Page 24 of I Knew You
I hadn’t meant to show my hand so readily, but I was feeling so much. Anger, resentment, disappointment, to name a few emotions. Remembering how he’d rejected me after declaring he cared for me was a wound that still bled.
“That was a low blow,” he grumbled, his deep voice resonating. “That’s not what I meant. You don’t have a ring on. And Whit never said you were married or in a relationship. He and I still talk often. I have a feeling he might have told me something if it was significant.”
“You think you’re so smart,” I muttered, but I knew he still heard me.
“Are you married?” he asked, point-blank.
I could lie to him. It’s not like he or Whit knew me enough anymore to be sure.
“Maybe.” I shrugged, and he frowned.
“Don’t toy with me, Julianna East.”
“If that’s still my name…”
He rolled his eyes.
I rested a hand on my hip. “I’m assumingyou’renot married. I venture to say you’re probably single.” It was a wild shot in the dark, but he didn’t need to know that.
He shrugged. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes.
“Listen, Jules.” I cringed at the ease with which he said my old nickname. “I didn’t come here to disturb your peace. I didn’t come to make you hate Whit, either. I’m making a mess of everything.” His brow furrowed. “I came to help you unload your stuff. You don’t need to carry anything with your back like it is now.”
I tried to rein in my frustration and remain like stone, but it proved impossible.
I reached inwardly for resentment toward Bram and tried pulling it over me like a blanket to protect myself from the feelings of vulnerability he was pulling out of me. I didn’t blame Bram for the wreck or my subsequent back surgery, but I needed to believe he was to blame so I could harden myself against him.
My complicated feelings weren’t only about him, either. I was in a town I no longer identified with, far from Kallie and the familiarity of everyday life. This house, which was once filled with love and laughter I’d cherished, was not what I envisioned and had been wiped of the memories that held me together for many lonely days and nights in my adulthood. My brother had once again planned to buy my affection by gifting me our grandmother’s house.
My chest tightened up, and I was unable to breathe easily. This was too difficult.
“I won’t be carrying anything in here because I’m not staying here.”
I walked over and grabbed all the snacks I’d unloaded and threw them into the box I’d moved them with.
“Whoa, what?” He marched over, grabbed the box of mini chocolate chip cookies from my hands, and put them on the counter with an audiblethwack. “Whit may have changed his mind about the house. Hell, maybe he’s looking to sell it after you go back to Charlotte. I don’t know. But it’s yours, for now at least, and you have to stay here until you get the surgery you need.”
“No, I don’thaveto do anything!”
Bram jumped back slightly at my outburst. I know my attitude wasn’t how he’d pictured me in his mind. I saw it in the way his eyes widened, startled.
“I won’t let Whit gift me a house.”
“He’s your brother, Julianna. He has plenty of money to do whatever he wants.”
“Exactly! He has his own life. He shouldn’t be thinking about me at all!”
Bram huffed. His hands landed on his hips, and his stance became domineering. “Did you ever stop and think that Whit wants to be a part of your life?”
“If he wanted to be a part of my life, he would have returned my calls and texts.”
Bram’s eyes darted away, his shoulders rounded, and his hands went to his pockets. His annoyance moved to regret.
No, no, no.
I chanted the word over and over in my head as tears formed behind my eyelids. I would not cry in front of the only man I’d ever truly wanted. The man who’d crushed my will to be close to any partner into tiny fragments on a hospital floor.
