Stepbrother Dearest(35)

It was not the appropriate time to notice how incredible his ass looked through the fitted black dress pants he was wearing, but nevertheless, I did. A breeze blew around the sexy black waves of his hair.

I cleared my throat to announce myself.

He didn’t turn but knew it was me.

“What are you doing out here, Greta?”

“Chelsea asked me to come talk to you.”

He shrugged his shoulders, his laugh full of sarcasm. “Oh, really.”

“Yes.”

“Were you two comparing notes?”

“That’s not funny.”

He finally turned around to look at me, blowing out the last of the smoke from his cigarette before promptly throwing it on the ground and crushing it with his foot. “You think she would have sent you out here to talk to me if she knew the last time before today that you and I were together, we were f*cking like rabbits?”

Although it shocked me, hearing him acknowledging that sent a shiver through my body. “Did you have to put it like that?”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it? She would freak the f*ck out if she knew.”

“Well, I’m not going to be the one to tell her, so you don’t have to worry. I would never do that.”

My eye started to twitch.

He lifted his brow. “Why are you winking at me?”

“I’m not…my eye is twitching because—”

“Because you’re nervous. I know. You used to do that when I first met you. Glad to see we’ve come full circle.”


“I guess some things never really change, do they? It’s been seven years, but it seems just like—”

“Like yesterday.” He repeated, “It seems like just yesterday, and that’s f*cked up. This whole situation is.”

“It was never supposed to happen.”

His gaze fell to my neck and then back up to my eyes. “Where is he?”

“Who?”

“Your fiancé.”

“I’m not engaged. I was…but not anymore. How did you know I was engaged?”

He looked dumbfounded then stared down at the ground for the longest time before dodging my question. “What happened?”

“It’s kind of a long story, but I was the one that ended it. He moved to Europe for a job. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Are you with anyone now?”

“No.” I changed the subject off of me. “Chelsea is really nice.”

“She’s wonderful; one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, actually.”

Punched in the gut.

“She’s really worried about you, because you haven’t shown any emotion. She asked me if I knew what the story was between you and Randy. I didn’t know what to say because there is so much I still don’t even know.”

“You know more than she does, and that wasn’t my choice. The bottom line is, he was a crappy father and now, he’s dead. Seriously, that’s all my mind can process right now. This hasn’t even hit me yet.”

“It was such a shock.”

“My mother is taking it really hard,” he said.

“How was she doing before this?”

“Better than she was back then, but not 100-percent. The verdict is still out, though, on what Randy’s death is gonna do to her mental state.”

The wind suddenly intensified, and misty raindrops started to fall. I looked up at the sky then down at my watch. “We have to leave in a few minutes.”

“Go back inside. Tell her I’ll be in there in a minute,” he said.

I ignored him and stayed standing there. I felt like a failure. I’d gotten nowhere with him.

Fuck. My eyes were starting to water.

“What are you doing?” he snapped.

“Chelsea’s not the only one who’s worried about you.”

“She’s the only one that has a right to be. You don’t need to be worrying about me. I’m none of your concern.”

It had stung harder than anything he had ever said to me.

In that moment, he’d violently thrown back and stomped on whatever piece of my heart I’d given him all those years ago. It disappointed me that I’d idealized him all this time, compared all my boyfriends to him, put him up on a pedestal when clearly he didn’t care about my feelings.

“You know what? If I didn’t feel so sorry for what you’re going through right now, I’d tell you to kiss my ass,” I said.

“And if I wanted to be a dick, I’d say you were asking me to kiss your ass because you remembered how much you f*cking loved it when I did.” He brushed past me. “Take care of your mother tonight.”

The past couple of hours had been an emotional roller coaster of shock, sadness, jealousy and now…anger. Pure anger. The tears started to pour down my face in a stream that matched the intensity of the raindrops now steadily falling after he left me speechless in the garden.



***



“I didn’t know Randy had a son.”

I couldn’t count the number of times someone visiting us in the receiving line had said it. It made me feel really bad for Elec despite his crushing me earlier.

The smell of flowers mixed with the perfume of a dozen random women was suffocating.