“And...?”
“That’s not enough?”
Donovan leaned back and regarded his best friend. “I don’t know. You tell me. You kissed her. Then what? You went off on your merry way?”
“No.” Brady shook his head. “Yeah. At first.” He sighed. “I told her I couldn’t betray you like that.”
He could practically hear that conversation in his head. Donovan knew Reilly, so he knew his baby sister wouldn’t have let Brady get away with an excuse like that.
“Did she put you in your place?”
Brady’s lips twitched and a smile formed. “Total smackdown.”
“Reilly’s good at that.”
“Better than you know.” Brady took another deep breath and looked him in the eye. “She walked away, and I let her. But when I left the park, I didn’t go home. I went to her place.”
Donovan tried to hide his reaction. If Brady had gone to Reilly and Tate’s last night, he would’ve known Donovan was there.
Brady nodded as though he could read Donovan’s mind. “Yeah. She was wearin’ headphones, D.” He grinned. “Tryin’ to drown you out.”
“Fuck,” he groaned, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table.
“I talked her into comin’ home with me,” Brady tacked on quickly.
Donovan lifted his head, slowly meeting Brady’s gaze. Although he’d been indifferent to Brady and Reilly liking one another, his best friend taking his baby sister home wasn’t something he’d considered. Not completely. He trusted Brady with his sister’s life, but he wasn’t sure he trusted the man with her heart. Reilly deserved a man who would—
“I’m in love with her, D.”
The admission came swiftly and with enough power to push Donovan back in his seat. His previous train of thought completely derailed. Suddenly, he no longer felt the urge to string Brady up by the balls. In fact, he wanted to ask when the wedding was.
However, he wasn’t above letting Brady sweat for a minute.
***
When Brady thought about telling Donovan thathe was in love with Reilly, he didn’t quite expect … this.
“It’s about damn time,” Donovan said, holding his gaze as a small smile tugged the corner of his lip.
Brady was stunned for a moment.It’s about damn time?Seriously? That was the response he was going with?
“That’swhat you have to say? I tell you I’min lovewith your baby sister, and you don’t want to pound my face in?”
“For one, she’s not a baby anymore, and I trust that if she wants to be with you, she has her reasons.”
Brady cocked his head. “And you’re teasin’ me. Are you feelin’ okay?”
“About this? Yeah, I’m good,” Donovan replied. “You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at her?”
Honestly, Brady thought he’d done a damn good job of hiding it, so no, he hadn’t thought that.
Not for the first time since they sat down, Donovan’s attention shifted out the window. “Honestly, I’m happy for you.”
Brady took a sip of his coffee and stared at his best friend. Clearly, something else was on his mind. Something that made this conversation much simpler than it would’ve been otherwise. And if he had to guess, that something was Tate Riggs.
It took a minute, but Donovan looked at him again. “Hurt her and I’ll break both your legs.”
Brady grinned. “That’s more like it.” He set his coffee mug down. “So you wanna tell me what happened with you and Tate last night?”
