Page 71 of Crazy In Love
Shit. Damn.My stomach jumps, and my cock softens. “Hmm?”
“Christian, I’m not blind, and you’re my twin brother. I’ve known you your whole fucking life. So when I’m asking you about something like this, it’s because I’m getting some twin-telepathy bullshit. Or,” he growls, “ya know, I’m seeing you with my own fucking eyes.”
I place a twenty onto the counter in exchange for my ticket and turning away, I stalk toward the building front doors rather than head into the cinema. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The hell you don’t! Alana’s basically comatose this week, so she’s not noticing shit. But you may as well have pissed on Fox at dinner, ‘cos I saw the way you watched her.”
“I didn’t watch her like anything!”
“You watched her like you were the big bad wolf, dickhead. And she was your Red.”
She wanted discretion, and I’m a shitty liar. That was our first mistake. I drag my free hand through my hair and bite down on my groan. “You’reseeing things. I was just eating my dinner and enjoying an evening where she was irritating meless. I thought you wanted us to get along, anyway?”
“Idowant you to get along! Idon’twant you to take her to bed and break her heart when it’s all done. Because then Alana will be forced to choose sides.”
“Wait…” My pulse skitters and my stomach drops, so I step outside the building and onto the sidewalk, where the cool breeze hits my skin. “She would choose? Who the hell do you think she’d choose? Because she was mine way before she was Fox’s.”
“That’s the whole fucking point! We don’t want her to have to choose. If you and Fox are doing the dirty, then do it. Have fun. Be safe. But if shit goes bad and hearts are broken, it won’t just be yours or Fox’s. It’ll be Alana’s because she loves you both. If she’s forced to split her time between the two of you or choose one over the other to invite to her important family events, then I’m gonna snap some fucking necks.”
“You sound especially violent on the matter.” I draw my tongue across my lips and exhale. “Fox and I are… nothing. We’re just friends.”
“Friends?”
“Barely! We hardly tolerate each other. She annoys the ever-loving shit out of me,on purpose, by the way. And I annoy her, since stable, sensible, normal people with a healthy respect for keeping time and routine is something that bothers her.”
“Chris—”
“Nothing is going on between me and Fox. She’s in town for six weeks, helping Alana. I fucking told you—both of you—that she didn’t even have to be here, since I could help with Franky and Caroline would help with the shop. You didn’t listen, which is fine. That’s on you. But don’t come at me with your bullshit just because she and Iweren’tswiping at each other at dinner. Not fighting doesn’t automatically translate to hooking up.”
“Yeah?” he questions slowly, allowing the silence to settle between us. “Well, I don’t believe you.”
“Twenty-nine years, andnowyou call me a liar?” I shake my head and feel the insult lash at my heart, though, technically, Iama liar. “Hurtful.”
“What are you doing right now? I saw you driving out, but you said you were going home to watch TV. Not at the cinema by chance, are you?”
“I am, actually. But!” I add quickly. “I told you from the start I’d be keeping a close eye on them. Franky’s my family, Tommy, just like you are. She springs a movie on us at dinnertime? She even springs it on Alana? That’s not very nice of her.”
“So you’re there to supervise?” he drawls. “Really?”
“Yes, really! Who’s to say she wasactuallybringing him to the theater? Maybe she was taking him for ice cream and a little chat about moving back to New York?”
He chokes out a laugh. “New York? She’s not going to abduct him, stupid!”
“No, but she might try a little manipulation.” Do I believe that? No. But did I, backbefore? Yep. “Fox is here as Alana’s rep, and I’m here as yours. I see no reason for you to be pissy about that.”
He draws a long breath in through his nose, the whistle easily painting a picture in my mind. Then he exhales again and ends it with a grunt. “Are you sleeping with Fox? Are youconsideringsleeping with Fox?”
“No, I?—”
“Do you have a plan for the possible eventuality where one or both of you catch feelings but live half a country apart? Or one of you breaks the others’ heart but have to co-friend Alana and Franky for the next seventy years?”
“Tommy—”
“Tell me the truth, Christian. Tell me where you’re at, so I can slide in and cushion the blow for the people I love. Because, believe it or not, Alana isn’t the only person I’m worried about. Your heart might be the most fragile of them all, and I’ll go to war to defend you. But if we reach a point where my enemy is Fox Tatum, who just so happens to be my future wife’s best friend, then I’m gonna end up on my fucking knees in no-man’s-land, begging for a truce and secretly hating Fox for the rest of my life, because she hurt my baby brother.”
“I’m notintoFox,” I grit out. “I’m not interested in her scattered, flaky, fake-ass job having self, nor do I have any interest in pursuing a woman who lives as far away as she does. On June fourteenth, I’m putting her back on a plane heading east.That’swhen I’ll breathe easier again. She’s a pain in my ass, Tommy. But she’s a short-term pain that’ll be gone soon. So stop stressing out. Are you done now?”
“Done prying into your personal life?” Finally, he releases a chuckle and moves from whatever chair he’s in when Hazel’s cute little squeaked exhale proves she’s awake. “Yeah, I’m done. I’m sorry for calling you a liar.”
