And I really cared for Mandy.
I loved her…and I thought she loved me. She had said she did. Or had that been a lie, too?
My father’s words to me shortly after my eighteenth birthday came back to haunt me. ‘I know you hate me for leaving you and your mom, but it was complicated. The relationship had just run its course, and I couldn’t give any more. Women are hard to understand. You see that already. Look at you—you’re already a chip off the old block.’ He’d given me a pat on the back, like that was something I was supposed to be happy about.
Amanda had called me a bad boy, a term I had heard cross her lips more than once. Apparently Mrs. Hathaway, a lady I loved like a second mom, was worried for her daughter, so my reputation must scare her.
I ran my hand through my hair and was stunned to see it was shaking.
It’s not that I felt like I was a bad boy or a womanizer in any way. Granted, I hadn’t felt an intense relationship with any of the girls I’d dated…until Mandy had come along.
Or maybe I’d underestimated the Hathaways’ affection for me. It was all right that I was friends with their son, but being with their daughter was different and not entirely acceptable.
My hands gripped the steering wheel tight. I would have given this relationship absolutely everything.
Always, I had been on the breaking up side of ending a relationship, and now I felt like the rug had been ripped out from underneath me. Apparently “the player” had been officially played. I still couldn’t understand why she would tell me she loved me. She had been the first one to say it, too…or maybe she had just been reacting to good sex.
And our sex had been pretty mind-blowing. I’d never had such a satisfying lover.
Maybe I needed to be more like Amanda and focus on the fact that we’d been having fun together. Maybe taking a page from her book wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
* * *
Amanda
The second I’d left my parents’ house, I’d phoned Kara to see if she’d heard any news about Heather possibly carrying Brax’s baby. She’d checked Heather’s social media feeds and came up with nothing except a flat belly shot from the past weekend.
“No fucking way she’s pregnant,” had been Kara’s reply.
“But if they slept together last week, she could be…” I’d countered.
“Ask him,” she had said. “He needs to be straight-up honest with you at this point. From where I’m sitting, it sounds like a rumor, and probably one circulated by Little Miss Desperate herself.”
God, I hoped she was right.
When I walked into my house, Brax and Toby were setting the cabinet in the bathroom. I said hello and received a half-hearted “hey” back from Brax.
“You okay?” I asked, taking a step back from him.
Brax nodded, but didn’t make eye contact with me.
I looked at Toby. He kept on working. Had he mentioned my visit to our parents’ house? Had he overheard me talking to Mom about Heather?
I ran my hands down my face. This was already proving to be a long day. “Can I help?”
“We’ve got it.” Brax’s tone was abrupt.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” I asked, motioning for him to follow. I had played my share of head games when I was younger. No way was I doing it now.
We walked into my bedroom and I closed the door behind us. I glanced at Brax. “What’s wrong?”
He looked at me, his jaw clenched tight. “So I’m just someone for you to have fun with?”
I frowned. “What?”
Hands on his hips, he looked massive in my room. His face was a mask of fury. “I’m just someone to get your mind off that prick who dumped you, is that right?”
“Brax…”
“Don’t deny it. I was standing outside your parents’ house, ready to ring the doorbell, when I heard you tell your mom that we were just having fun together, that we weren’t serious, and that you basically wouldn’t get serious because you didn’t want to get your heart broken by someone like me.”
Shit. I swallowed hard. “It’s not what you think. My mom was just worried about me getting hurt.”