Free And I Love You by Marie Force Page A

didn’t let her mind go there. Not today. Not when she had something fun to look forward to for once.
    “Why would you say that to him before you even go out with him?”
    “Because.” Megan tried not to squirm under her sister’s intense glare. No one saw right through her the way Nina did. “I don’t want it. It’s not my style, and he’d be crazy to fall for me.”
    “May I say something that might make you mad, but I still think it needs to be said?”
    “How can I resist after that intro?”
    Nina pushed aside the paperwork, the calculator and her precious coffee mug to reach across the table for Megan’s hands. “The crush you had on Will.”
    Will was about the last thing Megan wanted to talk about after making plans with his brother. “What about it?”
    “I have a theory about that.”
    “Which is?”
    “This is the part that’s going to make you mad. I’ve wanted to say this for a long time, but it was never the right time. Now that you’ve got a date with Hunter, I think you need to hear it.”
    “When have you ever held back with me?”
    “Only when I was afraid I might hurt you.”
    “You’ve opened Pandora’s box now. You may as well put it out there.”
    “This is my opinion and only my opinion, but I think you were using Will as a way to avoid real relationships with other guys. As long as you had yourself convinced he was the one for you, you could hide behind him almost like a shield to keep anyone from getting too close.”
    Skewered by Nina’s assessment, Megan stared out the window. Was that true? Had she really done that? If she had, it wasn’t a conscious thing that she’d set out to do intentionally.
    Nina took a deep breath, released Megan’s hands only long enough to secure her dark curls behind her ears—something she did when she was nervous—and pressed on. “And I know why you did it.”
    “Oh please. Don’t stop now.”
    “You’re pissed. I knew you would be, and I’m really sorry, but I think you did it so you’d never be hurt again the way you were when we lost Mom and Dad. And I understand that. Believe me, I do. If I hadn’t already been involved with Brett when they died, I might’ve done exactly the same thing to avoid ever again feeling the way I did then.”
    Megan was unable to contain the tears that slid down her cheeks. “So you’re saying I created an imaginary boyfriend for myself so I wouldn’t make the mistake of having real feelings for someone else?”
    “Yes. Exactly.”
    Megan wiped away the tears, irritated by them.
    “You’re mad, right?”
    “No.”
    “It’s okay if you are. I’d understand that.”
    Megan picked up the spoon sitting next to Nina’s mug and flipped it between her fingers. “You’re not wrong, but I didn’t do it intentionally. I never said to myself, ‘If you fall into a mad, crazy crush with Will Abbott, who has no real interest in you, you’ll be able to avoid the possibility of getting hurt with someone else.’ It wasn’t like that.”
    “I know it wasn’t, honey. And the only reason I even brought it up is because I’ve seen the way Hunter looks at you.”
    Megan sat up straighter. “You have? When? Why didn’t you say anything?”
    “I’ve noticed Hunter’s interest in you for years now, and I didn’t say anything because you weren’t ready to hear it. Not until recently when you seemed to accept that Will is in love with someone else, and you can’t hide behind him anymore.”
    “I wasn’t doing that! I wasn’t hiding. I was right here every day, out in the open.”
    “With your Will shield out in front, making you unapproachable to Hunter or anyone else who might’ve been interested. You put off the ‘keep away’ vibe. It was loud and clear. Then Will went and fell in love, and suddenly you can’t use him that way anymore, and you’ve become more accessible—and more vulnerable.”
    “What the hell, Nina? Did you go to shrink school when I wasn’t paying attention or