Page 45 of The Break Out (Denver Dragons #3)

45

C handler let me know when the guys were supposed to leave practice today so I can come over and talk to Brent. I’m obviously not about to tell him everything, but I am planning on telling him that I don’t want him to be mad about my relationship with Colton. If he will even want me back.

My hands twist together in front of me as I approach the front door. My knock is weak, and I debate turning around and leaving because as confident as I’ve been about this plan, every second makes me more nervous.

When the door swings open, I expect to see Chandler, but it’s Brent and he has the start of a black eye forming. “What happened to you?”

His jaw ticks before he answers. “Courtesy of your boyfriend.”

My–Oh shit. He knows .

“How–”

“Why the fuck did you not tell me?” he snaps, stepping outside and shutting the door behind him. I’ve seen Brent in a lot of ways. Rarely it’s anger and when it has been, it’s never been directed at me. Not until right now.

I can’t help but go on the defense, though I have so many questions, starting with why did Colton punch my brother.

“Probably because I knew you’d be mad. Which is clearly the case.” I put my hands on my hips.

“I thought you were smarter than this, Brynn, seriously. I’ve had good teammates that asked about dating you, but you choose him?”

“I’ve never wanted to date any of your stupid teammates. Not like you would’ve been okay with it no matter what.”

“I did everything for you so you could have a better life than the one we were born into, and you get caught up with a guy like that? I mean seriously, Brynn, what the fuck?” Every word he says has me tempted to punch him too, and I’ve never felt this way toward him. I don’t like being scolded like I’m a child.

“My relationship has nothing to do with how we were forced to grow up, Brent, that’s stupid. You’re being fucking stupid.”

“Oh, so it is a relationship?” he scoffs.

“It–I–why does it matter? It doesn’t seem to make a difference to you no matter what. You just want to stand here and talk to me like I’m a fucking kid.” I may be yelling like one at this point, but I don’t care .

“It matters because I wanted better for you. I still want better for you. I gave you everything. All of you,” he yells back, I know referring to our siblings.

I’ve reached my breaking point when he mentions them. Letting out a humorless laugh I reply, “You always tried to take care of all of us, but we didn’t need you! We survived and we all got out, but the damage was done, Brent. Look at all of us. Brandon is dead, Bryson barely talks to us, and Bailey has disowned us.”

I should stop, I know I’m driving the knife in deeper, but I can’t help it. I'm too pissed off, so I continue. “You wanted to protect everyone, but how did that work out? You can’t control everything and everyone. I’m an adult and I’m with Colton. I don’t care that you don’t like it, if you want, I’ll just join our other living siblings and not talk to you anymore. Is that what you want?”

His mouth snaps shut so hard I hear his teeth clink right before he answers, his voice softer than it has been, his deep timbre sounding more like the controlled Brent I know, “No, of course not.” The pain behind his words is evident and my heart cracks.

“I’m sorry,” I say quietly, looking down at my feet. “That was too far.”

I’m pulled into his large frame, and he hugs me tightly. I hug him back and can’t deny how nice it feels. That’s probably why I can’t stop the tears from falling. He just tightens his hold on me as I cry.

“Don’t apologize to me for that. You’re right. I didn’t need to take care of you all, but I wanted to. I wanted to get us all out of there. I wanted everything to be better and I ended up pushing everyone away. I’m sorry, Brynn.”

Burying my face against him, I will the tears to stop, but it feels good to let them out.

I hear a throat clearing and look up to see Vince standing just inside the house. “If you guys are done yelling you can come in, Evie’s sleeping, but it’s fucking cold out there.”

I sniffle with a small laugh. We walk inside and I hardly even noticed how cold I was until the warmth from the house starts to heat my body back up.

We sit on the large sectional, I lean my back against the armrest, hugging my knees to my chest while Brent stretches out and my eyes catch on his injured eye again.

“So, what happened?” I ask, hesitantly, not sure I’m ready to hear it after I defended Colton even though we aren’t even actually together.

“He was being a dick like usual and I finally snapped,” he answers, curtly.

“But…he told you.” It’s not a question.

“He said enough. I mean seriously, Brynn. Why?”

I tense. “Why are you with Chandler? Why are you okay sharing her?”

“Because I love her,” he answers easily. “And so do they. ”

I nod, like that’s my point without me having to say the words.

“You love him?” He sounds genuinely shocked.

I shrug, not wanting to admit it to my brother before even telling the man in question. “He’s never hurt me, you know? We didn't get along for a while, but he’s never treated me badly.”

Not outside the bedroom.

“So, what happened?”

I pick at some of Ellie’s fur stuck to my pants as I answer, “I got scared. I’m sure you heard the news about Spencer’s ex and I kind of accused Colton of some shitty things. He respected the line I drew, but I think it was the wrong one.”

Brent hums, and I can tell he’s still not happy, but trying to keep his composure like he usually does. “You want to be with him?”

I nod.

He sighs, leaning his elbows on his knees, and running his hands down his face. “I was pretty suspicious on Thanksgiving, you know? I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“I get it. And I get why you were mad. I guess you do care about me a little bit,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

He chuckles. “Just a tiny bit.”

“I’m sorry for what I said, that was messed up. ”

“It’s okay. I get it. This isn’t what I wanted for our family either. I miss them too. Even Brandon.”

Brent rarely talks about our brother, and I feel the tears welling up again. “I really wanted to help him; I still feel like I could have.”

He immediately shakes his head. “No, Brynn, you couldn’t have. I don’t want you carrying that guilt around. I did what I could for him, but he had a disease because that’s what addiction is. I hate that it took his life, but at the end of the day he had to make the decision to change, we couldn’t force it. I tried, with him and our parents.”

“You did?” I sniff.

“Many times. Guess I did a good job protecting you from that,” he tries to joke, but I don’t laugh. “I gave him and our parents every opportunity to get help. Set it up, paid for it. Anything and everything. I thought that if they had access, they would just do it, but I was wrong. None of them wanted to, so even the couple times I managed to get them to go it wouldn’t stick.”

“I didn’t know that,” I say softly.

“You didn’t need to. You needed to focus on growing up.”

My shiny eyes meet his. “So did you.”

“You all were more important. And I wouldn’t change a thing, I love my life. I do wish Bryson and Bailey were around more, but this is their choice and one day I hope it changes.”

I jump off the couch and hug my brother again. We may have a fucked up past, and things may not be perfect, but I’m glad I still have him. No one’s life is perfect, but we’ve made the best out of our situation.

We break apart and I see the way he grimaces as he asks, “So, are you going to talk to Wheeler?”

“I have a plan, if he even wants me back,” I reply nervously.

“If he doesn’t, I’ll kick his ass again,” he smirks.

I roll my eyes. “Looks to me like you got a black eye, not a good look, hotshot.”

“You should see the other guy,” he jokes.

“If you messed up his face, I’m going to be pretty mad at you, it’s one of his best qualities. Well, that and his–”

“Stop talking.”

“I was going to say his hockey skills, you’re gross. I would never talk to you about his–”

“Brynn,” he snaps, and I cackle.

“Are we okay?” I ask.

“Always,” he answers easily. “But seriously, if he ever hurts you, I’m going to kill him.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I can handle myself and if he did then you wouldn’t even get the chance, he would already be six feet deep. ”

“Thatta girl, shorty.”

“Now that this is all settled, where is your girlfriend and child, I’m sick of your face and want to look at something cute.” I look around for where they could be hiding since it seems like everyone ran away while we had our moment.

I try to distract myself for the day but can’t help thinking about my plan tomorrow when I’m finally going to see Colton again and how I hope I won’t regret it.