“Right. And that made her shut the rest of us out?” Mia asked him, hands on her hips, her stance telling him she didn’t believe him for a second.
“Might have also made it clear that this wasn’t her family and never would be.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, man. Why the hell would you do that?” Alec barked.
West stared at him. “Seems to me, wasn’t that fucking long ago you were all for keeping everyone else out. Malone’s have their own rules, right? She had this stupid idea in her head that I was gonna be hers and so would this family. She needed to know the truth
; I wasn’t her way in.”
“She doesn’t need a way in, West. She’s already in.” The disappointment in Mia’s eyes as she stared at him hit him harder than he thought it would.
“Look, Mia, I get that you like her—”
“You don’t get anything,” Mia retorted.
“Fine. You want that friendship back, I’m sure she’ll give it to you once she’s over her snit.”
“Over her snit? Over her snit? Seriously!” Mia raised her hands into the air. “I knew you could be an ass, but this is a whole other level, even for you.”
“Mia,” Alec said in a low voice.
Finally, he was gonna step in.
“What? I’m not the only one who’s worried, Alec.”
“Know that, baby. That’s why I sent Beau and Maddox. They’re gonna bring her back. You can tell her what you need to say. Then West can apologize for being a shit.”
“I’m not fucking apologizing. I said what I said ’cause it was true. She’s not for me. I’m not for her.”
“It seems to me you could have said it with more care, brother.”
“Since when do you care what I say to a woman who ain’t Mia?” West was confused. Alec didn’t care about anyone who wasn’t family.
“I care because this girl is fragile. She’s got a shield, but it doesn’t come close to covering her soft spot, and I know you. You would have gone straight for the jugular without a care for that soft spot.”
“Since when do we give a fuck about tenderness?” he growled. This conversation was fucking ridiculous. He was not fucking apologizing for doing what needed to be done.
“We do when it’s a woman who means something.” The voice came from behind him and he turned to find Butch standing there.
“Mean something? You got something to tell me about your relationship with Felicity, Butch?” The jealousy that sailed through him was a complete shock and not a welcome one.
Butch’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have any relationship with Flick other than the fact that I care about her. And I get that you needed to talk with her, tell her there was never gonna be anything between the two of you. I get that, because there is no way you fucking deserve her.”
“Butch,” Alec said in a warning tone.
“No, let him speak,” West said. “It’s obvious he’s got something he wants to say.”
Butch got up in his face. He raised his hands and shoved West in the chest. West was braced, his good leg behind him taking most of his weight so he didn’t stumble back. “We could all see she had a crush on you. It was sweet and innocent. Like Flick. We knew it was doomed because there’s nothing gentle or kind about you, and that’s what she needs. You could have let her down easy. But you didn’t do it like that, did you? You fucking laid down the law West style, which means blunt and nasty and caused Flick to shut all of us out.”
“Shut all of you out? What the fuck is this? You all adopted her or something?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Mia said quietly.
“News flash, West. She’s been ours for a while now. And if you didn’t spend so much of your time trying to avoid her, you’d know that. She goes fishing with Jaret. She races that huge stallion of hers against Maddox and Beau. She shoots pool with Tanner. She likes to play strip poker with all of us—and the little brat is good. Last time we ended up in our boxers and she was still fully clothed.”
“What?” West asked dangerously. Not liking the sound of that.
“Tanner was prepared to go full Monty, but she pulled out before that could happen. Thank God cause I’ve seen enough of little Tanner to last me a lifetime.”