“I know,” I said, deciding to drop the attempt at teasing him. It was clearly going nowhere. “It’s fine. I’m the one that picked the fight. It’s Aiden I’m mad at.”
Brody made a small shrugging motion, tugging at the handle of his suitcase. “Once I’m gone, the two of you can figure it out.”
“Maybe I don’t want to figure it out with him,” I said. “We weren’t the greatest friends ever before this. He’s just Cade’s boyfriend, to me.”
“Well, if you’re friends with Cade, then you need to get along with Aiden as well,” Brody said, almost impatiently.
It was like he was determined to take the blame for all of this – no matter what I said. Like he’d already decided he was the villain of the story and that was that.
Or everyone else had been deciding he was the villain for so long that he’d started believing it himself, I realized.
I had to change that.
If I didn’t, he was going to walk right out of the door – and even though I wasn’t brave enough yet to ask myself exactly why, what I knew for sure was that I didn’t want him to.
“I don’t want you to go,” I blurted out. It seemed like honesty was the best policy, even if I wasn’t sure how much of the truth I wanted to give.
Or how much there was to give.
“Why?” Brody asked, and it was exactly the question I didn’t want to answer.
I met his eyes for a moment. A long moment. I wanted to tell him in my gaze what I couldn’t say out loud. I wanted him to see that there was something there, some feeling that I couldn’t yet name. Something loaded and heavy and beyond what was going on here.
Then I looked away and forced myself to smile. “You can’t leave me alone here with all these big, beefy jocks,” I said, making my tone light. “Someone has to represent the skinny guys, and it can’t just be me.”
Brody blinked. “I’m skinny?”
“Well, you’re not…” I paused, pushing my arms out to the sides in an overexaggerated approximation of one of Olly’s football-playing friends. He and Aiden were the worst of the bunch. At least Caleb Coleman hadn’t been able to make it – he was a giant even compared to them.
“Point taken,” Brody conceded. His head dropped a little, almost in a nod. I was winning him over. I could feel it. “I just… I don’t want to keep getting into these fights.”
“You didn’t,” I pointed out. “This was all me. And it’s only Aiden. I think he’s just jealous.”
Brody blinked. “Jealous?”
“You’re on Cade’s good side now. I’m sure he’s worried that if you get too close again, he’ll lose Cade. That’s all it is.” I hesitated, wondering how much to say. “I mean, that’s never going to happen, though, right?”
Brody shook his head, much to my relief. “I screwed that up way too much. Even if I wanted to try again, Cade would never go for it. Too much water under the bridge.”
“That’s good to know,” I said, then cleared my throat. “I mean. You know. For Aiden’s sake.”
“Right,” Brody nodded. He wasn’t moving. He hadn’t tried to leave. I experimented with taking a few steps forward away from the door. I wasn’t blocking it anymore.
Was he still going to try to leave?
“It would be a shame to miss paintball this afternoon,” I added casually, pretending to get something from my bag. “It’s going to be a good chance to settle some scores.”
The corner of Brody’s mouth curved. “What do you mean by that?”
I pointed at my eye with a wicked grin. “I mean, Aiden’s going to pay for this.”
Brody chuckled and shook his head, hanging it down like he couldn’t believe he was laughing at me.
I was getting somewhere. I smiled at him more fully. “We can be teammates if you want. I’ll shoot anyone who tries to pick a fight with you.”
“That sounds unnecessarily violent,” Brody grinned. “But thanks.”
I thought about stepping towards him, about making him feel even better –
