Free Best Friend's Brother #4 (Best Friend's Brother Romance Series - Book #4) by Alycia Taylor

wasn’t angry with you Alexa, not at all. I need
to tell you what was going on, but I don’t know how to explain it….”
    “Do you want to stop seeing me?”
    “Not even a little bit,” I said, honestly. “I let
myself try to imagine that for a couple of days. It was not good. Part of why
Billy got such an ass kicking was because of that.”
    “Will you make me a promise?”
    “Sure…”
    Not that my track record with them was any good
lately. I already broke the one I made to her dad, and I was probably going to
tell her that too.
    “Will you promise that if or when you do want to
stop seeing me, you’ll tell me to my face?”
    “If I want to?” I clarified.
    “Yes.”
    “I doubt that’s going to happen, but okay, I
promise.”
    “I have a hard time with people thinking it’s okay to just walk away. I guess because of my mom…”
    She put her fork down and wiped her lips. Her pretty
face looked so sad when she mentioned her mom. I’d never asked about her. I
figured she’d tell me when she was ready. She seemed like she needed to talk
about it now.
      “What
happened to your mom?” I asked her.
    “Nothing…as far as I know. When I was little, she
cheated on my dad. She never told him; instead she just packed her things one
day and left him…and me, a note.”
    “She ended her marriage…and walked out on her
daughter in a note?”
    “Yeah, classy, right? I always thought she was such
a coward after that. I hated her. That was twelve years ago and I still hate
her. It doesn’t matter though, it’s not like I ever saw her again or ever will.
She thought a man was more important than me or my dad. My dad never got over
her and that makes me even angrier. He’s been single ever since. I know that
he’s afraid of getting hurt again. I hate that he’s not living his life because
of her.” Suddenly everything her father had told me made perfect sense. Alexa’s
mom had ripped out his heart and he expected that I would do the same thing to
his daughter. Shit!
    “That explains a lot,” I said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I have to tell you something, Alexa.”
    “Uh oh,” she said, “Sounds ominous.”
    “It is, kind of,” I said. I put my own fork down and
said, “The reason I was so moody those days you asked me about was because I
was trying to push you away.”
    She furrowed her brow and looked confused .   “But you said you
didn’t want to stop seeing me.”
    “I said I wanted you. I did and I do…but your dad
told me that I should leave you alone. He’s afraid that I’m going to hurt you.”
    “What? My dad said that? He told you to leave me
alone?” I suddenly began to regret that I told her. She looked really upset. What
if she got pissed at me again? I should learn to keep my big mouth shut.
    “He was just worried about you. He wasn’t mean about
it or anything. He’s afraid I’m going to hurt you…He said I hurt you already
and I was afraid he was right.”
    “When did you see my dad?”
    “I went by your house the morning after you left
here and told me you needed space…”
    “I was at the mall. He encouraged me to go and spend
some time on me. What did you come by for?” she asked.
    “To tell you that I wanted you and I wanted to make
this work.”
    “And he invited you in?”
    “Kind of,” I told her. “He said, ‘Come in’ and ‘Sit’.
He expressed his sympathy about my sister again and then he said what he had to
say about you and me. He said that you were miserable and I should leave you
alone. He said I wasn’t good for you and I wasn’t helping you get over your
grief.”
    “He makes me so mad when he does this!”
    “He’s done it before?” I know it’s silly but that
made me feel a little better. I could tell myself that maybe it wasn’t just me.
    “He’s done it my whole life. I rarely dated at all
in high school because when I did, he’d pull them aside at some point and tell
them pretty much what he told you. Then he would