“Ha!” Braden slams his hand into the wall. “A relationship? Are you f**king serious?”
“Yes.”
“Fucking unreal. You’ve made some shit choices, Megan, but this tops the goddamn list!” He passes through the door. I wrench my arm from Aston’s grip and follow him, not caring who can hear this conversation.
“The decision to be with Aston wasn’t the bad choice! The bad one was keeping it from you – and you know why that happened? You know why I didn’t tell you? Because of this. To stop this happening! I knew you’d go bat shit crazy over it!”
“So why did you f**king do it?” he throws over his shoulder.
“Because I wanted to!”
“And that makes it better?” He stops, turning to look at me. He motions in the direction of Aston’s room. “He’s just gonna break your heart, Megan! That’s what he does. He f**ks girls and leaves them–”
“You don’t know him like I do!”
“No, but there’s a lot of girls that do!”
“No they don’t!” I yell, my foot stamping. My hands come up to the sides of my head. “They don’t know him the way I do. None of you do, so don’t you f**king stand there and tell me it was a bad decision when you know nothing – nothing – about my decision! You know nothing about us. You know nothing about how I feel, or how he feels!”
“Go on, then, Megs. If it’s such a big thing, the real f**king deal, tell me. How do you feel?”
I look at him steadily, opening my mouth to speak.
“I love her,” Aston says from halfway down the hall. “I can’t answer for her, but I can answer for me. And the answer is I love her.”
My hands fall to my sides, and I swallow. My heart takes up a frantic beat in my chest, pounding and rattling against my ribs. We’ve never said it. He’s never said it.
And now he’s admitting it. Out loud. To Braden. And anyone else listening.
“Do you love her or what she gives you?” Braden asks uncertainly, his voice still laced with anger.
Aston steps up behind me, reaching down and taking my hands in his. His fingers lace through mine, and as his chest touches mine I can feel the vulnerability in him. The only person he’s ever opened up to about anything is me, and now he has to do it to someone else.
“I love her for who she is, and who I am when I’m with her. Everything Maddie does for you, times that by a million, and that’s what Megan does for me. She’s right, Braden. None of you know me like she does. She knows everything about me – even the things I didn’t want anyone to ever know. She knows them and she’s still here. I love her for everything she gives me, every touch, every smile, I love it all.
“You can come flying at me now and kick the shit out of me. I’ll take it because I deserve it for going behind your back, but I won’t f**king apologize. I won’t ever apologize for loving her, so don’t expect me to. And don’t expect me to walk away from her because I won’t. I can’t.”
He tightens his grip on my hands slightly, and my body shakes. Gentle footsteps on the stairs announce Maddie’s arrival, and my eyes slide to hers. I don’t see the anger or annoyance I expect.
I see understanding.
“And you, Meggy?” Braden questions.
Deep breath. “I love him, Bray. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I am. Both of us tried not to let it happen but it did, and I’m not sorry for that. I’m just sorry it hurts you so much.”
Maddie slides her arm around Braden’s, leaning against him, and he heaves out a breath.
“Y’know what hurts the most?” He looks at me, anger gone from his eyes. A hint of defeat replaces it. “You’re my best friend and you didn’t think you could tell me. You didn’t even feel for a second that you could tell me. Maybe that’s my fault, but that’s what gets me. Am I pissed you lied about it? Fucking right I am. I’m fuming. But I can’t be mad at you. No matter how much I want to slam my fist into Aston’s face and yell at you, I can’t.”
“Why not?” Aston asks. “I’d deserve it.”
Braden’s eyes go over my shoulder to meet the gray pair I love. “Because when I look in Megan’s eyes I see the same love for you that Maddie has in hers for me. You didn’t hesitate for a second to tell me you love her, when she didn’t even know yet. I could tell that from her reaction. You hadn’t told her, and I made you tell me. I’d be a f**king hypocrite if I was mad at you for that, but just because I’m not mad doesn’t mean I want to be around you right now.”
He shakes his arm from Maddie and walks down the stairs to his room. Maddie looks at both of us, a small smile playing on her lips.
“It took long enough for you to admit it,” she says softly.
“You knew?” Aston pulls me closer to him.
Her smile grows a little, and she tucks some hair behind her ear. “Of course I did. I know pain, Aston, and pain knows pain. You have some pain deep inside you, I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s there. And Megs is the softest, most understanding person I know. You two were drawn together because she could heal your wounds. I’ve known since we got back that you two had something.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” I tilt my head to the side slightly.
She makes to follow Braden, pausing on the top stair. “Because …” She grins. “If Braden had any suspicions and asked me if you’d said anything, I wouldn’t have had to lie to him.”
I can’t help but smile. She knows him so well. She knows him like I know Aston.
I breathe out deeply, letting myself relax against him. His arms wrap around me tightly, his face burying into my neck.
“That was … Fun,” he says dryly.
“That went well,” I say truthfully. “I was expecting Braden to punch first, ask later. That’s his usual M.O.”
“Maybe he was just so shocked you were actually there that he forgot to punch me first.”
I let out a small laugh. “I think that’s probably right.”
He releases me and steers us back into his room, nudging the door shut. I rub my hands down my face.
“What do we do now?” I look at him.
Aston grins, moving toward me. “We stop hiding, and I get to go all protective on your pretty little ass when some dickhead tries to hit on you.”