Dare to Hold (Dare to Love 4)

His sister’s jaw had gone slack. “You love her?”

Scott couldn’t believe he’d said it out loud either. Hell, he hadn’t admitted it to himself before now. But what else was this driving need to be with her, to protect her, to get so involved in her life that she wouldn’t want to leave?

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then man up,” Dylan said.

Scott clenched his hands beneath the table. “What the fuck do you know about me or my life?” he asked the other man. “Just because you are or were Meg’s best friend doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do.”

Dylan’s hand came down on the table hard. Olivia jumped, then wrapped her fingers around his hand. “Stop it and listen. Both of you.”

She turned to Scott. “I, of all people, know how hard it is to get over the pain in your past.”

His sister had lost a baby when she was young, been betrayed by both that baby’s father and their own parent. So yes, Olivia understood better than most.

“But the risk is so worth it,” she said, glancing at her husband, her eyes shining with love. “Dylan stuck by me. He never gave up on me. On us. And because of that, I was able to come around and believe that I deserved a future that included kids … and a good man,” she said, her voice thick and full of emotion.

His sister’s words wrapped around him, making sense not because of the logic but due to the fact that she’d all but experienced the same feelings of loss. She’d closed herself off to more. And she’d come out the other side because she’d been brave.

“Look, man. You knew Meg was pregnant when you started this thing. Are you really going to bail now because it’s getting real?”

“Dylan,” Olivia said, warning him to shut up with her tone.

“What? It’s the truth,” Dylan muttered.

“He gets what I said, don’t you?” his sister asked him.

Scott met Olivia’s gaze and nodded, because he did. Olivia had done what he would have thought was impossible and gotten through to him. Dylan was right. He had to man up. Not necessarily throw Meg’s life into further turmoil by dumping his feelings on her in the middle of her current nightmare, but he had to stop waffling. He’d told her from the beginning he was all in.

Then he’d turned around and backed off when messy emotions had gotten involved. Shame on him, he thought.

“Here she comes,” Olivia said softly.

Scott looked from his sister to Dylan. “I heard you. Both of you,” he said, rising to his feet as Meg approached the table.

He held out her chair so she could sit, and Emilio returned with their food. The rest of the meal passed with general conversation. Scott was ready to get Meg home and fix things between them as best he could. The rest would come with time. He hoped.

* * *

Meg walked out of the restaurant and headed for the parking garage. The balmy air settled on her shoulders, too humid for comfort. She glanced at Scott, who seemed … calmer somehow. Which she didn’t understand considering how intense so much of the conversation had been.

“Would it be okay if we stopped by my apartment on the way home?” she asked. They weren’t too far from her place, so it wasn’t out of the way. “I need more comfortable clothes, since I’m not going to be working, and while I’m there, I can grab my mail.”

“Not a problem.”

He braced his hand on the small of her back as they walked, and she did her best not to visibly react to his warm touch. Even if her body responded to him, would always respond to him, her brain was sending out warning signals to keep her emotional distance.

“I should have told you what I knew about the Ashtons,” he said, surprising her. “I just figured you needed time to breathe before we jumped into that again on Wednesday.”

She smiled grimly. “And you didn’t know Luke was going to tell me first, which pissed you off.”

“It’s not that,” he said, too quickly.

She deliberately cleared her throat, giving him a chance to change his mind.

“Okay, it’s that,” he said, obviously caught. “It’s just… I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

They paused outside the garage where they’d parked. “But you didn’t. You decided to wait. We’ve talked about this already. You can’t keep making decisions about what I need to know and when.”