Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1)(67)

It was very good.





Chapter 23


––––––––

Leo

––––––––

“This was no lukewarm, vanilla feeling.” –Leo Tate –––––––– Days passed. I worked. We had band practice.

Sebastian and I were back to the usual, working out together, playing music, talking about football. He’d helped me plan the birthday dinner for Nora. And while I’d been baking her cake and making a damn mess all over the place, he’d watched me quizzically the entire time, like he thought I’d lost my mind.

Maybe I have.

His profession of love for Nora made me livid, and I hated it. I did my best to push it to the back of my mind and pretend that I didn’t care. What was wrong with me, to be mad at my baby brother? I wanted to yell at him every time he gave her a little smile or sent her a concerned look or rubbed her back. And it wasn’t just Sebastian either. I’d even given Teddy the evil eye at band practice when he’d sat too close to her at the piano.

Jealousy sucked.

A knock came from my office door. I glanced at my watch. It was two, which meant it could be Nora. I hadn’t really talked to her in the past few days, and I got excited at the prospect of seeing her alone for once.

“Come in,” I said.

Sebastian walked in, but before he shut the door, he glanced back and sent a quick look out at the front desk where Nora sat.

“What?” I asked, my temper flaring.

Sebastian chuckled. “Feeling pissy today, bro?”

Why was me being in a shitty mood funny? “You come in here for a reason? I got work to do, so get to it.” I motioned at a seat.

“Fine,” he said, taking a seat in one of the leather loungers. He crossed his arms, opened his mouth to speak but then closed it, shaking his head, like he’d changed his mind.

“Talk, Sebastian,” I said, thumping a pen against the desk. “I don’t have all day.”

He sighed. “Nora . . . and I . . . we have a serious problem.”

I straightened up as my stomach plummeted. “What kind of problem?” I asked with barely controlled rage, the first thing running through my mind was Nora being pregnant with Sebastian’s baby. I held my hands under the desk so he couldn’t see my clenched fists. Agony ripped through me at the thought of her big with his baby, and I forced myself to stay calm and not react the way I wanted to, which was to jerk him up and beat the shit out of him. And I didn’t want to do that. Not really. He was all I had.

But, I couldn’t stop my imagination from going crazy when I pictured Nora happy and smiling with a child, her child. And envy gnawed at me. Wondering what it would be like if she belonged to me, I pictured these possible fragments of my future, where I took care of her, where I made love to her everyday, where we got married, where she delivered our precious babies.

And those fake, future memories . . . the beauty of it took my breath away.

I startled at the suddenness of my realization, recognizing it for the truth that it was. What had I given up when I told her we would never be? Had I lost my only chance at real happiness when I’d rejected her?

I grappled with my emotions, not sure what to call it or how to describe it.

Was it love?

No, that didn’t cut it. This was no lukewarm, vanilla feeling. It was a madness, making me feel like a weak-kneed boy on his first date, like I had f*cking butterflies in my stomach when I pictured her face. She consumed me, my head, my heart, my skin, my blood, my muscles, everything aching for the physical touch of her body against mine. I’d had an inkling of what we could be at the open house; at the movies, I’d realized that she could be mine if I let her; now I knew I’d made a mistake.

Did this mean she was my soulmate? Because she held my gutless piece-of-shit heart in her hands; because I thought I would die if I never got to kiss her again?

Yeah.

I felt the beginnings of a splitting headache and wished for a good bottle of whiskey.

“Leo?” he asked, bringing me back. “Dude, you alright?”

“Just tell me. Get it over with.”

He squirmed. “She’s got this guy sending her texts,” he said and stopped, not elaborating.

“Cuba?” I bit out unsure whether to be relieved or angry Nora was sleeping with some other guy. Or maybe both?

Sebastian must have seen the conflict on my face, because he sputtered. “Jesus . . . someone . . . I can’t say who . . . keeps sending her texts and trying to scare her.”

“Scare?” I rose up from my desk and braced my arms on top. “How?”

His face whitened.

I rapped my fist against the hard wood of the desk. “Tell me, Sebastian.”

He stood and backed toward the door, his eyes wary. “This was a really bad idea. I’m breaking Nora’s confidence, and I shouldn’t have. It’s not a big deal anyway.” He ran his eyes over me dismissively. “I’ll protect her.”

“Yeah, because you love her, right? You guys gonna go steady now? Get married someday? I hope you’re using protection, Sebastian.”

He let a small smile slip out, like he had a secret.

“What’s with the smile?” I snapped.