Best Friend's Brother #2 (Best Friend's Brother Romance Series - Book #2) by Alycia Taylor Page A

this.
    “Are you okay, Alexa? I don’t understand.”
    She didn’t even look at me as she was pulling on her
clothes. I watched her and I wondered if she knew how pretty she was. It would
be hard to imagine that she didn’t. My body was responding now just watching
her getting dressed. Why was she getting dressed anyways? Weren’t we just
cuddling up to fall asleep together? Shit, that felt so good. I just got up to
go pee.
    “I’m fine. I just have to get going.” She looked
like she was a nervous wreck… like the building was on
fire, or about to explode. I tried again, “I’m really glad you came over. I had
a great time. I was hoping that you could stay a while longer…”
    “Yeah, me too, It was
nice.” Her voice was like a robot, there was no sincerity in it at all. Did she
really not just have the same amazing time that I did?
    “Can we get together later maybe? I was just
thinking that tonight was the first time since…”
    “Maybe yeah,” She didn’t sound like she was even
considering it. Could I have misjudged what she was feeling that badly? If I
did, wouldn’t she at least tell me she didn’t want it to go beyond this? I
would have sworn only ten minutes before that she was feeling the same
connection that I was. Hell, she was snuggled up next to me, naked. How else
was I supposed to take it? Fuck! All I did was get up to go pee. “I’ll talk to
you later, Ian.” She had her clothes half on and she was headed out the bedroom
door. What the hell happened while I was in the bathroom? She was tugging her
jeans on as she crossed the living room floor.
    “Alexa? What the hell is wrong?”
    “I said nothing!” she snapped at me. Then she
lowered her voice and took a couple of deep breaths. I don’t think they worked
because she looked like she was going to cry as she said, “It’s nothing,
Ian…really. I’m okay.” Shit! Was she thinking about Emma? Was that it?
    “Is it Emma?” I had to ask her that, right? We had
both talked about how the grief hit us in waves when we weren’t expecting it. I
would just start shaking all over sometimes and start feeling like I needed to throw up and that was how I knew the
sadness was coming. Is that what this was? Was this her version of it?
    “No, Ian! I’m fine, damn it! I have to go, thank you
for dinner and…everything,” she said. She buttoned her jeans and grabbed her
purse. She was out the door before I made it across the room. She slammed it
behind her. I looked at the clock. It was three o’clock in the morning. Who the
hell had “things to do” at three fucking o’clock in the morning. What the fuck
just happened?
    I went back into the bedroom and collapsed down onto
the bed. It was so fucking surreal that literally fifteen minutes ago I was
feeling better than I had in weeks…maybe even months and now all of a sudden
I’m feeling like shit again. I tried to get comfortable, telling myself to go
to sleep and I’d just think about it tomorrow. It was after three o’clock in
the morning. I needed to get some sleep. I closed my eyes but all I could see
was that look on her face. She looked so…anxious…maybe? I don’t know what the
look was, but it wasn’t happy. We should still be lying here together, with her
pretty legs draped across mine. I have no idea what the hell I did. I said I
had to pee, she giggled and when I went into the bathroom and the light was on,
I’d glanced over at her. She had snuggled down into the blanket and she had her
eyes closed and a smile on her pretty lips. I closed the door and I was gone
less than ten minutes. How did I mess this up when I wasn’t even in the room?
My head felt like it was going to explode.
    I lay there like that for another hour…maybe two
before I fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion. I woke up a few hours later,
disoriented at first. As usual, I had to remind myself that my little sister
was dead. I hated that feeling…it was like someone
carved a hole in my chest and