I stretch out my aching legs. “Mhm.”
“Sounds like the sort of trouble you would have gotten yourself into, H.” Grey nudges our brother’s shoulder. “I’m kinda surprised Blakey boy over here has it in him.”
Hudson winks, sipping his own half drank protein shake. “It’s always the quiet ones. Always.”
Rolling my eyes, I cross my arms over my body. “I’ve already broken one of the rules by telling the two of you. We agreed we’d only tell one person, so you’d better keep your mouth shut.”
“Me?” Grey points to himself.
“Not you.” I shake my head, before tipping my chin in Hudson’s direction. “You.”
He spreads his palms. “What about me?”
“You can’t tell Gee.”
He whips his head around to check down the corridor where I know Gee to be teaching a dance class, thankfully finding it empty, before he turns back around. “You can’t expect me to lie to my girlfriend for fuck’s sake!”
“I’m not asking you tolie.I’m simply asking you not to say anything.”
The sullen frown on my youngest brother’s face tells me he’s not happy, but he stays quiet.
“Don’t you think this is a total recipe for disaster?” Grey presses his lips together. “You stilllike her. Why don’t you just ask her out?”
“I’m not what she needs.”
Hudson frowns. “It doesn’t sound that way.”
“I mean in the long run, idiot. I can’t give Calla what she deserves.”
“Which is…”
“Calla’s a free spirit, she probably wants to travel theworld, sample everything it has to offer. Run free. I don’t. I want children, somewhere to put my roots down like Mum and Dad, a forever home. It would never work. I’m too structured, an overthinker, a planner. Calla isn’t. I’ll do for now, but in the long run I can’t give her what she needs. What she deserves.”
My brothers share a look, before Grey leans his elbows upon the rack of weights.
“So how are you going to fare when she eventually cuts this fake shit off and disappears into the sunset?”
I can’t answer him, mainly because he’s right. That’s exactly the question ruminating around my own brain. What am I going to do?
“I just need to keep up my walls,” I bite. “I can’t get too involved. Too familiar.”
“I think we’re past that,” Hudson mutters darkly.
Grey takes a drag from the lid of his smoothie. “I really don’t know about this Blake, what—”
“I’ve accepted now.” I shrug. “I’m not backing out.”
Hudson raises his brows. “I wonder why…”
“Shut up.”
Glancing between the two of us, Grey, ever the peacemaker, tries to steer the conversation in a different direction. “So, when are you seeing her next?”
“Friday.”
“For your date.”
“Fakedate.”
