But Xavier hadn’t been as mean until about a year ago.
“It’s Sasha,” he finally admitted, all choked up.
Mack blinked. “What about her?” Did she hate him too?
“I love her.”
“Ah, okay. Good for you.”
“I plan to marry her.”
“Congrats?”
Xavier swore. “Fuck it. You remember Daphne? The woman I dated for a year and a half before we broke it off?”
“Yeah.” He’d thought at the time his brother might marry her, but apparently they hadn’t been able to go the distance. Then Xavier met Sasha, and that was all she wrote.
“Daphne had a thing for you.”
Mack paused in the middle of chewing, his mouth open. He hurried to swallow. “What?”
“She thought you were hot,” Xavier said, his face tomato-red. “She wanted to date you. And it hurt. A lot.”
“I, uh…” Though he and his brothers had only six years, from the oldest to the youngest, between them, they’d always been very clear about not poaching girlfriends. Mack had had no idea. “That’s why you broke it off?”
“Yeah. She used to get all weird around you. You don’t remember?”
“No.” Mack had always treated her the way he treated Ashley. Like a sister.
“Well, she thought you were so funny and sweet. I was just the stud she used for sex.”
“O-kay.” Mack stared at his brother, seeing a side to him Xavier never exposed. “You really loved her.”
“And she wanted you instead.”
“That’s not my fault.”
Xavier seemed to sink lower in his chair. “I fucking know, okay? But when I clicked with Sasha, I just couldn’t go there again.”
“Wait. You treated me like shit for a year because you were jealous?” Mack would never, in a million years, have expected that.
Xavier rested his face in his hands, his elbows on the table. “Yeah.”
Mack didn’t know what to say. “Xavier, that’s nuts. If Daphne didn’t want you, for whatever reason, then she wasn’t good enough to be your girlfriend.”
Xavier lifted his head. “That’s what I thought.”
“I mean, maybe she saw the dickish side and couldn’t deal. I get that.” He continued past Xavier’s angry expression. “But you need someone who gets the real you. And that wasn’t her. Even if she’d come to me, which she never did, I wouldn’t have dated her.”
His brother grunted and picked at Cass’s leftover fries.
“Cass, now, she gets me. We click. And I can tell you right now she’s going to be the love of my life.” Mack smiled, feeling so free.
Xavier just stared at him. “You really love her, huh?”
“I do. And she loves me back. I have great friends, a great job, and maybe someday I’ll have a family who’ll back me.”
Xavier groaned. “Mom was crying because she thinks we all hurt your feelings for so long. James and Alec are sorry. Dad is…Dad. He still can’t see what all the fuss was about. But we get it.” He paused. “We’re still going to make fun of you at family dinners. But maybe we can do a better job includingeveryoneat the table. Not just with cop talk either.” He sighed. “Christmas is going to be a shit show, I’m just saying. But I’ll do my best to stop picking on you.” He smirked. “Sissy.”
