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Both boys still look unconvinced but they nod, each giving me a kiss on the cheek before heading to the door.
“We’ll see you tomorrow, baby girl,” Tucker says, staring right at Ryan. What is he doing?
“Okay. Love you, guys.”
“Love you, too, sis,” they respond in unison and walk out the front door.
I take a deep breath, preparing myself for whatever is coming next before I turn around to face Ryan. He glares at me, so much anger in his eyes that I’m actually scared for a moment.
“What the hell were they doing here?” His voice is a low growl that sounds more menacing than anything I’ve ever heard. I’m just not sure if he’s mad at my brothers or me.
“They came to apologize.”
His jaw ticks as he stares at me and I wait with bated breath for his reaction.
“Did they? Or did they come to insult me in my own home?”
I shake my head. “What? No, they didn’t do that.”
“Really?” he asks, his voice ratcheting up a notch. “Because from what I heard, neither one of them think I’m good enough for you. They think I’m a bad guy.”
“Ryan, they are my brothers and they are worried about me after some of the things they’ve seen.”
He nods, taking a step toward me and my heart jumps into my throat. “I see. So now you think I’m a bad guy?”
“No,” I gasp.
“I mean, forget about what they’ve said about me. They abandoned you, literally in the dirt, and you’re just going to forgive them?”
“Yes.” Of course, I forgave them. They are my brothers and I love them. Plus, I could tell they were genuinely sorry for what they did. They had good intentions. They just handled it all wrong.
“You can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Look what they did to you!” he explodes. “I was there! I carried you home because you were too weak to walk on your own after bawling your eyes out!”
“Ryan, they’re sorry.”
“God, you’re so stupid! You don’t even see it. I’m trying to protect you! I love you!”
Did he really just call me stupid? And he doesn’t need to protect me from my brothers. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my brothers love me. As his words sink in, I feel the anger build.
“Don’t you dare call me stupid!”
He laughs. The sound of it grates on my nerves.
“That’s all you heard? You’re so fuckin’ dramatic! Of course, that’s all you heard. You just love to create drama wherever you can. Now that you’ve made up with your brothers, you have to fight with me? Did you ever notice that we were great when you were fighting with them? You just have to have drama in your life. You crave it!”
“That’s not true!”
“Yes! It is!” he screams. “Cause that’s what drama queens like you do!”
“Don’t call me a drama queen!”
“Why not? It’s true. Why the fuck do I even put up with this anymore? I don’t need this in my life. No one else would stick around and deal with all your shit.” He paces back and forth through the kitchen and then throws his hands in the air. “Fuck it! I’m out of here!” He storms through the kitchen and kicks open the back door.
I watch him go, anger surging through my body and putting me on edge. The more I think about everything he just said, the angrier I get. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty levelheaded person, but every time he calls me a brat or dramatic, I want to scream. I didn’t start this fight. All I did was forgive my brothers.
