“No, it means I—” I look away, my face heating up as I embarrass myself even more than I already have. “I like you. I want to, I don’t know, spend time with you. Go out with you, maybe. I haven’t exactly worked out the details. This is new information to me too.”
“So let me get this straight,” he says after a long moment of silence. “First you married my sister, and now you’re saying you have a crush onme.”
“I—” I start, knowing how bad it sounds, but he beats me to it, shaking his head with another mean laugh.
“Man, this is rich. Do you have a Davis family kink or something? You gonna go after Joyce next? Or maybe Frank, since apparently you swing both ways?”
I don’t justify that with a response, even as my stomach twists at his words. “Because I think Dad might be down, he’s always liked you—”
“Will.” I interrupt, pinching the bridge of my nose, my patience draining fast. I look up briefly, praying even though I’m not religious, that whatever god is out there will give me the strength to deal with this infuriating man.
Why did it have to be him?
“I understand that this is a lot. And I’m not asking you for anything. Last night was a mistake, and I’m so sorry that it happened. It won’t again. I know you’re not interested in men—”
“It’s not that I’m not interested in men.”
I stop at that, meeting his suddenly steady gaze. “Always been pretty equal opportunity,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t really care who’s sucking my dick as long as it’s getting sucked, you know?”
Something like hope begins to bloom where his reaction had snuffed it out. But before I can say anything else, he cuts me off with a snap of his fingers, like he remembered the most important part. “Except for you. That ain’t happening.”
His words shouldn’t affect me. I know, deep inside, that Will isn’t a nice person, and I shouldn’t want him. I don’t even know if I want to dothat.I hadn’t gotten that far before he showed up.
But there’s something about his words that hurt in a cutting way that I can’t ignore.Equal opportunity, except for me.
Just me.
“Okay,” I say, uncrossing my arms even though I’m starting to feel naked under those eyes. “Let’s pretend it didn’t happen.”
He raises an eyebrow.
“The kiss,” I clarify. “This conversation.”
I wait for him to agree and to leave so I can spend the rest of the day alone, to figure out how I’m supposed to coexist with someone who knows how I feel and flat-out rejected me. But he shakes his head.
“Mm, no. I don’t think I can do that,” he says with a smile I haven’t seen in a long time. It’s not one he uses with the kids or his parents, only me. One side lifted up, a dark quality to it that makes me want to squirm.
He strolls past me, brushing his arm against mine, calling behind him, “I’ll see you Monday, Doc.”
I turn, my heart hoping he might come back and say he’s changed his mind while my head berates me for wanting that in the first place. And when the door shuts, with my skin stillcovered in goosebumps from where he brushed past me, I walk toward it and peer out the window.
He’s gone.
I lock both of the locks before I turn and lean back against the door, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes. I’m not going to cry about this. There’s no way in hell I’m crying because my brother-in-law doesn’t want me.
And as much as I want to be angry with him, he did nothing wrong, saying what he said. It was a completely fair response to the absurd notion that I want him. I’m the one who did something wrong.
I have no right to feel this way.
“So stupid,” I say out loud, wiping a tear from my cheek.
Chapter 12
It’s been a week, and Will hasn’t mentioned it once.
I’d prepared myself for another conversation. An argument. For him to use it against me in any way possible.
But nothing has changed.
