Blake
Iglance down at Briar. Concern flashes in her big green eyes.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to live there,” she says.
The second she speaks those words, that tightness in my chest fades, and I feel like I can breathe again.
Thank fuck.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Yeah, sorry, I just…” I swallow hard.
This isn’t like me. I don’t get pissed off like this.
But that’s exactly how I felt when I saw the way that guy was looking at Briar.
The whole time she was busy looking at the house, he was checking her out. He kept looking at her ass and her chest.
That protective feeling hammers through me, sharp and dark.
When I think of how he offered his shower for her to use…When I think about the way he dragged his gaze over her body, probably trying to picture her naked…
I wanted to punch his fucking face in.
And then when he told her that she couldn’t have any people over, and how upset he got when I asked him about putting a lock on her bedroom door…
I swallow back the bile creeping up my throat.
No fucking way was I going to let Briar move in with that creep.
“That guy was a weirdo. He kept staring at your body when you weren’t looking.”
Her mouth falls open in shock. “What?”
My chest cracks in half. Briar is so sweet and kind. She didn’t even notice.
Her shoulders hunch as she crosses her arms over her chest. She looks like she’s going to be sick.
I touch her arm. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry, Blake. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She shakes her head and looks down at the ground. “I feel so stupid. I didn’t pick up on that at all.”
That ache in my chest intensifies. I hate that she feels so bad about this.
“You’re not stupid, Briar. Don’t say that. He was making sure to do it when you weren’t looking.”
She looks up at me. Her mouth curves up in a sad, embarrassed smile. “You noticed though.”
I give her arm a soft squeeze. “I was paying attention to him. I got kind of a weird feeling from him off the bat.”
She nods and swallows. “I guess I was too distracted by how nice the house was.”
“It’s okay.” I swipe a chunk of hair out of her face. “He was a creepy piece of shit, but his house was pretty nice, I’ll give him that.”
She lets a soft chuckle slip from her mouth. The tension in my muscles eases, hearing her make that sound.
“I’m sorry for upsetting you,” I say.
“Stop apologizing, okay?” The pained look on her face is gone. Her eyes are brighter now. “I really owe you one, Blake. You’re such a good friend for looking out for me like that. I hate to think of how that would have gone if you hadn’t been there with me.”
That protective feeling spikes up inside of me once more.
“You don’t owe me anything, Briar. I’ll always look out for you.”
That worried expression fades, and her smile grows. That edgy feeling inside of me fades. It feels really, really good to see her happy.
She moves like she’s going to hug me, but she hesitates.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Nothing, I just…I was going to hug you, but I didn’t want it to be weird.”
“Why would it be weird?” I ask, confused. “I like it when you hug me.”
Her expression brightens instantly, and I wrap my arms around her. I hug her tight, tucking her head under my chin. I breathe in and get a lungful of that sweet perfume she wears.
“Never hesitate to hug me, okay? You know I’m a hugger. And you give really good hugs. It would send me into withdrawal if you stopped all of a sudden.”
She giggles softly. “Okay. Promise I won’t.”
I make an exaggerated “phew!” sound, which makes her laugh harder. We break apart and start walking again.
“I guess apartment hunting was a bust,” she says.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
“I just feel bad that this means I’ll have to crash with you even longer.”
“Don’t feel bad. I told you, it’s all good. I like having you around.”
“Yeah, but…” She bites her bottom lip, hesitating. “You’re not a little bummed out that because of me, you can’t sleep in your bed? Which means you can’t have girls over to…”
I stop walking as she trails off. She looks at me, her cheeks bright red.
“Wait, do you think I wish that I could have women in my bedroom? And that I want you to move out sooner because of that?” I can’t help the surprise in my voice. Why would she think that?
Her eyes are shy as she nods at me. “Yeah. I overheard you and your roommates talking this morning about how you didn’t end up hooking up with that girl, and you said it was because I was sleeping in your bed.”
She plays with the ends of her hair.
Regret hits me square in the chest. Shit. She heard me say that?
I shake my head. “Briar, no. That was…” I struggle for a second to figure out how I’m going to explain this to her.
I can’t tell her the truth—that I had zero interest in that woman, and there was no way I was going to sleep with her last night because Briar was on my mind the whole time. She is the one I really want. She is the one I have a huge crush on that I struggle to hide every time I’m with her.
But she doesn’t like me like that, so I can’t say that.
“I was joking around,” I say. “We all were. We were giving each other shit, just saying random crap. It’s dumb, but we do that. We joke about the stupidest stuff just to get a rise out of each other. We’re idiots.”
I laugh like it’s no big deal, but on the inside, I’m nervous that she won’t buy the half-assed excuse I came up with. I don’t want her to think that I want her to move out so that I can have hookups in my bedroom. I don’t want her to leave. I want her to stay as long as she needs to.
Her expression is thoughtful, but then a second later, she smiles. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
She bites her lip. “That was part of the reason I looked at so many apartments today. I thought you wanted me to leave.”
That nervous feeling inside of me turns to dread. “I don’t want that, Briar.” Gently, I grab her shoulders and hold her gaze. “Stay with me as long as you need to, okay? I want you with me. I don’t want you to move out until you find the perfect place.”
Her smile is relieved. “Okay. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry that my teammates and I being dumbasses made you doubt that.”
She chuckles. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping anyway.”
“You weren’t. We were loudmouths.”
She laughs, and we keep walking back to my place.
“Hey, how about some tacos?” I ask.
She looks surprised. “But we had some last night.”
I pat my stomach. “I’m having a craving. And you deserve your favorite tacos two days in a row after dealing with so many duds in your apartment search.”
She grins. “Okay.”