He studied me a moment. “Marie didn’t ditch you. She was so intoxicated that I switched her ticket. I stayed in the box, and she left twenty minutes later. She thought you’d ditched her until she saw how irate Reese was about it all.” A vein stuck out from his neck. He was so stiff. “And Reese didn’t forget his phone. I purposely took it out of his bag and put it on the counter, after I knew he wouldn’t return to the house.”

My teeth were grinding. I was seeing pink. Not red, just pink for now.

“Why?”

“I wanted to see how you would respond.”

This fucker. “And did I pass?”

He flinched, a flash of regret passing over him before his features turned back to stone. “It was…eye opening. If you’d wanted Reese for his money or fame, you would’ve stayed at the stadium. I apologize for the damage I inflicted. I didn’t realize how deeply he cared for you. I do now, and I can tell you I will never do anything to get between you. I am four years older than Reese. In many ways, I feel like I’m his older brother. Taking care of him has always been my job, and knowing how much he cares for you, you are now a part of that world. Now…” He drew upright, adjusting his suit jacket and smoothing out his sleeves. “Because I am not actually a big talker, this is probably the longest conversation you’ll have with me, but I am in your corner. That will never change.”

He started for the door.

“And if I hurt him? What then?” I called, stopping him.

He didn’t even look at me, just reached for the handle and opened the door. “You won’t. I can tell you love him too.”

Then he was gone, and I wanted to curse at the door.

What a fuckhead, who I kinda liked now.

Chapter Fifty-One

There’s a stillness in the air after someone’s died. You feel it, knowing something had changed drastically, but yet the world around you keeps moving forward because while you know it, they don’t. It’s an odd dichotomy, and standing in that room, waiting for Reese to come in, I noticed everything.

The quietness in the room.

The distant roar of the crowd through the walls. People going past in the hallway. The smell of popcorn, hotdogs, and whatever else mixed together for the heady aroma and yet, down below where I stood only a faint trace of it mingled down here.

There were also hushed tones. Quiet footsteps.

And nerves. My nerves.