“So, there’s nothing that I need to worry about?” he asks.
I lean back in my seat and scrutinize my brother. “Why are you pushing this? I said everything is fine. Can you drop it? I don’t want to talk to you about Koa.”
“What happened with Joe? I saw Eva hanging all over him after you left.”
“You’re relentless.” I release a sigh. “We decided to be friends. He’s free to have whoever he chooses hang on him. We were casual anyway.”
Turns out my suspicion about Joe and Online Joe being two different people was correct. When I asked him what he thought of the Fiction Forum, he said he hadn’t had a chance to join yet.
That one action, or lack of one, told me all I needed to know. If he couldn’t take a minute to check out one of my favorite things, then he wasn’t really interested in me.
I don’t want to fall in love so badly I’m willing to settle. I want a man who puts me first. I’m done feeling like second best or an afterthought.
“That seems to be your favorite kind of relationship,” he snarks.
“You’re one to talk. I don’t think you’ve ever had a serious girlfriend.”
“That’s not my focus.”
“You sound like a real asshole right now. It isn’t my focus either. I have dreams and goals outside of having a boyfriend too,” I say waving a hand around the lab.
He nods thoughtfully. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You're going to change the lives of a lot of people.”
“Thank you. I can’t wait until you need a woman’s help and she humbles the hell out of you.”
He laughs. “I’ve been humbled all year but if a woman still needs to take me down a notch, I’ll embrace it.”
He watches me for a few minutes and I expertly ignore him. It is a skill I’ve sharpened over years being his big sister. He can’t stand the silence. Nash has always been the one to break first.
“Koa didn’t get that memo. About you and Joe,” he adds, noting my confusion. “Hart told me Koa laid into Joe when they were loading up the bus to leave for their away games. Koa overheard him talking about Eva with another trainer.Then Koa went off telling him how he is being disrespectful to you. I wonder why he did that.”
“If I had to guess it’s because he’s become your perfectly trained soldier. Built by your design to defend me and keep the bad guys away.”
He scoffs. “That’s an interesting take. I think somewhere over the years your interpretation of our friendship with Koa has become clouded.”
“What are you talking about? I know exactly where I stand in our trio. I’m the second rate Pierce sibling.”
Nash laughs. “Do you really believe that? Do you know how many times he ditched me to spend time with you instead? You can’t sit here and tell me there’s nothing going on between the two of you.”
Koa ditched Nash to hang out with me? I file through the memories and I do recall a few times he would watch a movie with me while Nash would be outside doing something with Hart or the other guys. Was he really picking me?
“There isn’t. You have nothing to worry about.” I glare at my brother. Why is he bringing all of this up? What is his agenda? He should know there isn’t anything going on between us because it was his ban, his rules, and Koa’s loyalty to him that got us here.
“Would you want there to be?” he questions cautiously.
“Why are you asking me about Koa? It seems very…random.”
He throws his head back laughing. “Does it really?”
“Yes. Completely out of the blue. We had one conversation at your party and all of a sudden you think we should be in a relationship. It would make more sense if you asked me if I still wanted to marry Joshua Jackson.”
“I don’t see how. The likelihood of you marrying a celebrity would be slim.”
“Exactly!” I throw my hands up in the air. I wince when I earn a few glares from a few people in the room. “But also more likely than something happening between me and your best friend.”
He stands up straight, tilts his head to the side, and considers me for a moment. “Okay,” he says, then slaps the top of the table.
“Okay? That’s all you have to say after the incessant badgering. You’re ending the conversation here?”
