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“Are you fucking insane?” he yelled.
“Wow, thanks, Ry. You sure know how to comfort a girl, don’t you?” I didn’t need this shit. My nerves were shot, and within minutes, I’d have a bigger problem. A six-foot-two-inch problem with an attitude.
He shoved his hand nervously into his pocket. “I didn’t mean it that way. I…I…damn it.” He rubbed his forehead and let out a defeated breath. “Griffith Park? Of all fucking places? Do you have a vendetta against me? He’s going to kill me. I mean kill me; very slowly and very painfully.”
I lightly touched his arm, and he flinched underneath my fingertips. “I’ll take care of it. He won’t freak out.”
“Hi, Phoebe. Nice to meet you. I’m Julian’s brother.” He shook my hand off. “He put me in charge of guarding his room during a sleepover for my own birthday in fourth grade. Kyle Manning went into Julian’s room and trashed his model airplane collection while I blew out my candles.”
“That wasn’t your fault.” My brow furrowed.
He snorted. “Didn’t matter to Julian. While I was at Little League practice the next day, he pissed all over my baseball cards and shoved them inside my shoes.”
I twisted the dampened hair at my nape. “Shitty, yes, but that’s kids, Ry.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “He tied the shoelaces together and threw them over the powerlines.”
“Oh.” Damn.
“Those were model planes he left me in charge of, Phoebe. You’re having his kid.” He fell backward onto the couch, his hand covering his eyes. “I’m so fucked.
Sitting beside him, I patted his leg. “Look, I’m the one who pulled this shit, and I’ll take the heat.” Again, I reached out to touch his arm, and he immediately shrugged it off, inching away from me.
“If anything had happened to you…” he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, his gaze attuned to the round dome of my belly, “…I’d never have forgiven myself.”
“Neither would I.”
We both froze as Ryker’s transfixed stare on my stomach shifted upward and his eyes widened.
Julian.
Seconds ticked by as he stood in the doorway, his arms crossed stoically over his chest with his feet planted shoulder width apart. My eyes traveled up his face, and our stares collided.
“By all means, don’t let me interrupt the conversation. Ry, I think you were telling my fiancée you’d never forgive yourself if something had happened to her? What might have happened, Ry? What’d you do? Did you bail on her for some groupie pussy when,” he stared at the ceiling in mock thought, “oh yes, when you were being trusted, and well paid, I might add, to make sure she was never alone?”
“Julian, I didn’t mean to…”
Three steps into the room and he stood with his hands fisted by his side and his jaw clenched. “You didn’t mean to what, little brother? Leave her alone? Ignore my calls? Completely go against every fucking thing I told you?”
Two more steps and Julian stared relentlessly at his brother. My brain screamed at me to intervene, but Julian had an untamed look on his face, and predicting his next move was useless.
Another step forward and Ryker automatically stood to meet him as the flecks of gold in Julian’s green eyes glittered. “Nothing to say, Ry?”
Beads of sweat appeared on Ryker’s forehead. Julian had cornered him by design. He wouldn’t relent until he had the answers he thought he deserved. I watched in horror as Ryker began the preamble to his confession. “Man, I’m sorry, it’s all—”
“It’s all my fault, he’s right.” I held my breath as both men gaped at me, each with personalized bewilderment plastered across their faces. They both open their mouths at once to question my sanity.
“What?”
Think fast…think fast…think fast.
Pregnancy had turned my reactive skills into a pile of formerly intelligent goo. I said the first thing that came to mind.“He was in jail.” My mouth twitched as Julian’s dropped.
Ryker looked like I’d informed them he’d taken a jaunt to the moon.“Pheebs, what the—”
I interrupted him before he could call my bluff. “No, Ry, it’s okay. There’s no need to be embarrassed.” Maneuvering in between them, I placed a hand on Julian’s chest, methodically moving him backward. “Blame psycho pregnancy hormones if you want, but he got on my nerves. He hovered over me, making me crazy. I told him to leave, and he wouldn’t. He refused to go against your wishes, Julian.” I glance at Ryker, who remained in shock. I flashed Julian my most convincing pageant smile. “I threatened to have him arrested for trespassing. He called bullshit on me, so I flipped out and called the police.”
Julian cocked an eyebrow, his hands pinned to his side. “You did what?”
