“He doesn’t know about us,” she said quietly.
“About the marriage?” I clarified.
“Not that or anything else.”
Following some kind of instinct I hadn’t known I’d developed, I glanced down at her hand for the first time since I’d arrived, finding her ring finger bare. There was a vague imprint there, like she’d been wearing it until very recently, but still. For now, it was gone.
“Is that why you’re not wearing your ring tonight?”
She hesitated just long enough to let me know I’d hit the nail on the head. Without even thinking about it, I reached out and brushed my thumb over the faint, raw imprint, and she didn’t pull away. We both froze at the contact though, unexpected electricity passing between us as our gazes locked, our hands still joined.
“He’s young,” she said after a moment, her voice steady despite the tension humming between us. “He won’t understand, but I’ll tell him when it feels right.”
“Okay.”
That was it. Just okay, because it was okay. I got where she was coming from, and although a part of me wished things could be different, they weren’t. Where Wyatt was concerned, it wasn’tabout strategy. He was her brother, her family, and if she wasn’t ready to tell him, I wasn’t about to argue about it.
The meet ended after Wyatt stepped off the podium and people started bundling up in their coats before spilling out into the cold. Jane stood and reached into her purse, pulling out her phone. “We usually get burgers after this.”
I saw her thumb hover over the screen, the Uber app already glowing. Immediately reaching for her again, I closed my fingers gently around her wrist and shook my head when she glanced up at me with confusion shimmering in her eyes.
“That won’t be necessary,” I said, aware that I was once again inviting myself, but something told me this ritual with her brother was important to her. I wanted to be there, to get to know who she was with him, her family, who was now also mine. “I’ll drive.”
Either this could prove to be a turning point in our relationship and we’d finally start figuring out who and what we could be together while we were married, or I’d just made a mistake and slammed the first nail into our coffin.
Perhaps pushing too hard would end up pushing her clean away, but at this point, all I knew was that I had to dosomething—and this was the opportunity I was being presented with.
CHAPTER 15
JANE
Wyatt didnottrust Alex. That much was crystal clear to me, even if he didn’t say it outright. After he climbed into the back seat of Alex’s car, it was all there in his posture, his narrowed eyes and crossed arms, his shoulders still tight with leftover adrenaline from the match as well.
That suspicion, however, did not extend to food.
“Where are we going?” he asked, craning forward between the seats. “I’m starving.”
“Burgers,” I said.
His glare eased by at least thirty percent. “Good ones?”
Alex didn’t miss a beat. “The kind that come wrapped in paper and make you regret your life choices.”
Wyatt nodded solemnly. “Okay. You can come.”
I hid my smile but directed Alex to the same diner I always took Wyatt to after his meets. This tradition was a big deal to him, and as it was, Alex was inserting himself into our time together. Nothing else needed to change for my brother right now.
Once we arrived, we wedged into a booth that was absolutely not built for Alex’s shoulders. He looked mildly offended by thelack of space for a second, but he got over it as soon as the server appeared with the milkshakes we’d ordered on our way in.
“I’ll take three bacon cheeseburgers,” Alex said calmly after she’d set down the milkshakes and flipped open her notepad.
Wyatt blinked hard and then his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Three? Just for you?”
Alex met his stare, not flinching as he shrugged one of his shoulders. “I wrestled six siblings for food growing up. Five of them brothers.”
Wyatt’s mouth twitched into a smile that seemed reluctant, but fighting it hadn’t worked. “Yeah, that’s fair.”
I picked up my milkshake and sipped it, sitting back and watching them size each other up like wary animals circling the same resource. Wyatt was suspicious, but he wasn’t rude. Alex was curious, but not condescending.
