7 Months (Time for Love 8)

As a chef, he thought the meat should be unmasked and speak for itself. He said it was an insult to the cook to pour condiments all over their creations. But I thought condiments made everything better. Plus, it was one more way to rile my brother, so, win/win.

He groaned as I coated my steak in goodness, then decided to ignore what I was doing and continue being nosy instead.

Tit for tat.

“We’d agreed to keep it simple. No dates, no telling anyone, just fun … Now she wants more.”

Brendan nodded as if that explained everything.

When he began cutting into his steak and didn’t say anything, I got annoyed.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said with a half shrug. “I get it. She wants a relationship and you don’t, so she ended it.”

“Why’s that so easy to understand?”

“Let’s just say you’re not the easiest guy to get to know,” he said, then pierced me with his green eyes. “Lemme guess, in that seven months, you made zero effort to get to know her better and told her essentially nothing personal about yourself.”

Now it was my turn to shrug.

“It was just about sex.”

“I’m not blaming you, brother, I’m just stating the facts. You’re not a relationship kind of guy.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means you’ve probably talked more to me since we’ve sat down here, than you did to Ming in seven months’ time.”

I didn’t respond, since he was probably right.

“Brady, you’re the most loving, loyal, unselfish person I know, but you’re very guarded. You don’t let people in. With me and Brock, you’ve always been that way, but you didn’t let Tori or Bronagh in until you knew they were going to be family. Shit, how many years have you known Cal and TJ and them? You talk to them on poker night, but you’d never go out of your way to hang out. Let’s just say you’re the best friend and brother a person could have, but you’re not recruiting.”

He was making me sound like a dick and I didn’t know how to respond.

“Is that what everyone thinks?”

“Who gives a fuck what everyone thinks? What matters is what you think. What matters is whether or not it bothers you that Ming wants to cut you loose. If it doesn’t, well, your relationship will be pretty much what it’s looked like to the rest of us this whole time, but if it does, then you’re going to have to find a way to let her in.”

I let everything Brendan had said process while I finished my meal.

I decided to grow some balls and go talk to Ming about Nat’s case myself. If I didn’t, she’d know it was a total cop-out, and I kind of wanted to see her to see how I felt being around her after the way we’d left things.

Would seeing her make me realize that she was right to end things, or would it make me want to agree to changing our relationship and figure out what that looked like?

Chapter Twelve ~ Ming

“Ming, there’s a police officer out here to see you.”

I looked up to see my assistant hovering nervously outside my door.

“Send him or her in, please,” I responded calmly, before looking back down at my paperwork.

I didn’t often have the police come to my office, but it wasn’t the first time, so I wasn’t worried that there was anything wrong … like my assistant obviously was. I briefly wondered if she’d done something to be worried about, then refocused on my task.

I’d won the case I’d been working so hard on over the last few weeks, so now I was finalizing paperwork so that I could close it. I planned to finish up and actually make it out of the office before bedtime.

“Ming.”