“I don’t want to see you getting hurt by some high-flying chick.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Trent wasn’t sure he was going to like what was about to come out of Adam’s mouth. “You think she’s too good for me?”
“She’s a big-city person, like Rochelle was. They don’t want the kind of life we have here. And I know you keep telling everyone that you called it off, but the second you broke up, she hauled her stiletto-wearing ass to Melbourne with that guy.”
Okay, so maybe his story about losing interest hadn’t stuck as much as he’d hoped.
He folded his arms over his chest. “Why does everyone around here feel the need to keep telling me to watch my back? One minute I’m the town charmer and the next minute I’m supposedly putting myself in the firing line? Sounds like a load of bullshit to me.”
Adam frowned. His big brother had that expression that foreshadowed him dishing out advice. Trent felt himself tense up in anticipation. Not that Adam didn’t have useful things to say, but Trent had always felt like everyone assumed they knew what was best for him. That they knew what he needed.
Fact was, they knew nothing.
Not his friends, not his brothers and sister, at times not even his parents. Nobody knew who Trent was deep down. And that wasn’t an accident. Trent played his cards close to his chest because he knew that the second you loved someone, you gave them the power to hurt you.
He knew that everyone had the capacity to lie.
“She made it clear you were just fooling around and that it wasn’t anything serious for her,” he said. “She was chatting with Maddy and Skye before and I overheard her.”
The words were like a fist to his solar plexus. “She said those exact words?”
Damn, simply by asking that question, he’d given something away.
“Close enough. This isn’t anything serious to her.” Adam looked genuinely worried. “Now, you know I don’t like to stick my nose into other people’s business—”
“Which is exactly what you’re doing,” Trent pointed out.
“But when I see one of my brothers headed straight for a repeat mistake, how can I not say something? I’ve got nothing against her, truly. But I can tell you’re treating this like more than…the physical.”
He scoffed and shook his head. “How’d you figure that out? Crystal ball?”
“Uh, what about all this?” Adam waved his hand around to indicate the birthday party.
Trent’s gaze landed on Cora, who was chatting animatedly with Angie while playing with the puppies. The two American women appeared to be hitting it off, and Cora was giggling as one of the black fluff balls jumped up and tried to lick her face. If he was being totally honest with himself, he could see this being his future—Cora, a dog, driving back to the fantasy house overlooking the ocean.
You’re in too deep.
“Since when is it a crime to throw someone a birthday party?” He rolled his eyes, frustrated more by himself than by his brother’s observation. He didn’t want to feel anything for Cora, but the fact was…he did. And that was a problem. Still, in his opinion a private problem was better than a public problem. “Maybe you wouldn’t worry so much if you minded your own bloody business.”
Adam scowled. “I’m looking out for you.”
“I don’t need anyone to look out for me,” he snapped. “And I find it ironic that people have been quite happy to joke about me charming women into my bed all over the place and yet the second you think I like someone, it’s a red flag. Newsflash, it’s sex. Nothing more. But just because I’m not planning a future with her doesn’t mean I can’t do something nice.”
When he looked back over to Cora, she was staring at him—brows furrowed. She was too far away to have heard any of their conversation, but he got some weird feeling that maybe she knew what they were talking about. Not that it mattered. Trent believed Adam—he had no reason to lie, and his oldest brother was as honest as they came.
It was one of the reasons Trent had always looked up to him. Adam was a rock of stability and integrity in their family. A pillar they’d all leaned on over the years. That’s why the words cut, because he knew Adam was telling the truth.
This doesn’t mean anything to Cora. So it shouldn’t mean anything to you.