“Rhiannon,” he nodded.
The name was vaguely familiar to Claudia. She tapped her fingertip against her cheek. “You were with her when I … back when…”
“When you begged me to take your virginity?” He prompted, the words droll, as though he was enjoying her discomfort.
“Yes.” She didn’t meet his eyes.
“We broke up about a month after I left the UK.”
“Why?” She didn’t let hope flare in her breast. It had nothing to do with her. That was stupid, immature vanity, a hopeless, blind vanity, speaking.
“We weren’t well-suited,” he shrugged. “We should have realized sooner but we were friends, I suppose.”
“How long were you together?”
“Two years.”
“Two years?” Okay, now she could name the emotion. Jealousy, unmistakable, fired through her.
“You went out with the woman for two years and now your brother is marrying her?”
“Apparently.”
“What’s she like?”
He shook his head with frustration. “She’s… does it matter?”
“I’m curious.”
He expelled a sigh. “She’s … fine. Nice. A paediatrician who loves children and desperately wants to have some of her own.”
“And you didn’t want children?”
“No.” His eyes glittered with something like determination. “I didn’t.”
Claudia nodded slowly, but she didn’t meet his eyes when she asked her next question. She was lost to the image of the undoubtedly beautiful Rhiannon, who was also smart and professionally accomplished. Who definitely wouldn’t ‘waste’ her life tumbling out of nightclubs and getting photographed with different men every Saturday night. Jealousy chewed through her gut, and a deep sense of inadequacy flared inside of her.
“Do you still care for her?”
“Care for her?”
“I mean, don’t you think it’s kind of a coincidence that you completely lost it at me because you think I’m in some kind of love triangle when actually, you are?”
“I am not in a love triangle,” he contradicted.
“Your brother is marrying your ex. What would you call it?”
“A mistake,” he grunted.
“Are they a good couple?”
“I’ve never spent time with them.”
“Maybe you should,” Claudia suggested thoughtfully. “Unless you plan on never seeing your brother again, you’re going to need to make your peace with it at some point.”
“Perhaps,” he said with a shrug.
“Not perhaps. Definitely.”