Ohhhh…
Happy life stuff, huh? Maybe like ababyperhaps?
Brennan was one-hundred-percent talking about Liza and Connor from the jazz brunch. He had one-hundred-percent been in love with Liza, and he’d just let her go so Connor could have her.
Skye had experienced firsthand how nice Liza was, and not to mention had seen how unrealistically beautiful she was. Of course Brennan had fallen for her.
And there they all were just a few hours ago, at a beautiful jazz brunch, where his friends told him their happy news. Happy news that—Skye could only guess, having never experienced something like unrequited love—probably felt like a knife twisting in Brennan’s heart, and he’d simply smiled genuinely, congratulated and hugged them, all without so much as even his expression hinting at his own emotional pain.
Wow, indeed.
Brennan Riley had to be the most selfless man alive.
Maybe altruism did exist. And maybe it only existed in him because he literally had everything a person could possibly need or want in life. Maybe that was the only way a person could be altruistic.
“I can’t decide if you’re crazy for just letting her go so easily,” Skye remarked, “or if you’re the most selfless person I’ve ever met.”
“I don’t think I’m either. I’m just not the kind of person to force something on someone else that they don’t want. If I’d tried to force something to happen with her while all that was going on, I’d just lose my friends. And I love my friends more than anything else in life, so I’d never want to put myself in jeopardy of losing them.”
Her face melted a little. He was totally clueless as to how much she appreciated such a sentiment. “I honestly don’t believe the whole black sheep thing, Brennan. You’re like the most honorable man I’ve ever met.”
He cast her an easy smile that didn’t hint at his heartache. “Well, honey, I try, but I wouldn’t quite go that far.”
“I would. I think you’re wonderful. You have a good heart.”
“And I think you feel that way because you have a good heart and don’t seem to require anything from anyone except common decency,” he countered.
She turned away and scoffed quietly. “Well,Iwouldn’t go that far.”
“Why do you say that?”
She shook her head and looked out the window. The juicy details about his life were entertaining, but the details about hers were downright dangerous in this situation. Because if he knew any of them, she wouldn’t been in his chauffeured car right now. She wouldn’t be wearing his dead grandmother’s shawl right now. She wouldn’t have even met the super nice friends who were apparently responsible for Brennan’s heartbreak. Her juicy details werebad.
Brennan reached to stroke his fingers down her cheek and then tucked a hair behind her ear. “Because somebody mistreated you,” he said gently. “You think that was your fault because you let them.”
Not just somebody, she wanted to say.Everybody.
“Is that not the case?” His tone wasn’t accusing. It was more of a suggestion. Like he was offering an invitation for her to open up in the same way he just had.
“You just have no idea,” she said quietly, eyes fixed on the passing street lamps outside the window.
“You could tell me,” he said, still gentle. “I’m pretty much the best person you could talk to, Skye. You’re leaving, and we’ll probably never see each other again.”
I wish it were that simple.
“Brennan, I can’t tell you this stuff. It doesn’t matter that we’re never going to see each other again.”
“Why not?”
She turned her head from the window and met his gaze. His eyes were full of concern and void of judgement, but she knew if she even uttered one syllable, they would shift immediately to the opposite.
She swallowed. “You would be horrified.”
His brow pulled low. “You know I spent the equivalent of two whole years on a battlefield in Afghanistan, right? It’s pretty hard to faze me.”
“This would exceed fazing you. Like beyond anything you could possibly imagine.”
The concern in his eyes morphed into something that looked like a challenge. “Try me.”
