Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(27)

I hadn’t pulled the trigger, but I’d taken the next step, and it was freaking me out.

And last night’s scene with Bree hadn’t been a blast.

She was upset on so many levels, I lost track, but felt for her on all of them.

Earrings that meant something to her, gone. Same with the necklace. Her money probably gone too.

I was right, she couldn’t afford it. He’d not only cleaned out her savings, she’d admitted to us she’d amassed some not insubstantial credit card debt because she’d been paying for them to go out for the last few weeks due to his “money problems.” And we could just say Christos wasn’t a Las Delicias kind of guy, he also wasn’t a home-cooking kind of guy, so they’d been going out a lot.

He’d played with her emotions. He made her question her judgment. He put her in a situation where she felt she had to confront her friends in defense of him.

On top of that, she was heartbroken, because she really was into him.

I barely slept because she was a mess, she was my friend, I was pissed as all hell at Christos, asshole men in general who fucked with women, and I was worried about Bree.

Topping that, Core had reached out via text to get details about Dad, my grandparents, and my other family that was in town who Eleanor might approach.

They were the first texts we’d exchanged, and maybe he wasn’t a big text person, because not two hours before, we had a phone conversation where he was warm and teasing and all I knew of Core (so far), and through the text he was short and all business.

Maybe it meant he was home with his girlfriend, and he couldn’t be friendly/flirty texting some chick where she might see (or maybe she was one of those women who checked their partner’s phones).

If that was true, that meant Core was that guy. The friendly/flirty guy who wasn’t that way all the time and hid it around his woman.

And that would suck.

So, yeah, barely any sleep last night.

And as such, I was tired and really all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in my couch with a thriller in my hand and a good glass of wine.

It didn’t get better when I pulled out my phone and saw who was calling.

My gaze shifted to the glass vase filled with a velvety red dome of roses, at least a hundred of them, which meant it had to cost a fortune.

They’d been delivered a couple of hours ago.

The card said, Dinner? Please? -B

They were from Bryan.

As was the call.

I didn’t want to take it, but procrastination was not my thing. A lot had happened in the few short weeks since we’d been broken up, so much on my mind, I couldn’t say I was suffering for his loss as much as in the beginning.

That didn’t mean the hurt wouldn’t come back when that door was reopened.

The sooner I dealt with it, though, the sooner I could get on with my life.

And I cared about him enough to stop him from doing something that I knew he’d eventually regret, like spending that kind of money on roses for a woman he had no future with.

“Hey, Bryan,” I greeted.

“You picked up.” He sounded relieved.

Instantly, I compared his voice to Core’s.

Bryan was a litigator, and as such, needed to convince judges and juries he knew what he was saying, and they should go along with it. I’d sat in court and watched him. I’d been impressed. He had a smooth, nice, confident but average voice and a great vocabulary.

Core’s voice had texture. Just the sound of it told a story. It was lower, deeper, kind of gritty, and a lot more manly.

Easy winner (number two).

Okay…

What was I doing?

It didn’t matter.

Bryan was no longer in my life (mostly), and Core was making it clear he was not going to be in my life in that way.

This was a waste of headspace.

“Yes,” I pointed out the obvious to Bryan’s remark.

“Did you get the flowers?”

“I did.”

“Did you like them?”

“They’re gorgeous.”

“Did you see the note?”

“Yes, Bryan.”

“Baby,” he whispered.

Another man I wished wouldn’t call me baby, but for a different reason.

“I have to go to dinner at Mom and Andy’s,” I told him. “I can’t do this now.”

“Quick then, can we meet for coffee?”

“Bryan—”

“Just so I can see you. I miss you, Hellen. I’ll buy you a cup to go, we’ll get on with our days and sit down sometime later to talk things through.”

Talk things through.

Like that was a given.

I was just too tired to do this now.

“Okay, listen,” I began. “Bree’s boyfriend is scamming her, and it’s upsetting all of us. And my dad wants to mend fences, which just upsets me. I understand where you’re at, but I honestly can’t do this now.”

“That Christos guy is scamming Bree?”

Why did I say anything?

And how could I forget he just didn’t listen to me?

“Bryan, I can’t do this now,” I stated in a firm voice.

“Right, right, right,” he muttered like he was talking to himself. “Though I gotta say, I’m more worried about your father. What’s he up to?”