Page 89 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

"Me too," he says, but when I look at him, his eyes are on me.

"Less admiring my beauty and more admiring the lines on the road, mister."

He laughs and then clears his throat. "So, hey, I’ll be home late tonight. Another demo village reveal, kinda like last night, but more informal, just some designers checking out another house we've built," he says, eyes back on the road. "Just telling you because I'd like to have done something with you but I won't be able to."

"I could come," I say, the words out before I can stop them. "If you want, if I'm not in the way. I don't have anything planned after work. Or I could meet you after."

There's a beat. Half a second, maybe less, but I feel it happen, the tiny hesitation before he answers. And it makes every muscle in my body tense.

“Oh, er, no, you don't have to do that. It's all the way in Noarlunga. I probably won’t even be done until super late. I might just crash at the site when we’re done if I’m too tired to drive home.”

I take a breath, wanting to calming that oh-so-familiar feeling of dread when it comes to Marcus before I respond. “Sure. That totally makes sense. Anyway, I just thought I’d offer just in case…” my voice trails off.

His fingers slide off my knee as he reaches around to scratch the back of his neck. "It's just like a boring site walkthrough, Lexi. Nothing exciting. You'd be standing around listening to me talk about drainage easements for an hour."

"Right." I keep my voice light. “And I already know all there is to know about draining easements.””

"You'll just be bored, better off just getting some rest to make up for last night."

“Good idea,” I say, and turn back to stare at my own reflection in the window.

We don't talk much for the rest of the drive.

The house is dark when he pulls into the spot they always leave empty for me in the driveway. I get out the second he's parked, my bag over my shoulder, still in his shirt, my coat covering what it can. He catches up to me at the door, bumping his shoulder against mine, trying to coax the smile back out of me.

"Hey," he says, holding onto the collar of my jacket. "You good?"

I give him the smile he's looking for, because frankly, I want to. I want to end the night we spent on a good note. It deserves that. Whatever happens from here. “Oh, yeah. Of course.” I press a kiss to his cheek. He smells like me. "I'm good."

He looks like he wants to something else but I slide the key into the door and open it and he follows behind me.

The second we walk into the house, we see what we didn't from outside: the lamp in the living room on, and Zachary, sitting on the couch in yesterday's clothes, a mug on the coffee table in front of him.

"Hey, man. You're still up," Marcus says, too bright, too fast. "Rough night at work?"

"You could say that." Zachary stands up, meeting us in the foyer. His eyes go from Marcus to me and back again. "Where have you two been?"

"Alexia came out to the site. For the display village thing." Marcus explains. "Stuck around after."

"Stuck around." Zachary's voice is too even. "Until five a.m?”

"Yeah, we just⁠—"

"I texted you," he says to me, cutting Marcus off. "Last night."

“Oh. You did?”

He frowns and pivots his body a little so his back is to Marcus, a barrier. “You didn’t see it?”

I wait a second before I give a single nod. “Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry," I say, trying to sound as cold as possible. But it's harder than I thought it would be. No matter what, I will always care about Zachary. If I could've changed that, I wouldn't have been so hurt. “I got too busy to read my messages. Did you need something?"

His eyes drop, just for a second, taking in the shirt I'm wearing, the collar of it too big for me, the hem hitting my thighs, and I watch the exact moment it registers. His jaw goes tight. And just like that, I feel a door clicking shut somewhere inside him. A door between us.

"I just wanted to talk to you," he says, quieter and pleading. "I wanted to explain why I wasn't here the night after we... the night before. Why I didn't come home."

Next to me, I can feel Marcus's eyes boring into us.

"Talk?" I just shake my head. "What is there to say? Haven't we been through this all before?"