconds ago when he’d come up with that idea, or twenty minutes earlier when he’d called her phone, or that day on campus, when I learned they talked—like talked—at work together.