He raised his eyebrows in that way he did when he was trying to call me out without saying a word. Usually, I rose to that challenge. Not tonight.
“I’m tired,” I said honestly. “I’m heading to bed.”
“Brielle.” He scoffed.
He actually scoffed at me.
I stopped just shy of my bedroom door. My back stiffened.
“You can’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you,” I said.
“It really feels like you are.”
I shrugged. “I wonder why.”
Josh hesitated. “So, you are.”
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have to.
“Matt …” he started, then stopped.
I folded my arms. “Yes, Josh. Matt. What was that all about?”
“What was what about?”
I took a step toward my room.
“Can we talk?”
“You want to talk?” I turned back to face him. “Then tell me why Matt suddenly looked like he wanted to run a background check on me after we just had a perfectly normal conversation. A good one. Better than I’d had with anyone on these exhausting blind dates Gina had set me up with.”
“You don’t want to date Matt.”
Was he serious? “That’s not your decision to make.”
“He’s not ready to date someone like you.”
“Oh, great.” I gestured toward him. “Go on. Enlighten me. What’s someone like me?”
Josh pressed his lips together, like he regretted even saying that much.
“Someone who’s … good,” he finally said. “Someone who’s strong and actually shows up. You give a damn about people. He doesn’t. He can’t even text a girl back, let alone—he’s not going to be what you need, Brielle. He’d ruin it. And he’d ruin you.”
My chest tightened. “All right. If that’s true, then fine. But that still doesn’t make it your place to step in. I don’t need you to protect me. God, I’m not thirteen anymore.”
“I know that.”
“Then what did you say to him?”
Josh sighed. “Fine. He didn’t just back off on his own.”
“No kidding. So, what, Josh? What was it? You told him something embarrassing? Something stupid from when we were kids? Something I said in my sleep during a movie marathon you still tease me for?”
Josh opened his mouth, but I barreled on.
“Or did you just make it clear I was off-limits? Because that’s what it felt like.”
