Page 97 of My Brother's Best Friends

And this time, we failed Makayla.

“He and I talked,” Alex says, settling into the armchair opposite me.

Kellan and I both stare. “You did what now?” I mumble. “When?”

“Yesterday,” he replies. “At the office. I wanted to know where we all stand, now that he’s had a chance to cool down a bit.”

“And?” Kellan chimes in. “Same as before?”

“More or less,” Alex says. “There’s some tension between him and Callie. He tried talking to Melanie about the whole thing. It’s… it’s a mess between the sisters now. He doesn’t want to get involved any further.”

I shake my head. “Women like Melanie can only control the narrative for so long. Eventually the victim mask cracks and Callie will see through it.”

“Where does that leave us with Makayla?” Kellan wonders.

“Nowhere good—at least not yet,” Alex says on a long sigh. “She’s still a sore subject for Bryan.”

“Where is she now?” I ask.

Alex meets my gaze, a faint glimmer sparking in his eyes. “Chasing her dream—where else? And remember Bryan’s main condition for the partnership: Makayla is off-limits. No contact.”

I tilt my head, a wry grin pulling at my mouth. “Which brings me back to my original question—why do you keep checking your phone, brother?”

He groans and downs the rest of his Scotch. “Kay.”

“You realize how desperate that looks, right?” Kellan says.

“I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

“We have to respect their decision, Alex,” I remind him. “I know it makes us feel ridiculous—hell, it’s offensive. Every damn day we’re shut out over what happened at that resort is torture, and I get it.”

“We all get it,” Kellan chimes in.

“But we can’t breach the agreement we made with Bryan,” I add.

Alex glances down at his phone again. “I know she reads every message I send her.”

“But she doesn’t reply. This is beneath us,” I say.

“No, what’s beneath us is us sitting here and taking it, instead of fighting for it. What the hell happened to us, man?”

Kellan sighs. “Love. Love that showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“No, it was the right place, it was the right time. Were it not for Melanie, we’d still be together,” Alex replies. “It’s all on Melanie.”

I shake my head. “We’re responsible too. The moment Melanie walked into that restaurant, we should’ve pulled Makayla aside and told her everything. Given her a heads-up about who she was up against. Instead, we panicked, afraid she’d walk away from us, and now—look. She’s gone.”

Kellan rummages through the cabinet drawers and finally finds the watch I gave him last Christmas. “Ye of little faith,” he mutters, fastening it around his wrist.

“I need another drink,” I concede, but Kellan saves me the trip to the minibar and brings the whole bottle over. “Thank you, brother.”

“How’s Bryan doing otherwise?” I ask, curiosity getting the better of me. “I skipped most of last week’s executive meetings.”

“We noticed,” Kellan says.

“He still isn’t keen on hanging out,” Alex says. “Business talk is fine, but everyone’s still pissed about Sweden, so… our friendship’s on ice. Oscar, he needs time, alright?”

I snort before I can stop myself. “Everybody needs time, huh? After what Melanie did? After we got maybe a minute to explain before they treated us like we were radioactive? They all need time.”

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