My brain kicked back into gear, and I nodded. “Hell yes, it is,” I agreed, as I took a step closer to Brandt. “To both of us. Do you think I’m so stupid I would really fall for such an awful scheme, or do you really think she couldn’t possibly like me for me?”
Brandt straightened and sent me a look as if he couldn’t believe I’d apply either label to his thought process. “I think you need to find someone who does like you for you,” he murmured, “someone who loves you without a doubt. That’s what I think.”
“I don’t have any doubts,” I told him, staring him straight in the eye, when okay, sometimes I did, like twenty seconds ago when he’d come up with that idea, or twenty minutes earlier when he’d called her phone, or that day on campus, when I learned they talked—like talked—at work together.
But she’d told me she loved me, dammit.
Then again, she’d also told me she loved Brandt the night of his wedding.
Jesus, I hated doubts.
My brother quirked a brow as if he knew I was lying. But I continued to stare at him steadily.
So he whirled toward Julianna, pointing threateningly. “Stay the fuck away from my brother.”
Her lips parted in shock. I stepped in front of her, glaring him down. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that.”
“And you.” He pointed a finger at my nose next. “You’re done with this. With her. With this whole…whatever you two are doing. You’re done. No more.”
I laughed in his face. “Yeah, you don’t tell me who I can and cannot date. Sorry, bro.”
“When it’s my leftovers you’re sniffing around, I sure the fuck can.”
“Leftovers?” Juli and I cried in unison.
“As if,” I added. “You didn’t even finish a single date with her.”
“Yeah. Are you sure that’s all that ever happened between us?” he asked in the most taunting voice I’d ever heard him use.
“Hey!” Juli nudged me aside so she could get into Brandt’s face and glare. “Stop putting ideas in his head.” Turning to me, she stared beseechingly into my eyes. “Yes, half a date is all that ever happened between us. He’s being an ass.”
I swiveled my gaze to my brother. He stared at me a quarter of a second before folding.
“Okay, fine, dammit,” he admitted. “That half a date was it. But I still considered it. You cannot date someone I considered. It’s weird, so…you two…done.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, we’re not.”
“Colton,” he muttered, gritting his teeth. “Stop being such a stubborn little shit. You owe me.”
As my face drained of color, Julianna gasped. “You fucking prick,” she started in a low, calm rage. I glanced at her, worried she was pissed at me. But her glare was solely for Brandt. She shoved him hard in the chest.
He stumbled a step away from her, his mouth falling open with obvious shock.
“He doesn’t owe you shit,” she growled, making him blink and shake his head. But she kept advancing, getting right in his face. “He was eight fucking years old. You can’t hold him accountable for that. If you want to blame someone, go talk to your goddamn mother. Not Colton.”
My mouth fell open. But seriously, what the hell?
Brandt gaped at her too before looking at me and saying, “What the fuck is she talking about?”
“I…I don’t…” I turned my gaze to Julianna, right about the time her eyes grew wide and she slapped her hands over her mouth.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry.” The muffled words came through her fingers as she begged me with big brown eyes to forgive her.
Finally, Brandt rasped, “Did you tell her?”
“What? No!” I stared at him earnestly, hoping he believed me, before turning back to Julianna, and trying to figure out how she knew.
“I guessed,” she admitted, creeping her hands away from her mouth long enough to confess.
I shook my head, unable to believe it. But how…? “Holy shit,” I whispered. Brandt was never going to forgive me for this. “I didn’t…” I started insistently, turning back to him, but he just held up his hands before turning away and leaving the apartment.
I stepped after him to chase him down and convince him I hadn’t been telling anyone what had happened to him, but Julianna grabbed my arm.
“Colton, oh my God. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t…I didn’t mean to—”
“How did you know?”
“I…” She shook her head. “I figured it out.”
I shook my head. “How?”
“Because you said the night of his wedding that your mom had caused your nightmares, but then the night you told me about the boy you saw molested, you said that had caused them, so I just put the pieces together. And Brandt is five years older than you, which made sense—”
“Holy shit,” I uttered, slapping my hands to my face. “Holy shit. I didn’t realize I’d told you so much. Oh, fuck. He’s never going to forgive me. I need to…dammit, I need to talk to him.”
I started for the door again, but Julianna’s small voice stopped me. “Colton?” was all she said.