Unfinished Ex (Calloway Brothers, #2)(32)

Then she walked in, and you completely pulled away. Emotionally. Physically. And I knew for sure nothing would ever change.”

“Then why did you let me bring you home?”

“To say goodbye, I guess.” She puts a hand on the door handle, then turns back. “For months now, I thought I was in love with you. But I think I was in love with the idea of having what you had with her. I’m not mad at you, Jaxon. I hope we can still be friends.”

She gets out of the car and doesn’t look back. I sit in the darkness, feeling guilty as hell when a wave of relief floods through me.



~



A hairy paw rests over my face as sunlight shines through the window. “Stay on your side.” I shove Heisman away, which is no easy feat considering he weighs sixty-eight pounds. He regards me for a minute, then drifts back to sleep.

Light crawls down the wall as I lie awake wondering about last night. What was Nicky thinking showing up at the reunion? Nobody wanted her there. Except the dozen or so guys who wanted in her pants. Hunter fucking McQuaid would have loved to rub that one in my face.

What was I thinking pulling her on the dance floor? Heisman rolls over and gives me the stink-eye as if he’s privy to my thoughts. “Yeah, okay, so I screwed everything up. What’s new?” I hop out of bed and hit the bathroom. Then I walk out the bedroom door. When Heisman doesn’t follow, I peek my head back in. “Get your lazy ass off the bed. We’re going for a walk.”

An hour later, after our usual Saturday morning stroll through the park, we’re standing on Tag’s doorstep. His fiancée, Maddie, opens the door. Fiancée—my brother is engaged. I still can’t believe it. Apparently pigs do fly.

“Sorry to show up unannounced,” I say.

“You’re welcome anytime,” Maddie says. “Tag made pancakes. Come in and pull up a chair.”

“My brother cooks?”

She laughs. “I wouldn’t call adding water to a mix and pouring it on a griddle cooking.”

A puppy runs over and almost collides with Heisman. He lowers his head to sniff things.

“Sissy!” Maddie’s five-year-old daughter calls out, coming around the corner.

I bend down and pet the little furball. “Sissy? I thought you were going to call her Princess, Gigi.”

“Mommy said it would be too confusing for her since Tag calls me princess.”

“It’s good you brought Heisman,” Maddie says. “We need to socialize Sissy with other animals.”

“Take her to the park. There are plenty of dogs there.”

“Can’t until she’s had all her shots. She could pick up something.”

I ruffle Heisman’s fur. “I took him every day when he was a puppy, and he never got sick.”

“You were lucky then.”

“I think you’re being a little overprotective.”

Tag appears. “What’s this about my fiancée being overprotective? Surely you jest.”

Maddie swats the back of his head on her way to the table. “Come on, Jaxon, let’s get you those pancakes.”

“You have somewhere else to be?” Tag asks as we eat. “You keep checking the time.”

“The piece on the weather balloon is supposed to air soon.”

“How exciting,” Maddie says, going over to turn on the TV.

After breakfast, the three of us move to the living room, keeping an eye on the television as we watch Gigi play with Heisman and Sissy.

“Heard there was some excitement at Donovan’s last night,” Tag says.

Maddie elbows him. “You said you weren’t going to say anything.”

“That was before he crashed our breakfast. Actually, someone said there was a cat fight between your girlfriend and your ex.”

“There wasn’t any fight. They had a conversation is all. And she’s not my girlfriend. She broke it off late last night.”

“Because you danced with Nicky?”

“Christ, did you have spies there or something?”

“There’s this thing called Facebook,” Tag says quietly. “Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s where people post photos and make comments and shit. Well, the posts about your little reunion about broke the fucking internet.”

“You and Calista broke up?” Maddie asks.

“If that’s what you want to call it. We were never officially a thing.”

“If dating someone for six months doesn’t officially make you a thing, I don’t know what does.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Maddie’s face lights up. “Oh, it’s on. Tag, turn it up.”

Nicky looks amazing. I wonder if that Chris guy is behind the camera ogling her. She talks about the weather and then leads in to the experiment at the school. The three of us are glued to the TV.

“Ten pounds, my ass,” Tag says when I appear on screen. “If you plan on being on TV again, brother, you might think about going off the carbs.”

“Fuck you,” I whisper.

All in all, they edited the clip to under two minutes. Surprising because they spent over an hour and a half with us.

“She really must hate you,” Tag says. “She didn’t give you much screen time.”