Page 60 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

“Why did you run off? Josh said you bolted.”

My mind works to come up with an explanation. “Because… I saw him with Stacy.”

Ryan sighs, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel. “I told him to stop seeing her. The damn connections aren’t worth the hassle.”

I chew on my bottom lip as my eyes sink to my lap where my hands rest. I don’t like the thought of him and Stacy together, but he’s not mine. None of them are because I let them go, so I have no say in who they go to next.

I can’t expect them not to move on.

“Why were you at the hotel?” Ryan asks me.

I can already hear the suspicion in his voice. He thinks that I was there with someone, which he isn’t wrong about, but it’s not in the way that he thinks. “I had a meeting with a potential client.”

Ryan lifts his eyebrows. “Oh, yeah? That’s good. Who?”

“Vincent Bradley from Tomorrow Tech,” I tell him with a tiny bubble of pride in my chest. It’s a huge opportunity that I’m grateful to even be considered for, whether I end up taking it or not.

Ryan’s face immediately falls. “Vincent Bradley? Really?”

I frown at him in confusion. “Yes, really. Do you know him or something?”

“You could say that,” Ryan replies with a bitter scoff. “You’re not going to work for him, right? Isn’t his office still in San Fran?”

His reaction catches me off guard so much that I don’t even know what to say at first. Why is he being so weirdly aggressive about Vincent?

“I mean… I was thinking about it,” I say. “It’s a good opportunity, but he does want me to work for him over in San Francisco.”

Ryan immediately shakes his head. “Don’t do that. Don’t work for a prick like him across the country.”

I blink at him as an angry look settles on his face. “Why not? Why are you being like this?”

“Because I know how terrible of a person he is, and I don’t want you working for him,” Ryan says firmly, like it isn’t up for discussion anymore. He parks his car on the side of the street in front of my apartment building before turning to me. “You should tell him no.”

“I’ll make my own business decisions,” I tell him as my eyes narrow. We’re not even supposed to be around each other right now. “Goodnight.”

Ryan reaches out and grabs my hand before I can get out of his car. “I’m serious, Emma. He’ll just take advantage of you.”

I rip my hand out of his grip. “Stop. You can’t act like this… like you’re my boyfriend or something.”

Pain flashes across his face before his expression hardens. “I’m just trying to look out for you.”

He’s making this ten times harder. Part of me wants to collapse in his arms and spill the truth to get it off my chest before it crushes me, but I’m too scared of what his reaction might be. I’m aware of his rocky relationship with his family.

What if that makes him not want to have a family of his own? What if none of them want kids? It’s not like we ever talked about that.

None of us planned for this to happen.

“Go home, Ryan,” I say, my voice threatening to waver as my throat tightens. I throw open my door and get out of his car, shutting the door before he can say anything.

My chest aches as I hurry into my building, putting space between us. It’s better this way for now, but it hurts like hell. I’m ripping myself away from the only people who can probably calm me down, but they’re also part of my stress.

Who can I turn to now?

I certainly can’t go to my family, which means… I’m all alone.

I barely make it through the door before I collapse onto my bed, coat still on, purse still hanging from my shoulder.

The second I curl into myself, the tears come—fast, hot, endless.