Page 76 of When the Walls Come Down
I went willingly, apologizing as I snuggled into his hard body. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I forgot about your ex and—”
His forehead came down to rest on mine. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have assumed anything anyway. Fuck, I spent all night thinking you were with another man. You have no idea how many times I considered taking a crowbar to that wall we share.”
My head snapped back. “All night?”
“Yeah. Chris told me you had dinner and then left with some guy.”
I twisted my lips. “Oh, so you did make it to Two Ships after all?”
He swayed me in his arms. “I did, but it was a fucking nightmare. My phone died. I left my charger at the hotel. My flight was delayed, and then when we did finally land, we sat on the tarmac for-fucking-ever. It was one shit show after another. Then to hear you left with someone…” He let out a low growl and dipped to kiss me.
I dodged his mouth like it was a bullet and not the two most perfect lips in existence. “Don’t do that. My brother will kill you. Like, dead. The permanent kind.”
He came in again from a different angle, murmuring, “I’ll take my chances.”
This time, I ducked out of his arms altogether. “No, I’m still mad at you for disappearing on me. But if you hurry up and grab your keys, you can come to breakfast with me and Heath.”
He grinned, and I’m talking about the kind of smile that tested the limits on the elasticity of skin. In one fluid movement, he spun around, slapped his hand down on the neat stack of his wallet, phone, and keys on the corner of his counter, and then turned back to face me. “Ready.”
I started to walk away when he caught my elbow and dragged me into his apartment.
There was no time to object before his lips touched my shoulder. “Don’t be mad at me for long. I’ll explain everything.”
I nodded and, unable to help myself, pushed up onto my toes and planted a chaste kiss on his mouth. “You better.”
I waited for Shane to lock up his apartment before we made our way over to Heath. I hadn’t really thought this whole introducing-a-guy-to-my-brother thing through. Since I was the baby of the family, Heath had always been an overprotective madman when it came to me. Back when he’d been a cop, he’d had my prom date pulled over and arrested because he’d dared to give me a kiss on the cheek when he dropped me off thirty minutes before curfew. After that, I’d vowed to never bring home a man to my pseudo-father until I had a ring on my finger, for fear that he’d scare them off. So sure, why not just surprise him with a breakfast with my non-boyfriend, kind-of-friend who I was mad at but still secretly in love with? That seemed like a brilliant plan.
“Shane, this is my brother, Heath. Heath, this is my…Shane.”
“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Shane said, extending a hand.
My brother stared at it for a long second, his face so hard that it was as if it had been cast in stone.
Shane was a big guy, but Heath was a mountain.
To his credit, Shane just stood there, his hand extended, grinning with all the confidence in the world.
“Heath,” I hissed, and my brother finally became unstuck.
With a hand shake so rough that I could hear the initial clap, Heath took his hand. “So you’re the prick who stood Maggie up last night.”
Shane nodded. “Unfortunately, that was me. It’s a whole long story with planes and phone chargers. I’ll be happy to fill you both in over coffee.”
Heath spoke through clenched teeth. “Can’t wait.”
Ohhh-kay. So this was going to be fun.
We got to the restaurant later than I’d hoped, but we were still able to make the first round of seating when they opened. The place was packed, but we landed a table in the back corner.
I’d graduated college twice, moved all the way across the country, and taken a job where I had to go head-to-head with the guy I was dating, but nothing, and I mean nothing, was more stressful than standing at the table, Heath on one side, Shane on the other, both of them with a chair pulled out waiting for me to decide where I was going to sit.
I went with Shane. If he was going to get through this in one piece, we needed to present a united front. And, to Shane, that meant taking his life into his own hands and draping his arm around the back of my chair.
“I like this dress,” he whispered.
I gave a pointed side-eye at my brother, who was inspecting the menu, and then said, “And I like you with a pulse.”
