Page 151 of Trust Me Always

He glances out the front window, shaking his head slightly. “No, I don’t think I should.”

“Afraid I might get a little needy again?”

His eyes snap my way, but I falter when he doesn’t smile.

“Look, Brady,” I begin. We avoided this topic the whole drive, but I guess it has to be discussed now. “Don’t make this weird, all right? It’s fine if you regret letting it get that far.”

A huffed laugh leaves him, and he shakes his head. “It’s not that.”

“Well, it’s something.”

He drops his head sideways against the glass, a long exhale leaving him, but when he looks my way, his expression doesn’t match the heaviness in his body language. He’s got his megawattBrady grin in place, and I kind of want to smack it off him. “I’ve had a lot of fun, Fake Girlfriend.”

A sinking sensation weighs down my stomach at his words because I know there are more coming, and I don’t think I want to hear them.

“I think it’s time to put you back on the market.”

Yeah, he totally freaked out this morning.

It takes me a moment, but I nod. “Okay,” I say, agreeing despite the disappointment in my gut. I’m not really sure what to do with it, but this is something only he can work out.

“Okay?”

Why is he fighting a frown when he’s the one who suggested it?

“If that’s what you want, then yeah. Okay.”

“It’s just that there’s a man out there who wants to be the real deal.”

A scowl starts before I realize what he means because at first all I hear isI don’t want to be the real deal.

That’s not it, though. He’s talking about Alister.

“Okay.” I force the word out again, my smile as real as his is as I quickly slide over and climb out. I snag the bag of goods from the floorboard. “I’m keeping these. You can have the leftover mac.”

Brady watches, a small crease between his brows.

I force my lips higher. “See you in class tomorrow.”

I turn around and walk away, closing my eyes as the weight in my stomach threatens to knock me over and wondering at what point exactly I stopped seeing Brady as my friend but rather something more.

Way to go, girl. Another guy you can’t keep.

First Trey, then Alister, and now Brady.

How does it go in baseball—three strikes and you’re out?

My feet stop just inside the entrance, Alister’s words from before I took off with Brady for the weekend coming back to me.

He didn’t punch me when I said I was going to come to you, he had said.

Alister talked to Brady the same day he told me he loved me. The same day that Brady suddenly needed to escape campus and fully intended on doing so alone until I forced my way into his little trip.

He was running away, not wanting to be here when Alister and I did talk, unaware we already had.

We’d talked before Brady kissed me when no one was watching.

We’d talked before I climbed onto his lap and all but demanded he take what I wanted to give.

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