When I made love to her, I could feel it. We share a deep connection—a love like no other. She’s my best friend’s girl but she was meant to be mine.
There’s just one problem. Reese. My bitch of a wife. She shouldn’t still even be given that title. We haven’t seen each other in years. No, she has been off living the high life with my fuckwad brother, Wren. I thought I loved her. Damn did I want to give her everything. She wanted everything alright just not with me.
Now she’s back after what seems like a lifetime and she wants a second chance. Says she is done with life on the road and wants to settle down and get back the time we lost. I admit that it’s a tempting offer, but I lost what love I held for Reese a long time ago.
She bent the hell out of my heart. Left a huge fucking dent, and I decided after she left that I would never open that part of me up again, but then Conleigh fucking happened. I tried so damn hard to ignore my pull to her. I told myself it was for the best she was with Ezra, but then I knew what he was doing behind her back. What had probably been done to me a thousand times by Reese and with my own brother no doubt. Then she willingly came to me and we shared a beautiful moment where nothing else existed but us. Our hot bodies on my cool sheets. Her heart beating wildly for me. Her sweat mixing with mine as though we were meant to always be one.
It was like a dream, one I never wanted to end. Then reality came crashing back down. Conleigh didn’t know what she wanted and the next day when I should have been fighting for her heart, I was slapped in the face with a visit from my past. My brother had returned, and he had brought hell home with him.
I look up from wiping down the bar when I feel a pair of eyes on me. Bailey. What in the hell is she doing here?
“Can I talk to you?”
“You want to have a conversation with me? Won’t I kill your brain cells or something if I get too close?”
She shakes her head with a grin. “Ha ha, very funny. It’s about Conleigh.”
“Okay, I’ll bite.” I take a few beers from behind the counter and show her to a table near the middle of the room, so I can keep an eye on the bar. It’s a slow day but there are a few regulars hanging around.
She takes a seat across from me and I offer her a beer. She shakes her head no but offers a timid no thanks.
I shrug and pop the cap off a bottle. “Suit yourself.”
“I know about the two of you…” she starts, and I stop her.
“Let me guess, you are here to cut my nuts off and tell me to stay away.”
“Actually, I am here to ask you why you are sitting back and letting Ezra win?”
I nearly spit out my beer. “You want me with Conleigh? You hate me.” I cock a brow at her wondering what in the hell is going on. I must have entered an alternate reality.
“I wouldn’t call it hate. A strong dislike but that is only because you wounded my pride.” She shrugs when I chuckle. “I’m a vain girl who has always gotten her way and you didn’t want me. You never looked at me the way you look at her and I was jealous. I was a bitch. I’m sorry. I should have set my pride aside, so you could be together. I suck.”
“Could have fooled me,” I crack at her and she glares at me. I tug on my beard. “So, I assume you have a plan to help me, right?”
“I uh…actually I was hoping you had it covered since you are such a charmer and all.” She smiles at me and it’s a genuine smile. I think this is the realest this chick has ever been around me.
“I don’t know what to do. I put it all out there to her. She knows how I feel. What more can I do?”
“You gotta fight for her. Conleigh is terrified after the shit with her dad growing up and her mom’s marriage to Ronald is a joke, but it’s what she knows. Ezra is just like her step-dad. You my friend are a wildcard.”
“So, we’re friends now huh?”
“Stop being a dick for five seconds. I am trying to help you.”
“What’s in it for you? Why do you care so much whether sh
e ends up with me or Ezra?”
“She’s my best friend. I screwed up and she shouldn’t be with that asshole.”
“I agree with you there.” I take a last pull from my bottle and ask, “Now what?”
“Now you give her hell. Don’t let a minute go by without letting her know you aren’t going anywhere. I didn’t figure you for a guy who gives up so easily on something he wants…someone he loves.”
“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”
“We all have our gifts.” She grins, twirling a blonde curl around her finger.