She closes her eyes. Breathes. “Bri… he’s not some high school heartbreak. He is a man. A complicated one.”
“So am I,” I shoot back. “I know he’s older. I know he has trauma. I know he’s dangerous sometimes. None of that scares me.”
Brooke leans in, elbows on the table, voice softer. “Maybe it scares us.”
I go still. She continues, the words spilling before I can interrupt.
“We’re not worried he’ll hurt you on purpose. We’re worried life will. His life. His world. The kind of things he deals with…” Her voice shakes just a little. “You can’t blame us for being protective. We’re your sisters. We’ve been protecting you since the day you were born.”
“I know that,” I say, staring down at my hands. “But sometimes protection feels like control.”
Brooke doesn’t argue. She sits with that. Lets it land.
I take a breath and lean in, heat flaring in my chest. “You know what I keep thinking about?”
She blinks. “What about her?”
“Bella,” I say. “She’s married to Switch. She has a baby with him. He lives and breathes this club. He’s done things way darker than anything Blade’s ever been involved in. And no one said she was too fragile or too naïve or too young to know what she was doing.”
Brooke’s lips part, but I don’t let her interrupt.
“You celebrated them. You threw her a bridal shower. You cried at the hospital when she had Jax. You didn’t pull her aside and tell her Switch was too dangerous. You trusted her to choose her own life.”
Brooke’s shoulders drop… slowly.
“So what’s the difference?” My voice softens, cutting deeper. “What makes Bella worthy of that kind of love and support… and not me?”
Brooke looks like she wants to disappear under the table. Her eyes go glassy.
“That’s… fair,” she says, voice small but honest. “Totally, completely fair.”
I nod once, because yeah… it is.
“You’re right,” Brooke continues after a moment, voice steadier. “We didn’t handle that well. And I’m sorry. Truly.” She reaches across the table and takes my hand gently. “We’ll try to do better. To trust you more. But you have to let us worry sometimes. That’s part of loving you.”
I swallow hard because feelings are rude and inconvenient. I toy with my napkin for a second, chewing my bottom lip, because once I say this out loud… it’s real.
“There’s something else,” I admit, voice barely above a whisper.
Brooke watches me carefully. “Okay…?”
“He, um…” My heart tries to sprint out of my chest. “He told me he loves me.” Brooke freezes. “And that I’m his old lady.”
Her eyes go so wide I’m scared they might fall out of her head and roll into the queso. “Bri,” she breathes, shaking her head a little like her brain is trying to reboot. “That’s… that’s not casual. That’s MC marriage-level serious.”
“I know.” I stare down at my hands, heat flooding my cheeks. “Believe me, I know.”
Her voice drops to a whisper. “Do you… feel the same?”
I nod before I can talk myself out of it. “It’s fast. I get that. But… it doesn’t feel wrong. It feels like… like he sees me in a way no one else ever has.”
Brooke sinks back into the booth, blowing out a stunned exhale. Her shock slowly shifts into something else. Something soft. Something that might even be pride. “You two are getting serious really fast,” she murmurs. “Wow. Okay.”
“Yeah.” I laugh without humor. “Join the club.”
She drags a hand through her hair, still processing. “I wasn’t prepared for… that.”
“Me either.” I shrug helplessly. “But it’s happening.”
