Page 89 of Actually Yours

“Just read it. Later, perhaps. When you’ve dealt with all of that.” I gesture to where Robby is standing, now glaring at us. “I’ve got to go.”

Running down the path towards my waiting car, I refuse to turn back to where I know Jake is watching me. This has not gone as expected, but now that Jake has my Christmas card, my love letter to him, in his hands, the ball is well and truly in his court.

I just hope he’s able to find his way out of the drama and come back to me.

CHAPTER 18

Jake

“What the hell, man?”

I’m standing at the front door, watching the taillights of Amelia’s Uber disappearing down the street, taking her away from me.What just happened?

Taking in a deep breath in, I turn around to start this difficult conversation with Robby, who’s currently looking at me like I’ve just killed his puppy and told him that Santa Claus isn’t real at the same time.He’s so freaking dramatic.I put Amelia’s Christmas card carefully into the back pocket of my jeans, feeling the weight of whatever she’s written in there. I know I have to deal with my brother first, before I can deal with the contents of that card.

“Yes?” I straighten up to my full height and walk back to where he’s waiting for me, still rooted in the same spot where he’d first seen me kissing Amelia. Kissing his ex-girlfriend.

I have to navigate this carefully. We’ve done nothing wrong, but in his mind, there has been a betrayal and I can’t just ignore it.

“Care to explain what I just walked in on?” He looks sulky and I brace myself inwardly. This will not be easy; talking to Robby can sometimes be like talking to a five-year-old.

“What you saw is exactly what was happening.” I take a seat on the couch and he follows me, sitting in the overstuffed armchair so that he’s facing me. Glaring at me.

“You and Amelia?” he looks as confused as he sounds. “What? When? Why?”

I take in a deep breath, preparing to tell him the whole truth. “You know that first night? The one where we both met Amelia?”

He grimaces and nods.

“Well, that night I felt drawn to her in a way that I’d never felt before.”

He looks so shocked by this that I’m impressed by my own acting skills. I had thought my feelings for Amelia must have been obvious for anyone to see, but clearly not. Though, come to think of it, Robby isn’t the most observant guy with anyone other than himself, so it’s more likely he just missed what was there to see, for anyone who was looking.

“When the two of you started dating,” I continue, “I put all those feelings away. Believe me. I made sure I was only ever polite towards her. And then you broke up, and I still kept my feelings under wraps. But then you left the note, and she showed up here and…” I trail off, not knowing how to explain the events of the last six weeks. How we ended up here on this couch. Kissing.

“You had feelings for her the whole time I was dating her?” He sounds royally annoyed, and I don’t blame him. The whole thing is…tricky.

I shake my head. “Once you started dating, I forced myself not to think about her at all. And if you’d stayed together, she would have only ever been my brother’s girlfriend. But then youbroke up. You have a new girlfriend and she and I…well, the feelings from that first night, they came back.”

He’s silent and I’m worried. A shouting Robby I can deal with; this version is unfamiliar.

“So, she feels something for you too?”

The Christmas card burns a hole in my pocket, begging to be read, so I can know for sure that she feels the same way I do.

“She does feel something for me, that I’m now sure of. We’ve grown…close in recent weeks. And I want to explore a relationship with her.”

His skin has taken on a green tinge, and I worry he’s going to vomit right here on my five-hundred-dollar rug. “But, but,” he sputters. “Isn’t that like…incest?”

I sigh again, a big, disappointed sigh. All my parents’ hard-earned money was wasted on Robby’s high school education. “No, it’s nothing like incest.”

“But it still feels wrong.”

Robby’s stubborn nature is kicking in and it frustrates me. Getting up, I pace back and forth in front of him, prepared to argue him into submission. I’m a lawyer. It’s literally what I’m trained to do.

“Explain to me what we’ve done wrong.”

This simple question stumps him. “There’s a bro code.”

---