Free The Safe Bet (The Game Changers #3) by Shealy James Page B

far.
    “No. Jordan won’t tell you.”
    I glanced up with the question written on my face.
    “I can read your mind. You’re trying to find a way out of the deal. It won’t work. Jordan won’t tell you anything.”
    “How do you know?”
    “He agreed not to. He wants you to talk to me just as much as I do.”
    Screw my damn brother. “Fine, but you go first.”
    “Of course. I met Jordan last year at a conference. The last name stuck out to me. I told him I once knew a girl with the same name. Over drinks, I briefly shared my tragic story about the one who got away. The whole time he said nothing.”
    I wondered how much he told Jordan. He had known about Brock. The first night I stayed at his house we drank tequila and attempted to get to know each other by asking what started out as simple questions. The questions became progressively deeper, and I was too drunk to filter. I wasn’t sure how much Jordan understood, so was it possible that he would he have made the connection?
    “The following week I received a phone call from Jordan’s company about consulting work. I was later paired up with Jordan on a small project, and when he flew to Seattle to wrap it up, he confessed that he was your brother. He spent the year trying to decide if he should let me back in your life. Sure enough, when a position opened within his company, I was the first person they called.”
    “So, it was all planned.”
    “Sort of. We both figured you wouldn’t see me or speak to me, but I still can’t figure out why. What happened, Rea?”
    “Is that your one truth you want from me?”
    “No.”
    “What do you want to know?”
    His eyes met mine and bored into me like he was unsure about what he was about to say. Just as quickly as I saw the nerves, they were gone and confidence had taken over him.
    “What?” I asked, prompting him to finally speak.
    “Were you ever in love with me?”
    I choked on the hot soup. Sputtering, I coughed out, “What?”
    “You heard me. I want to know if you ever loved me, because I sure as hell was head over heels in love with you, but then you left, and I…” He paused. “Let’s just say that was a feeling I’ll never forget.”
    I coughed more, breaking up the leftover soup that went down the wrong tube.
    “You promised me a truth, Reagan, and that’s what I want to know.”
    My heart pounded. I could feel the blood rushing through my body. I knew my cheeks were red, and my ears burned. That was not a question I expected at all, but I had promised him a truth, and I always kept my promises.
    “Yes,” I whispered to the seafood platter. I couldn’t bear to look him in the eye when I said the words I had never spoken aloud, especially not to him. “Yes, I loved you.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
     
    March 2002
     
    There’s a feeling of power, a high if you will, when someone cares enough about you to protect you. That was definitely not what this was, and the feeling I was left with was nothing like a high. In fact, what I felt wasn’t even remotely satisfying.
    Ivy and I went to a party hosted by some guy she met in her biology class. Alex was older and “sooo hot,” so I was dressed in the heeled boots, skinny jeans, and low-cut top she picked out as I followed her into his house. He apparently shared it with three other guys and had people over every weekend. I could already tell it was going to be a long and possibly painful night.
    Two beers in, I was bored, and my feet hurt. I had seen a guy drink a beer from a funnel followed by a girl who didn’t shave her armpits doing a keg stand. I watched people bump and grind on the makeshift dance floor and witnessed a couple practically having sex on the couch in the middle of the room, not even in a dark corner. All the while Ivy was flirting with the mildly attractive guy known as Alex. I had sporadically chatted with one of his roommates, who was cute but boring. He asked every possible question he could