Page 36 of Breaking All The Rules

“Nothing, I just never thought I would see the day.”

“When I fell in love or when I started slacking at work?” I teased.

“Both.” He pulled his head back and laughed, setting the pen down on the table.

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Now I see why some men stay bachelors their entire life.”

“Relationships take time and hard work. There’s no way around that. But when you find the right person, it no longer feels like work. You end up going out of your way to do things to make the other person happy, and sometimes, it means temporarily sacrificing your own happiness.”

“That sounds terrible,” I joked, trying to keep from acknowledging that I knew exactly what he was talking about because that was what I wanted to do for Eva.

“You joke about it now, but when you’re tossing and turning at night because you can’t sleep and can’t eat—it won’t be so funny then.”

“I think my DNA is missing whatever gene is responsible for all of that. Apparently, you got yours from mom, and I inherited all the terrible traits from dad.”

I saw the anger flash across Garrett’s face and almost immediately regretted bringing our dad up. It wasn’t an easy subject for either of us to talk about, but he always flew off the handle first. I waited for him to go into a long lecture about what a terrible person our father was for cheating on our mom, but he didn’t. For the first time, he stayed calm and didn’t react to it.

“You’re nothing like dad.”

His words stunned me as I looked at him, waiting for him to take them back.

“Seriously, Ethan. You’re nothing like him.” He shook his head and looked out the window. “Dad was selfish and never bothered to worry about making anyone happy other than himself. He constantly cheated on Mom, and when she would call him on his bullshit, he would apologize and beg her for another chance. When that stopped working, he started manipulating her and threatened to take us away from her. You know Mom would do anything for her boys. Even if that meant staying married to him longer than she should have.”

I felt the nausea rise as I thought back to my childhood and the fights that I remembered my parents having. The constant yelling and screaming. The look of pain on my mom’s face when she would look at me before she went running off to make amends with my dad. I always thought that maybe she wasn’t strong enough to leave him. Now, I understood that she was strong enough to stay with a man that she didn’t love so that she could do what she thought was best for her children.

“Our legal team will handle the shit with Cora, and we’ll get a paternity test. Right now, there’s nothing that you need to do. As far as things with Eva are concerned, if you love her, you should tell her. Find a way to get out of your head and make this work.”

“It’s not that easy,” I replied, remembering the look on her face when she stormed off last night.

“Why not?”

“Because she’s pissed off at me, for one.”

He raised his eyebrows, questioning what I had done this time.

“She was here with me last night when Cora showed up. I hadn’t told her about Cora or the lawsuit because I thought it was bestnotto talk about it. All Eva saw was that some woman showed up, claiming to be pregnant with my child and accusing me of trying to pay her off instead of doing the right thing. Given that Eva and I didn’t have a relationship outside of work, I can’t blame her for feeling like she’s being treated the same way Cora was.”

“Shit.”

“Yep. And on top of that, we had just talked about how her sister’s husband hired Eva’s ex-fiancé to represent him in a custody battle. The same fiancé who was constantly cheating on Eva.”

“Well, dear brother, that’s some mess you’ve got.”

I leaned back in my chair and laughed.

“Really, that’s all you’ve got? Where’s your brotherly advice when I need it?” I threw my hands up as I tried to play the part of being devasted by his lack of compassion, but the smile gave me away.

“That’s the funny thing about love. No one can give you advice on it. You’re the only person who knows what she means to you and what you’re willing to do for her.” He sighed softly as he adjusted his tie. “But I will say one thing...”

“What’s that?” I chuckled, knowing that he couldn’t ever walk away without getting the last word in.

“Don’t be so afraid of falling in love that you stop it from happening. You deserve to be happy.”

He stood up and checked his watch. “Sorry to leave you in this mess you’ve created for yourself, but I have to run. I’ve got a meeting in thirty minutes,” he said.

I glanced at my phone, mainly to see if Eva had texted or called. Nothing. I had a meeting with Brent in an hour, and I needed to get my head straight before he got there. I gathered my stuff and stood up.

“Thanks for the talk,” I said warmly, reaching out to shake his hand as we reached the door. He grabbed mine and pulled me in for a hug instead.

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