Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(101)

Reggie took a breath and launched into an explanation of his side of everything that had happened. “So, Cat and I have been best friends since our first day of high school. We were both scared to death to be freshmen in a new school, but I was big for my age and she was really smart, and really nice, and so we became friends and started looking out for each other, and before we knew it, we were best friends.

“Then, sometime around Christmas that first year of high school, I fell in love with her, and I just never had the courage to tell her, so we went on being friends. She dated a few guys here and there, but she was never really into any of them. Not all the way through high school, not all the way through college, that is, until she started falling for you, and I saw it before she did.

“She started calling you by your first name and talking about you all the time. She would get this look on her face and her eyes would kind of… glaze over, and she would look so happy

when she talked about you.

“It started happening more and more, and I started getting jealous, because none of the other guys she ever dated really mattered. They just kind of came and went, and I knew that none of them ever touched her heart, but then things changed with you.”

Connor sat forward in his chair and leaned his elbows on the desk, listening intently to Reggie as the young man continued to explain.

“Anyway, I saw the changes in her and it scared me to death because, for the first time ever, there was actually a man who might steal her away from me. I had a plan for her and me; I was going to graduate and become an engineer, and build a house for us, and then ask her to marry me, and we were gonna have kids and a white picket fence, and it was all going to work out perfectly. “I figured that if I didn’t say anything about her dating other guys all through school that she would have all of that worked out of her system by the time we were out of college and then when I asked her to marry me, she would say yes because she would be ready to settle down.” He looked at Connor expectantly and Connor nodded.

“That makes sense,” he said simply, not wanting to derail Reggie from the train of thought he was on.

Reggie took a deep breath and his shoulders sagged a little. “Then she started going on and on about you, and for the first year or two, it was just little stuff. She wasn’t attracted to you or anything, she was just really impressed with you, then you became her advisor and she started admiring you and all the things you did, and then this last year… that’s when it all went downhill and she started falling for you, and I could see it, and she couldn’t.

“She would swear that there was nothing going on in her heart for you, but I was on the outside, and I could see it clear as a bell. She got so wrapped up in you, and then the two of you took that trip, and when she came back I knew I had lost her to you. She started telling me everything… all of the details, and can I just tell you, Mr. James, it is hard as hell to listen to a woman you are in love with talking about making love with another man.

“I thought I was going to die of heartbreak right there, but I kept telling myself that she was my best friend and I owed it to her to be a good friend, no matter how hard it got for me, and well, that didn’t last too long.”

Connor felt his cheeks warm slightly and he began to feel sorry for Reggie.

Reggie looked directly at Connor. “I knew that I was losing her to you, and I panicked. I didn’t know what kind of man you were, and I didn’t know if you were just another teacher who sleeps with his students or what, so the more she got involved with you, the more I felt a need to protect her, and I finally had to admit to her that I’ve been in love with her this whole time, because I thought if I told her that it would make a difference and she would realize that she ought to be with me.

“The problem was that I never thought that she wouldn’t be in love with me, too. I thought that she was and she just didn’t know it. I thought I could show her how much I love her, and then it would all work out from there, but it didn’t. She just couldn’t get over you.

“I felt like I had nowhere to turn, no other choice to make but to go to her father. I just thought he would stop her from seeing you, and then I could try to make her see that she could love me like she does you, but everything kind of went straight to hell from there.” Reggie sighed and looked down for a minute in shame.

“Yeah, it really did go to hell after that,” Connor agreed.

“Well, I didn’t realize just how mad Harold was going to be. I didn’t ever imagine that he’d go all the way to the dean here, and that your job would be on the line, and that Cat would hate me and stop being friends with me.

“I lost the love of my life and I lost my best friend, all at once, and that’s a hard loss, Mr. James, let me tell you. Then things just went from bad to worse. I’ve never seen her so heartbroken and sad as I did the whole time she had to stay away from you, and now….” He paused and bit his lip looking back up at Connor.

Connor grew worried for Catalina, and he leaned forward anxiously. “….and now what?” he asked expectantly.

Reggie bit his lip again and nodded. “Well, now she and I are friends again, and that’s great, but there’s a little more going on. She came by here to talk to you, but you weren’t here. Your fiancée was here, and she gave Cat kind of a hard time, and Cat left here really upset. She didn’t know you were getting married, and it broke what was left of her heart.”