Bad Impressions (Revive Me #1) (19 page)

I could barely contain my rapidly rising anger as I slid my gloves back on and pushed through the exit.

I couldn’t believe Brad had lied to me again. Well, it hadn’t been an outright lie like last time when he’d disappeared after his fight with Crazy Claire’s husband. He’d just omitted the fact that he’d been fired. Lying by omission.
Yeah, what a great step up that is. Argh!

If we’d met for lunch earlier, I would’ve been able to tell right away that something was off with him. His face often gave him away. I’d known him for long enough to be able to call it when something was up with him. But I’d been so busy at his mom’s bookstore and I hadn’t even had time to take a lunch. A couple of tour buses had passed through town and a flood of people had invaded
The Avid Reader.
Brad had texted, saying he’d been busy, too, and couldn’t meet anyway. Although, to his credit, he hadn’t outright lied then either. He hadn’t mentioned how his day had been going. He’d told me he’d been scheduled to work a double shift at the bar when he’d driven me to work earlier and that’d been true at that particular time. But, still, as soon as he’d left the bar after getting fired, he could’ve told me

It was late evening and I had no idea where the hell he even was.

As I stepped out from under the cover of the canopy of
Miller’s Tavern
, an ice-cold blizzard almost knocked me off my feet.
Wow
. It was really coming down. For once the weather guy had got it right about the bad snowstorm coming our way. Seeing as though I didn’t have a ride, it was clearly gonna be one hell of a difficult walk home. The streets were already covered in a thin veil of snow. I looked up at the sky. It was coming down hard. I mentally kicked myself for not caring more about the weather warning. I didn’t even have a damn hat on.

I shrugged to myself and headed across the town square to make my way home, walking as quickly as I could, which was a struggle given the power of the blizzard swirling around me and trying to push me every which way.

It just served to piss me off even more. Before I could stop myself, I had my phone out and I was dialing Brad.

“Hey darlin’,” he answered, upbeat.

I was caught off guard by his chipper tone, given the fact that he’d been fired just a few hours earlier.
Very odd.
I must’ve hesitated longer than I realized with responding, because he pressed, “Soph? You there?”

“Where are you?” I snapped.

“On my way back into town.”

“What?”
Back into town? Where the hell has he been then?

“I’ll explain when I get back. Just stay inside and wait for me. It’s getting bad outside.”

“I’m just leaving the bar.”

“What? My mom told me she dropped you at my place after your shift earlier.”

“That was hours ago, Brad.”

“Why the bar?”

“I came to surprise you.”

There was a long pause on his end, before he managed, “Oh.”

“That’s right. I know Jeff fired you.”

“Listen—”

“You said no more secrets!”

“I swear it wasn’t a secret.”

“You didn’t tell me,” I pointed out. “How could it not be a secret? You lied. Again.”

“No. I have a surprise for you.”

That floored me. “A surprise?” I asked, not sure what the hell he was getting at.

He was excited as he said, “Yeah. I’ll tell you everything when I get back. I’m almost at the border now.”

As pissed as I was, he’d been through so much crap lately that I couldn’t help taking pity on him. I’d cool it for now and let him explain when he got back. “Okay.”

“Thanks, darlin’. Don’t walk home in the storm.”

“I don’t have much choice.”

“Call Ollie.”

“What?” I asked, not sure I’d actually heard him correctly.

“You heard me.”

“
You
are telling me to call my brother, after everything—”

“That shit doesn’t matter when it comes to your safety,” he said, forcefully.

“Fine. I will.”

“Good. You have the key I gave you to our place?”

Our
place? Had that just been a slip of the tongue, or had he actually meant to call his house,
ours
? “Brad—”

He chuckled, obviously picking up on my surprise. “When I get back,” he said.

I found myself grinning like a damn school girl. “When you get back,” I agreed.

We hung up and I stuffed my phone deep into my coat pocket.

Like hell, I was gonna call my brother for a ride. I didn’t want to be anywhere near that jerk. Besides, I was in a hell of a mood. I hated being put in the corner and kept out of the loop with anything and, despite Brad’s reassurances, I was still pissed that he’d put me in that position, whether it was unintentional or not. I wouldn’t be responsible for my own actions if I came face-to-face with my brother right now.

And so, I ignored Brad’s
orders
and continued my walk home.

***

By the time I turned onto my street, I was like a walking icicle. I couldn’t name a part of my body that wasn’t numb from the brutal cold. My wool coat was hidden beneath a thick layer of snow that was incapable of melting due to the freezing temperature. And
that
was being exacerbated by the damn blizzard whipping down the street. I just hoped I could make it to Brad’s house before he arrived home, so he didn’t see me and blast me with his
I-told-you-so
lecture.

I eyed mine and Ollie’s house. It was a reflex and nothing more. I had no intention of going inside and no inclination to see the asshole.

Until I saw the car.

A black BMW parked next to Ollie’s truck, right outside our house.

I stopped walking involuntarily and stood, unable to move, for a good few seconds. I sputtered as snow flew into my open mouth, while I stared at the hauntingly familiar car. Despite the fact that most of it was blanketed with a few inches of snow like the rest of the street, I would know it anywhere. And the license plate was burned into my memory.

“No, no, no.”

My initial fear was quickly usurped by my fierce incredulity that he’d dared to come. To
my
hometown. My sanctuary.

The next thing I knew, I was storming towards the house.

I almost ripped the gate off its hinges as I barged into the yard.

I flew up the porch steps, taking them two at a time.

I didn’t even bother to knock. The door was always unlocked when Ollie was home.

I pushed through it and stomped down the hallway.

I heard voices coming from the kitchen and headed in there, not breaking my angry stride even for a second. I was on a mission.

My heavy footsteps alerted them to my presence and by the time I entered the kitchen, the two of them were looking my way in surprise as they both sat at the kitchen table, looking like they were the best of friends. Just that sight alone churned my stomach.

“Jake,” I seethed.

Either he didn’t pick up on my tone, or he just chose to ignore it, because he simply smiled sweetly and said, “Baby.”

“Get out!”

Ollie shot to his feet and approached me. “Soph, relax. I know we’re not on the best of terms right now, but just hear him out.”

“Hear him out?”

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing my arm reassuringly. “He told me what happened.”

I eyed Jake.
I highly doubt that.

He’d be writhing on the floor with a broken face if he’d told my brother the real truth of what had happened between us. “Really? Did you?” I demanded, ignoring Ollie’s reassurances and focusing on Jake.

But Ollie stepped in before Jake could get a word out. “He told me you freaked out and took off. It’s okay, Soph. I get it. You’re young. Brad was clouding your judgment.” His eyes flashed. “He was your first,” he ground out with utter distaste. “Jake told me. I didn’t know. Of course you’d be hung up on him like you are right now. It’s to be expected. When women first—”

“Stop!” I said, holding up my hands. There was no way I was gonna stand there talking about my
first time
with my brother, of all people. If I hadn’t been so pissed, I would have been unbelievably humiliated.

As it was, nothing could transcend my rage.

“Give us a second,” Ollie said politely to Jake.

Jake nodded.

Ollie drew me out of the kitchen and into the adjoining living room. He took my arm and led me over to the other side of the room so we were out of Jake’s earshot.

His eyes sparkled with excitement as he told me in hushed tones, “He came here to ask my permission, Soph.”

“What?” I choked out.
How is this happening? What the hell is going on?

“He’s the real deal, Sophie. The type of man who you can make a good life with. He comes from a wealthy, well-respected family. He’s educated and working towards becoming a lawyer. He can take you places and set you up for life.”

I ripped my arm from his grasp and hissed, “I don’t need
any
man to
take me places
, Ollie! I can do that fine on my own!”

“That’s not what I meant. I know you can, but—”

“It’s exactly what you meant!” I argued. “You still see me as a clueless little girl! You can’t see that I’ve grown up. I’m a grown woman, for goodness sake. Twenty-three, not a teenager!”

He was fast losing his patience and he snapped, “You need to forget about Brad! He’s not good for you.”

“He’s supposed to be your best friend.”

“
Was
. Before he fucked my little sister!”

“It’s more than that. Why do you hate him so much?”

“He’s not good enough for you! You’re better than him, Soph! I know you came back here for him and it pisses me the fuck off, cuz you’re throwing your life away for a loser! A dangerous man who fucks and chucks all the women he comes into contact with. You’re just another notch on the bedpost to him. You think you’re different than the rest? Come on! The only reason he’s kept you around longer than some of them is to piss me off; to try to get one over on me, because of the shit that went down between us.”

“What shit?”

That unsettled him for a moment. “I…I wasn’t there…after the thing with his dad.”

That was news to me. “What? Why?”

“He should have handled it differently.”

I didn’t care anymore about any of his excuses or his so-called explanations. I was done with all his bullshit.
How dare he say these things?
“I
love
him!”

He stepped back in shock. He didn’t say anything for several moments. I watched him draw in a couple of calming breaths and run his hand over his shaved head.

And then he fixed me with that uncompromising
father-like
stare of his. It was his
I-know-best
look. “It’s just lust. He was your first. That’s all.”

Before I could fire back, he gestured to the kitchen. “Just hear the guy out. He came all the way up here with a frigging engagement ring in his pocket.”

“Ollie, no. You don’t understand. He—”

His gaze softened and he said, “Think about your future, sis. Please. Mom and Dad would want you to.”

His comment about our parents caught me off guard.

My Achilles’ heel.

We rarely ever spoke about them, because it hurt too much. So, hearing him bring them up out of the blue like that, had me floundering.

It knocked the fight right out of me.

He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “I’m gonna pick up dinner for the three of us. The pizza place won’t deliver in this weather. It’ll give you guys some time to sort this out.”

I was in such a state, that I failed to stop him from hurrying out of the house.

The slam of the front door snapped me back to reality.

Oh my God.

I was in the house alone with Jake.

Ollie had no idea what he’d just done. Jake was such a master manipulator that he’d even managed to fool my brother into leaving us alone together.

“Sophie.”

I spun around to see Jake leaning against the living room doorway. His fake sweetness had left and he glared at me like a predator intent on ravaging its prey.

My pulse kicked up several notches as adrenaline shot through me. “What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.

“I told you; I don’t give up, Sophie.”

“It’s over, Jake. There’s nothing here for you. I’m with someone else.”

He scoffed. “The bartender? Yeah, your brother told me.”

“He’s my boyfriend,” I said, fiercely, trying to ram it home to him.
What the hell does it take?