Bad Impressions (Revive Me #1) (15 page)

I was approaching Brad over by the tree. He pointed to the back of the fortune teller tent. No one was hanging around there, because it was at the edge of the fair.

I followed him over there.

As soon as I reached him, he pulled me against him and took my mouth in a passionate kiss.

When we finally pulled away, I was breathless from it. “Wow.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and he gripped my hips, holding me close. “You look amazing tonight, Soph.”

I glanced down at myself, his kiss obviously having momentarily impeded my brain’s ability to function, as I’d forgotten what the hell I was even wearing.

I was dressed in a gray mini-skirt with knee-high boots, along with a burgundy leather jacket complete with a fluffy white scarf and black leather gloves to keep the cold out. Brad was wearing a navy-blue fleece hoodie and jeans. Just the sight of him even in just casual wear turned me on as it always had the tendency to do.

He reached for the panda in my left hand. “Who’s this?” He chuckled and patted its head.

“I won it at one of the booths.”

“Something to do with throwing?”

“How did you know?”

“You were always good at baseball. You spent enough time proving it too, by showing Ollie and me up on the field when we were kids.”

I laughed. “Right. I’d forgotten about all that.”

He pulled back and rubbed my arms absently as he looked at me with a pained expression.

“What’s wrong?”

He blew out a breath. “It’s killing me not to be here with you.”

“You
are
here.”

“Only in the shadows, Soph. I can never take you out in the daylight, or in front of people like I want to.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I get it. You’re not ready to tell him yet.”

“I don’t want to ruin what we have.”

He cupped my face and said softly, “We’re stronger than that; than any resistance Ollie or anyone else in this goddamn town might have towards us as a couple.”

“I know.”

He looked as though he was going to push it for a moment, but then his expression shifted. His somber look disappeared all of a sudden and he grinned. “Pace yourself,” he said, gesturing to my almost-empty cup of beer.

I rolled my eyes. “I will. Don’t worry about me.”

“It’s my job,” he said, smiling lovingly at me. He pressed his lips to mine and kissed me again. It was soft and slow and perfect.

I relaxed into him as he wrapped his arms tightly around me.

After a long while, we both pulled back.

As I did, I caught sight of someone standing behind Brad.

“Oh my God,” I gasped. “Ollie.”

Brad tensed at the sound of Ollie’s name and spun around.

No. No. No.

Neither of them said anything.

Ollie didn’t even look at me. He just glared furiously at Brad.

To my surprise, Brad did the same. I’d expected him to apologize and to try to placate Ollie. But he didn’t. He gave as good as he got, staring him down with a fierce expression that matched Ollie’s. It was clear he had no intention of participating in the blame game.

Obviously, there was some sort of animosity between them that I hadn’t picked up on before. Come to think of it, they had been hanging out far less than they ever had. Something had happened between them that I wasn’t aware of. It explained why Ollie had said so much crap about Brad that night.

“What the hell is this?” Ollie demanded of Brad, still not glancing my way.

“We’re together,” Brad answered.

“You’re fucking my sister? My
sister
?”

Oh God.

“It’s not like that.”

Ollie took a threatening step forward. Both his fists were clenched at his sides. Still refusing to look at me, he kept his eyes on Brad as he barked at me, “Get out of here, Soph.”

“No. Not until you calm down.”

“Now!” he roared.

“It’s okay, Soph,” Brad said, softly. He reached for my hand.

“Don’t touch her!” Ollie bellowed.

“Go, darlin’.”

I turned away and hurried back into the crowded town square.

But I had no intention of leaving, like Ollie had condescendingly ordered me to.

No, I was on a mission to find someone who stood
some
sort of chance of being able to break up the obvious fight that was about to happen between my brother and my boyfriend.

I knew just the person. But where the hell was he? There were too many people.
Shit. Come on! Come on!

***

I stood my ground as Ollie took another aggressive step towards me.

“I know you hate following rules and you love pushing boundaries, but fucking my sister is so far over the fucking line, Brad!”

“You need to calm down and listen to me.”

“No, what I need to do is kick your ass! You’re supposed to be my best friend.”

“Am I?” I basically spat.

His eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”

“We haven’t been best friends for a while now. You never have my back. Instead, you bad mouth me across town and ridicule me with your condescending comments, acting like you’re better than me, because you supposedly have your shit together.”

“I am better,” he seethed.

His response had my fists clenching and I had to check myself quickly to reel in my temper.

“You’re running your dad’s company. The family business. You don’t have your shit together. It just fell into your lap, along with that house of yours.
I’ve
worked for everything. So you can stand there and tell me I’m the shit on the bottom of your shoe, but we both know it’s not true. And we both know where this animosity is coming from; what it’s really about.”

“It’s about
you
fucking
my
sister!”

“No! It’s about what I did to my father last year! Your guilt that you weren’t there for me during the fallout!”

He stopped in his tracks. His eyes bore into mine. “You almost killed him. It takes a man with an extreme violent streak to do something like that. You’re out of control and dangerous. You’re the last person I’d ever want my sister to be with.”

“You weren’t there that day.”

He scoffed. “I didn’t need to be. I know what happened. The whole town does.”

My conversation with my mom played in my mind and for the first time I actually
understood
what she’d been saying. Before I’d physically heard her words, but I hadn’t actually given them the weight they’d deserved.

Finally, after all this time, I realized the truth of it. “I did what I had to do to protect her. And I’d do it again if he came at her.”

I heard footsteps behind me. And then Soph’s voice calling, “Walk away Ollie. Don’t do this.”

Thinking she’d left like Ollie had told her to, I was so caught off guard by her suddenly reappearing and my fear that she was walking into a dangerous situation with two big guys who were close to throwing down, that I took my eye off Ollie and turned to her.

Before I could get a word out, or figure out why the hell she had Roy Williams with her, Ollie took his shot.

His fist smashed into the side of my face.

Not expecting it, I stumbled back a couple of steps.
Shit.
I’d forgotten how fucking strong Ollie was. That was one brutal hit.

“You asshole! You dare to touch my sister?” he roared as he thrust another fist my way.

But I was ready.

I deflected his blow and pushed him back.

He lost his footing easily and crashed onto the grass. That was when I realized he was drunk. I hadn’t noticed before, because I’d been caught up in his verbal tirade. But for Ollie to go down that easily, there was no other explanation. The guy was normally hard steel, like me.

As he struggled to get to his feet, Roy stepped in and captured him in a body lock. “You got in a good hit. You’re done.”

“No! He slept with my sister!” Ollie yelled, struggling against him.

“Ollie! Stop!”

It wasn’t Soph’s voice this time.

Tiff barreled around the corner and stood in front of Ollie. I watched her whisper something in his ear. He blew out a frustrated breath and eyed Soph sadly.

He looked back at me and asked, “You
love
her?”

I could hear the incredulity in his tone. No wonder. I knew he didn’t believe me capable of doing anything with a woman other than fucking her. His doubt was just another nail in the coffin of our friendship. The fact that he couldn’t even entertain the possibility
and
the fact that he clearly didn’t know me anymore, burned. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to show him that. No, we were done.

“Yeah, I love her,” I answered.

He laughed then. A derisive laugh. “Is that what you told her to get her into bed, Brad?” he said, viciously. “If you don’t want this to go any further, I want your apology and a promise that you’ll stay the fuck away from her.”

“Ollie!” Soph yelled. “You don’t get to—”

I took her hand and pulled her to me. I smiled at her reassuringly and told her softly, “It’s okay. I’ve got this, darlin’.”

I turned my attention back to Ollie who was now fixing me with a death stare, because I had my arm around Soph.
Well, too fucking bad
. He’d just have to get used to it. “I’m not gonna apologize, because I’ve never treated her with anything but respect, Ollie. We’ve been dating for a couple of months. And…yeah…I love her. Either accept it, or don’t. But whatever you fucking decide, know that I won’t be going anywhere. We’re together.” As Ollie choked on that, I whispered to Soph, “Let’s go.”

She hesitated, looking back at Ollie worriedly.

I released her and stepped back. “Okay,” I told her softly. She wanted to stay with her brother. She had her own damage control to do.

I turned to leave, but stopped after a couple of steps as I heard Ollie cursing me. I turned back. “This thing between me and her? Suck it up. But as for you and me? We’re done, Ollie. Done.”

And with that, I turned my back and walked away.

Chapter 21

~Brad~

I was four beers in and I finally felt the adrenaline coursing through my veins ebb a little at long last.

It’d been a couple of hours since I’d left the town square.

I sat on my couch watching God knew what on the TV in the background while I made my way through the first of two six packs resting on the coffee table.

I hadn’t heard anything from Soph since I’d left her there with Ollie, Tiff and Roy. No call. No text. Fuck all.

I had no idea what she was thinking about what’d gone down at the fair, because she’d chosen to stay with Ollie, rather than leaving with me.

She’d made it clear before that she hadn’t wanted her brother to find out. In fact, she’d been so worried about it affecting our relationship. Last time we’d spoken about it, I’d thought my reassurances had managed to get through to her. I hoped I wasn’t majorly fucking wrong about that.

Her choosing to stay with Ollie had honestly pissed me the hell off, especially considering he’d fucked up my face with his underhanded bullshit punch. But that ridiculous blow hadn’t hurt anything close to what her choosing to go with him instead of me had. I couldn’t say anything about it though. He was her brother and her only family after all and I did get that she wanted to try to smooth things over with him.

What concerned me about it was how far she was willing to go to make that happen.

She’d spent her life caving to his demands. He’d been like a father to her since their parents’ death and she’d always listened to him in the past. I honestly didn’t know whether she’d do the same with his disapproval of our relationship.

I figured she’d be pissed at me for the way I handled the situation. I hadn’t apologized and I knew she’d expected me to. She’d wanted me to appease Ollie, not stand my ground. I’d probably come off as a complete dick for not doing that. I would’ve apologized if I’d
only
fucked her. But we were in a goddamn relationship. I’d told her I’d loved her for Christ’s sake. We weren’t just screwing around.

There was no way in hell I was gonna apologize for loving her.

I wanted to fucking celebrate it, not admit fault over it.

I was done being the villain in everyone’s eyes, including Ollie’s. And I didn’t give a crap what anyone thought about it.

The only problem was, I knew Soph did. She always wanted to please everyone. And it worried me.
What did it mean for us?

There was nothing I could do. Not until things calmed down with Ollie. It was killing me, but I knew the best thing to do was to back off and give her space. She had to come to me.