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“Paige—”
She turned to her brother. “You were the reason Jake turned me down that night?”
“What night?” It was Matt’s turn to look confused, and Jake cursed under his breath.
“That isn’t—he doesn’t—shit—”
Matt’s eyes darkened. “So she did tell you she loved you?”
“Yes, but—wait a minute. Both of you.” Jake ran his hand over his jaw and took a deep breath. “Paige, it’s true I promised your brother I wouldn’t touch you, but it was my decision. I knew you wanted something I wouldn’t have been able to offer.”
“How did you know what I wanted? Did you ask me? Did either of you bother to ask me? I was eighteen! I wasn’t ready to settle down and get married, you arrogant—” The insult was jammed on the end of her tongue. “It was first love, that’s all. It happens to teenagers all the time. It’s part of life. Part of growing up. Hearts get broken. People survive and move on. I did, except that what that episode taught me was not how to recover from a broken heart, but how I couldn’t trust my own instincts. I thought you cared and because of that I offered you everything.”
Matt frowned. “What do you mean, ‘everything’?”
Paige ignored him, her eyes on Jake. “I stripped myself bare. Humiliated myself. And I’ve protected myself ever since because I was so afraid of getting it wrong again. You told yourself you were protecting me, but what you were really saying was that you didn’t think I was capable of making a decision about my own future.”
Jake shifted. “That isn’t—”
“You didn’t think I should be allowed to decide what was best for me. Maybe I would have settled for sex. Did that occur to you?” She’d gone from feeling miserable, to guilty, to furious.
“You were vulnerable.” Matt intervened. “You were going through hell.”
“And Jake made it better. And you—” She looked at her brother, truly angry now. “You of all people should have understood how it was for me. You saw how it was. You saw how everyone had a say in my future except me. The doctors, our parents—I thought at least I could choose who I fell in love with, but apparently not.”
The first flickers of doubt crossed Matt’s eyes. “Paige—”
“No.” She stepped back, her legs shaking. “I can’t talk to you right now. I can’t talk to either of you. I’m leaving, and the two of you can talk about it together, because that’s what you’re best at. Decide what you like, but leave me out of it.”
“You can’t leave like this—”
“I can. I’m not fragile, Matt. I can hurt without breaking. I love you, and I love that you care about me, but I don’t need you to protect me. You want to know why I didn’t tell you about Jake before now? This is exactly why. Because I knew you’d interfere with something that is none of your business.”
“I’m your brother. As long as I’m breathing, I’ll always protect you.”
“You’re not protecting me. You’re making my decisions for me. And it ends now.”
* * *
“I DON’T KNOW who to kill first. Jake or my brother.” Paige lay on Frankie’s bed, drained from crying. “I’m so angry. I have terrible taste in men.”
“But great taste in friends.” Eva shoved a pile of tissues into her hand and Frankie leaned closer.
“Are you sure this is angry? Because it looks more like sad from where I’m sitting. Not that I claim any expertise in the emotional range of Homo sapiens.”
“Homo sapiens? Seriously?” Eva pushed more tissues at Paige. “This is not the moment to be spewing Latin from your encyclopedia of plants.”
“It’s binominal nomenclature, genus followed by species, and Homo sapiens is not a plant. Tell me you know that.”
Paige sat up. “Keep talking. I need the distraction and you’re cheering me up.”
“Yeah? You don’t look cheered up.” Frankie looked at her dubiously. “Are you regretting it?”
“No.” Paige blew her nose hard. “It was the best month of my life. Not only was the sex incredible—”
Frankie turned fiery red. “Too much information.”
Eva nudged her out of the way and sat down next to Paige. “Not nearly enough information.”
