Page 156 of Forever Never
So she’d feigned the flu and then told herself that it was just the remnants of a silly teenage crush. She pretended that she was more hurt by Audrey not telling her they were even dating. Their friendship had fizzled somewhere after high school and college. Somewhere along the line, Audrey and Brick had become strangers to her with their own lives apart from hers.
She watched Brick, sleeves rolled up as he traded an empty chafing dish for one full of pulled pork, her father’s favorite.
He was a caretaker, a protector by nature. He wasn’t open to the wild tumble of life, the flow of picking up and moving on. He was a monument. Cast in stone and planted in permanence. And sooner or later, he was going to break her heart again.
Only this time, it would be worse.
How would she survive? How would she look at him across the table in her parents’ dining room and not remember the filthy promises he’d whispered in her ear as his body had taken hers to new heights?
This couldn’t work out. It was destined to end horribly. Maybe that’s why he’d fought the attraction so valiantly. Maybe Brick always understood the potential damage while she was only beginning to realize the truth.
Kyle was staring at his phone, thumbs flying across the screen, as his wife danced with Ken. Hadley and Ian were working their way through their parents’ abandoned slices of cake.
A soul could wither up and die in that kind of life, Remi realized. Even if he wanted her to stay. Even if she gave it her all, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t find themselves in a similar position. And when it ended, everything would be different.
“You look like you could use this,” Darius said, appearing at her side with a frothy orange drink.
“Me?”
“Yes, Ms. Paler Than a Snowman. What’s wrong? Is it your asthma?”
“It’s not my asthma.” It was her stupid freaking heart trying to break itself to pieces over the same man for a third time. “When are people going to stop treating me like an invalid?”
“Maybe when you stop looking so Disney princess-eyed and fragile?”
“Eww. Shut up.”
He nudged her shoulder. “What are we wasting our time bickering for when there’s a dance floor begging for us to wow it?”
Remi drained her drink and did what she did best, blocked out everything but the present moment. “Let’s show ’em what we’ve got.”
After a few energetic laps around the dance floor, Darius deposited her in her brother-in-law’s arms and headed back to the bar.
“Hey,” Remi said.
“Hey yourself.” Kyle Olson’s nickname when Kimber met him was Pretty Boy. It still fit. He had neatly coiffed blond hair, wore dark suits with skinny ties, and flashed a charming smile that disarmed juries and—at one time—her own sister.
Brick walked past them and leveled her with a heated glare that made her feel like her dress was on fire.
“How’s your friend’s novel going?”
Remi missed a beat and stepped on Kyle’s foot.
“My what? Oh! It’s good. Good.”
“You had me worried that you were in some kind of trouble.” Kyle was a trial lawyer. He had a bullshit meter that was more sensitive than most.
“Speaking of worried,” she said, dodging his unasked question, “what is going on with you and my sister?”
His jaw tightened. “I wish I knew.”
“You’re going to work this out,” she said firmly. They had been so in love once. The idea that it could all just disappear was heartbreaking.
“I would if I knew what the problem was. Every time I ask her, she shuts down.”
“Do you ask her like her super cute husband who cares about her and wants her to be happy, or do you ask her like she’s a hostile witness under cross-examination?”
His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “There’s a difference?”
