Page 52 of Our Little Secret

“Ooh.” He sucked in his breath. “What was that all about?”

“She and Sean are breaking up.” Brooke poured him a glass of wine and topped off her own glass. “And it’s bad. He took all of her money.” She handed the glass to him. “Same old, same old. He’s got a girlfriend.” At the mention of Sean’s infidelity her stomach churned.

“All her money?”

“And they owe the IRS, for starters.”

Before Neal could take a sip Brooke clicked the rim of her glass to his. “To old grievances, may they never be resolved.”

His eyebrows quirked upward.

“She’ll never forgive me, you know,” Brooke said.

“Honey—”

“Don’t try to placate me. It’s the truth. She’s never gotten over it.”

“Well, she blames me too.”

“I know, but I’m her sister, the one who should have been taking care of her, and instead I stole her boyfriend.”

“I was a part of that. And I wasn’t really—”

“Oh, I remember, but she thinks I seduced you, got pregnant, and forced you to marry me.”

“I wanted to marry you,” he reminded her.

“And Leah will never forget it, or forgive me. Every time she has a breakup with a boyfriend or a fiancé or a damned husband, she blames me.” Brooke took a big gulp of her wine. She didn’t want to think about that time in her life, when she, the older sister, thought she’d intervene between Leah and a man too old for her. Leah had been a young, giddy seventeen-year-old and Neal twenty-six, just finishing law school.

No way should they have been together and Brooke had stormed over to his apartment to tell him to back off. She’d felt responsible as their mother had passed and their father, a man she barely remembered, was in the wind if even alive. Nana, who was their legal guardian until Brooke turned eighteen, was dealing with her own health issues.

Brooke had just come off her volatile relationship with Keith and the horrid assault, the brutal fight that had turned physical to the point of the police being called to intervene and charges leveled.

She had only to touch the spot on her neck where he’d wounded her to remember it.

The night that changed the course of their lives forever Brooke was supercharged when she learned about her sister being involved with a much older guy. And as her younger sister’s protector now that both of their parents were out of the picture, she’d decided to take Neal Harmon on herself.

She remembered marching through the vestibule of his apartment building, past a couple of sickly looking potted plants and a row of mailboxes to the staircase. Gathering her courage, she mounted the steps to Neal’s third-floor apartment and banged on his door.

Puffed up with self-righteousness and indignation, she’d been completely taken aback when he’d answered wearing scruffy jeans, a day’s growth of beard, and a T-shirt that had seen better days. His black hair was in disarray and some U2 song from the eighties was playing in the background. The door was open wide and she quickly peered inside his studio apartment, a mess by Nana’s standards and piled high with textbooks, old records, CDs, magazines, and newspapers.

He had the audacity to seem confused. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Brooke. Leah’s sister. Leah Fletcher.”

Then the light dawned. “Oh right.” Brooke had never met Neal, but she’d caught glimpses of him as he’d dropped her sister off at night. He glanced over her shoulder as if he expected Leah to be lurking in the hallway. “Is she okay?” Concern wrinkled his brow and Brooke noticed how his too-long hair fell over his forehead.

“You tell me.”

“What happened?” More concern.

“She’s fallen in love with you, that’s what happened.”

“What?” He shook his head. “No.” He backed up a step, held up a hand, and an are-you-crazy expression took over his features.

“No? Do you know that she’s seventeen?”

“Yes.”