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“About how I feel?” I toss my hands in the air. “I can’t answer that. Is shitty an emotion?”
Maxon grabs me by the arm and leads me into the kitchen. “You’ve got Reed genes, so yeah. I feel you. Coffee?”
“Please.”
He prepares the single-cup brewer, then glances at me over his shoulder. “You have cold feet? Worried you two won’t last?”
“No.” With everything between us tense and uncertain, I probably should be. She’s been closed off since she learned about the baby. I haven’t wanted to push her. But my gut still tells me this is the right move. “She wants a father for our child. I…”
My brother stares at me as coffee drips and I grapple for words. I could explain that I’m loyal and I keep my promises but what’s happening between us is more than that.
“I want to be with her.” That’s the best way I know how to put it.
Handing me a cup of steaming brew, Maxon nods and opens his mouth to speak.
It’s interrupted by another knock at the door.
“Grab that. Will you?”
Wondering who the hell else could be here at the ass crack of dawn, I yank the door open again, stunned to find Bas and Griff. “What are you doing here?”
When I step back, they enter.
Griff slaps me on the back. “Thought I’d come by. Britta was having contractions earlier. For a while, I suspected we’d be having a baby and a wedding today. But it was false labor. It stopped about two hours ago. I came over because Noah called me and said he saw you leave his place at oh-dark-thirty. I picked up Sebastian along the way.”
I nod. “I just, um…”
“Needs his head screwed on straight,” Maxon supplies. “Before you knocked, Evan was explaining that he doesn’t know how he feels about Nia. He’s both male and a Reed, so naturally he has his head up his ass.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised. Welcome to the family,” Griff drawls, then regards me with a slap on the shoulder. “It took three years and almost losing Britta for me to tell her I love her.”
“I was faster with Keeley, but it was…messy.” Maxon winces.
“How did you know?”
“My feelings?” Griff asks, then shrugs. “Process of elimination. Do you feel miserable without Nia?”
“Yes.”
“Does it get under your skin and make you panic a little when she’s angry or not speaking to you?”
The last week and a half has been anxiety-ridden and gut churning. “Yes.”
“Does it bug the shit out of you when another guy so much as glances at her?”
“A lot.” Even thinking about her exes and all the ways they’ve touched her makes me want to punch them all.
“Do you want her more than any woman you’ve ever known?”
From the first moment I saw her as something more than my assistant. “Yes.”
“Have you ever felt this way before?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t know I could.”
Bas tsks at me as Maxon hands him coffee. “Dude, you’re in love.” He looks at my brothers. “I’ve been telling him this for a while.”
He was right about the fact I didn’t love Becca. Maybe he’s right about this, too.
