Page 88 of Holding On To Good

And while part of him wanted to chase her, part of him wondered if she was right.

If it would be better for them both, their friendship and their business to let her get away.

Again.

“Are all guys this clueless or just the ones in my family?” Verity muttered. “She took off because your ex-girlfriend interrupted your sort of kiss” —she ticked the number of his transgressions off on her fingers— “you didn’t tell Miranda to get lost, and you didn’t make it clear that not only did Miranda show up unexpectedly, but that you did not want her there.”

“Willow knows I didn’t want Miranda there.”

“Yes,” Verity said, tone dry, expression flat. “We females are all given secret mind-reading capabilities at birth—just to make up for that whole pesky monthly period thing. We don’t need a guy to actually tell us what he’s thinking. We just know.”

“Ha!” Miles said, jabbing his last fry in her direction. “I knew it!”

“How are you all going to survive when I’m at OSU?” she murmured, holding her head as if trying to stop it from exploding. Dropping her hands, she faced Urban. “Okay, look, I didn’t want to say anything because I do my best to live by the motto of sisters before misters even when those misters are my brothers. I mean, women have to stick together, and God knows you all already have each other’s backs, even when you’re trying to rip each other’s throats out.”

“Might want to get back to the point,” Toby said, checking his watch. “Your break’s over in five minutes.”

“Fine. Where was I?”

“Sisters before misters,” Miles said.

“Right. Thanks. Anyway, I figured it didn’t matter because Willow was with Caleb, but now they’re broken up and hearing that you sort of kissed her makes me think you might finally, possibly be seeing what’s been in front of you this whole time.”

She sent him an expectant look but he had no idea what she wanted him to say. To agree? To give some sort of answer?

“Not following you,” he said, taking out his wallet.

She huffed out a breath. “You and Willow are perfect for each other!”

His sister wasn’t the first person to say that. Over the years, he’d heard some variation of that statement at least a hundred times.

But there’d always been a reason to stay just friends.

Their friendship being first on that list. Their business a close second.

That goddamn promise he’d made her being third.

“Not sure Willow would agree with you on that,” he told Verity, remembering how adamant she’d been last night about them forgetting her drunken kiss had happened. How pissed she’d gotten at him today.

“Well, of course she wouldn’t. I mean, at least, not right off the bat. That’s to be expected. She’s been fighting it for so long, it’s going to take some time for her to accept that it’s safe for her to tell the truth.”

“What truth?”

Another huffed-out breath—went along with another eye roll. “The truth that Willow’s totally, completely and one-hundred-percent in love with you.”

Chapter Fifteen

Huh. What do you know? Seemed she’d dropped a bombshell.

Well, she did like to keep her brothers on their toes.

Miles and Toby did that thing where they had an entire conversation using only significant glances, twitches of the mouth and ESP. While Urban just looked like she’d stabbed him in the cheek with her fork instead of opening his eyes to the fact that a smart, creative, sexy woman was into him.

Guess her suspicions about him having no clue about Willow’s feelings for him had been right.

Verity wasn’t sure if his obliviousness meant Willow was just totally excellent at hiding her feelings or that Urban was an idiot.

To be fair, and because she loved them both—especially her quiet, gruff, bearded brother—it was probably a combination of both.

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