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I felt like a teenager with a crush standing there with him. He was so much younger than me, and I was sure my sister would point that out.
“I feel like I need to warn you about my sister,” I said as he reached for my hand.
“Why’s that? I have one. Remember?”
“Yes,” I sighed, “but Mary Ellen is nothing like Katherine. My sister is pushy and basically has no filter. She thinks nothing of asking personal questions. And since you’re Carter’s younger brother, she’s likely to ask a lot of them. About us.”
Austin laughed and pulled me into his arms, just like he’d been doing it forever. Just like this morning.
“You don’t have anything to worry about. I can handle whatever she throws at me.”
I stopped walking and looked at him. “She can be very invasive. Like kudzu.”
His deep laughter rolled through me as he held me closer. I’d never get tired of the way he touched me every chance he got.
Dipping down to my ear, his warm breath made me shiver. “Greer, would you stop worrying? What could she possibly bring up other than your marriage that I don’t know about?”
That was exactly what I was afraid of.
“It’s time I told you everything. And some of it is going to hurt.”
CHAPTER 18
AUSTIN
“Should we go back to your house? Or do you want to talk here?”
Greer looked at me with apprehension in his eyes. I’d never seen that from him, and it made me uneasy. “I guess that depends on how you’re going to react when I tell you why I didn’t show up that night. And why I got married. I’ll leave it up to you.”
I looked out over the ocean and tried to wrap my mind around how long I’d obsessed and thought about all this. It had consumed me for years, but being the stubborn asshole that I was, I’d refused to tell him I needed or wanted an explanation.
But did I want it in public?
Could I control my feelings?
Turning my attention back to him, I found that fear in his eyes again. So I put my hands on his shoulders and held his gaze. “How do you think I’m going to take it?”
He shrugged. “I guess it depends on how open you are to forgiveness and to hearing me out. No matter what you may think, it wasn’t easy for me to walk away from you. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and it gutted me to do it.”
I looked down at the sand under our feet, then across the sparsely populated beach to find a place to sit. The picnic tables didn’t afford us enough privacy, but taking a seat on the sand would.
I took his hand and led us to a better spot. I sat down and held my hand out to him. “Is this okay?”
Greer nodded and lowered himself in front of me. I leaned forward and rested my arms across my bent knees.
“I don’t know where to start.”
“How about with the night I made a fool of myself?” I asked, feeling some embarrassment for being young and stupid.
Greer frowned and reached for my hand. Lacing our fingers together, the look was back. “You didn’t. I was dealing with my attraction to a man for the first time in my life. And on top of that, you’re my best friend’s younger brother.”
I shrugged. “My foolishness is debatable but doesn’t matter now. Just tell me what happened.”
He nodded, then paused before he began. “I need you to know that I had every intention of showing up. That wasn’t the first time I’d felt something for you. But you were so young and his baby brother.”
He ran his hand through his hair and looked out at the ocean. I gave him the time he needed and waited for him to speak. “When you left the restaurant, Carter and I stayed for another thirty minutes. We talked about you and the service, and how proud he was of you for standing up to your parents like you did.”
He paused and tightened his hold on my fingers. “And I was so proud of you for being brave and wanting to do something meaningful with your life. You didn’t wait until you were forty-four years old to make your own life. But, at the same time, I was also scared out of my damn mind. And when I got in the cab and headed to your hotel, all I could think about was if I went through with it that night, I’d never be able to let you go. You already took up space in my head and my heart. And not because you were Carter’s brother.”
