Shrugging, I turn back to the counter and begin peeling the foil off Alyssa’s pineapple salsa. “Turns out you were a little too generous with the details when you told me about her. Made me curious.”
“Curious enough to fuck my sloppy seconds?” he asks cuttingly. “And here I thought you hated me.”
“Oh, I do,” I assure him. “You’re never mistaken in thinking that.”
“Okay,” he says after a pause, walking closer and shaking his head at me. “I get it—Alyssa’s hot, and I told you all the shit she was willing to do. I understand fucking her if you had the chance, but what the hell happened after that? What is this shit about being engaged? What are you playing at?”
“Not playing at anything,” I tell him. “Things have changed. I like Alyssa a hell of a lot more than I like you. If I had to pick one of you to keep in the family, it’d be an easy choice.”
“You can’t marry her,” he says, like it’s common sense and there’s no other way to see it.
“Sure I can.”
“No, you fucking can’t. She was mine, not yours.”
A surge of anger rushes through me so fast, I damn near throw the bowl of salsa at him. “She was never yours, you fucking asshole. You’re married. Married. You fucked around on your wife—that doesn’t give you ownership over the girl you fucked around with.”
“I told you about this so you would make her go away,” he says, angrily pointing at the back yard and raising his eyebrows. “Does this look like away to you, Brant? She’s in my fucking yard, talking to my wife, playing with my kids. This is not what I asked you to do.”
“I told you then and I’ll tell you again, I wasn’t doing any of it for you. I was doing it for Bri. I found another way to handle the situation, and I’ve accomplished the same end. I’ve protected Bri just as effectively—”
“No, Brant.”
I’m tempted to dismiss him, but he looks so legitimately upset, I don’t tell him to fuck off and go outside. I wait to hear what he says.
He’s quiet for a moment, then he says, “You were supposed to remove the temptation, not bring it to my fucking Fourth of July party.”
All the blood in my body turns to sludge. A knot forms in my stomach and my words come out more hostile than I mean them to. “Temptation? You said she didn’t mean anything to you.”
Rolling his head back in disbelief, he says, “Of course I did. You’re the psychotically overprotective brother of my wife—of course I told you the girl I cheated with didn’t mean anything to me.”
I know logically the ground hasn’t shifted beneath my feet, but I feel unsteady regardless. Clutching the edge of the countertop, feeling every muscle in my body tense, I try to think of what to say, but nothing’s coming out. It’s not just anger that heats me up; a blade of fear slices right through me at the idea that there exists a man capable of taking Alyssa away from me, and maybe he wants to.
I try to bring myself back down with the reminder that he didn’t leave Bri and run off with Alyssa; he came to me wanting to get rid of her. Whatever he thinks he feels for Alyssa, it’s nothing compared to what I feel for her. I’d never hurt her, not for anything, and he was willing to just because she became inconvenient.
Damn girl’s been inconvenient for me since the moment I met her—hasn’t stopped me from developing feelings for her, enough of them that I’m willing to marry her and take on a kid that’s not even mine.
I replay the things Alyssa has said to me, too, about how she was attracted to Theo but she was never in love with him. I know she might not be completely in love with me yet, either, but she’s on her way, and that’s more than she ever felt for this bastard.
“Lust is all there ever was between you, Theo. You’re just gonna have to get over that. It’ll be good practice, seeing a woman you’d like to fuck but not doing it. As many years as you’ve been married, you should be pretty good at it by now, but you’re not, are you?”
“This isn’t funny,” he tells me, still looking like I’ve betrayed him.
“Do I look amused?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow.
“I can’t have her around, Brant,” he tells me, shaking his head. The look on his face tells me he’s serious, but it doesn’t matter. Alyssa’s not going anywhere, so he’s just gonna have to adjust.
“Then leave.”
His expression deadens. “Fucking hilarious.”
I shrug, grabbing the container full of meat skewers. “Not kidding. Alyssa’s not going anywhere, and it shouldn’t matter because she doesn’t want anything to do with you. Me and Alyssa are together now. Nothing you say will change that.”