Chapter One
Brittany
I really hope Parker has ice cream and a box of tissues at his place…
I try to keep my breaths even as I head into the evening New York traffic, instantly wishing I had just walked to my big brother’s apartment instead of driving.
Ugh. I shouldn’t evenbein this predicament.
“Stupid Cal,” I mutter, choking on my now-ex-fiancé’s name. The man had the nerve to break up with me a merethree weeksafter proposing.
Why?
Because he “wasn’t feeling it” anymore.
And what’s worse?
Ijustbroke my lease to move in with him.
“I guess it’s a good thing I never unpacked.” I wipe more tears with the back of my hand, certain I’m smearing my mascara across my face.
I make the thirty-minute drive to my brother’s place, which he was kind enough to offer up after I called him crying on the sidewalk. I’m trying my best to focus on anything other than my broken heart, but my mind just keeps replaying the moment Cal came out—not to check on me, not to ask if I was okay, but to ask for the ring back.
“I’m so done with men,” I mutter before focusing my mind back on the road.
By the time I arrive at Parker’s, and find a parking spot in the garage attached to his apartment building, I’m at my wit’s end, second-guessing whether I should’ve just gotten a hotel. I rarely talk to my brother, and now I’m literally showing up on his doorstep because I have nowhere else to stay.
Ugh. He’s probably thinking I’m going to be the biggest burden ever.
I glance up in the rearview mirror, instantly cringing at the puffiness under my eyes and the black smudges across my cheeks.I look pathetic.
As I cut the engine and climb out, all of Parker’s spiels about how useless love is plays in my head. My big brother is …different.He’s basically the biggest grinch of all the grinches, and we’ve never seen eye to eye when it comes to things like relationships. Or much of anything, really. But as I grab the few essentials I need tonight, I’m starting to see where he’s coming from, because…
Because this sucks.
“Need some help?” a voice calls out from behind me, sounding eerily like Parker, but maybe a little too nice.
I spin around, surprised that it is, indeed, him. “Um, maybe. There’s not a lot. I’ll have to go back at some point and get the rest. I just managed to gather what was important.”
He glances down at the overnight bag in my hand. “I’ll take care of it for you.”
I meet a pair of blue eyes that mirror my own … and our mother’s. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Iknowyou can take care of it, but I can help you, so you don’t have to see Cal again.”
I nod, letting out a ragged sigh. “Thanks.” My eyes flicker back down to my left ring finger, which now feels naked under the orange glow of the parking garage. “Cal asked for the ring back.”
Parker shakes his head. “Does that surprise you? He might be rich, but I’m pretty sure he’s like all the rest of them. Cal’s as stingy as they come.”
“Fair enough.” I sniffle, shaking my head. “He didn’t even ask if I was okay. Just told me he’d need the ring back.”
I slam the car door and sling my overnight bag over my shoulder. It tugs at the sweatshirt I threw on over my leggings. I had already come home, showered, and changed when Cal broke the news that I had to move out…
Right then and there.
“I’m sorry, Brit.” Parker’s voice is strangely soft. And even more strangely, it’s actually comforting. “Come on, let’s go inside. It’s only going to get colder out here, and I’ve found that the longer you stay out with a broken heart, the icier it turns.”
I give him a funny look, unable to hold back a light laugh. “You act like you’re stone cold.”
