Page 34 of My Fiancé's Brother

I pulled back and worked to keep the shock off my face. “Uh, okay.”

“Bye.” Her eyes clung to Jackson before she turned and sashayed off.

Jacksonand I continued to walk through the mall, this time in silence. I fumed over Julie’s last comment. That exchange had pissed me off. She wasn’t allowed to call dibs on Jackson just because she saw him first. I bristled at her assumptions. She always did this. She found someone she liked and declared her feelings to the world so that no one else could make a move. But did that ever stop her when someone else liked a guy? I remember actively hiding my crushes from her in University because the moment she found out whom Iliked, it seemed like she inevitably found a way to date the guy. She would give me a sympathetic look and say, “It just happened. We couldn’t help ourselves.” Julie was never to be trusted when it came to men. I didn’t tell her Matt’s name or introduce them when we first started to date. It wasn’t until we got engaged that I let them meet.

What did it matter to me that she wanted to get her little man claws into Jackson? Was it any of my business?

“You okay?” Jackson asked. I worked to keep pace with his long easy strides.

“Yes, why?” I huffed. Julie gobbled up men like they were going out of style. Matt called her a man-eater.

“Is she a close friend of yours?”

Air puffed out of my lungs. “Yes.”

“She upset you.”

I refused to look up at him. “They teach you to read minds in the Navy SEAL program?”

“You’ve adjusted the zip on your jacket four times, your lips are moving, but you’re not speaking. They teach us how to read body language, and I would say that you're seriously agitated.”

I stopped walking, and he turned and stopped too.

“I hate you right now,” I said without feeling.

He half-smiled. “I like to fix stuff.”

“Like my car?”

“And other stuff.”

“I’m unfixable,” I said. A hollowness carved out my chest. I hated my emotional response to the idea of Julie and Jackson. It occurred to me that I was a terrible partner to Matt. I allowed myself to notice how thick Jackson’s forearms were and how soft his hair looked which was the ultimate betrayal. I deserved my misery.

“Come on,” he said. “We need something to cheer you up.”

“I'm un-cheerable.”

He laughed. “I love the drama queen act. And I would kill to know what just happened.”

“Nothing.”

I started walking. He matched his gait to mine.

“So is this a setup?”

Again, my teeth started to grind. “Why would you say that?”

“Just a question.”

“Julie’s sophisticated, and she’s single.”

My words hung between us.

“Okay.”

I worked not to grab the coffee maker from his hands and toss it on the ground. “Okay.”

We walked again in silence.

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