Boss I Love to Hate An Office Romance - Mia Kayla Page 0,44
and looked at him. Really looked at him. I couldn’t picture it. Brad not confident would be like throwing the world off its axis. He radiated confidence, merely standing there and doing nothing.
“Really?”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but, yes, really.”
His fingers played lightly with mine, and I ignored the butterflies caused by the warmth of his touch. Must be nerves.
“My parents were always telling me how good I was, smart, handsome, but somehow, I would always compare myself to Charles or Mason, and in my head, I never seemed to measure up.” His face turned wistful. “Mason was the younger one, the cuter one, the spoiled one. Charles was the boss, the leader of the family, the brother in charge. I never knew where I fit in.”
He’d never talked about his parents before, and a little part of me ached to know more. More about his parents and what made up my boss’s DNA. Weirdly enough, before, I didn’t care, but now that I had a glimpse of his life, I realized I had placed him in this asshole box, one that maybe he didn’t deserve.
“So, what happened? What was the switch?” Because I needed an internal switch, one where I didn’t care where others were in their lives. I wanted to be content with my own.
He stared at me for a second, and his smile slipped. “A succession of things. I think I just grew up, but ultimately, when my parents died, I didn’t care about anything else—what others thought of me, their accomplishments, or how I measured up. I think I wanted to remember how my parents had looked at me, and all else didn’t matter.”
I reached over and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. Sorry you lost them so young.” Full emotion hit me as I remembered the loss of his parents. It only reminded me of how lucky I was to have a great relationship with my own parents.
He nodded and released a heavy sigh. He seemed lost for a moment, in his thoughts of his past, of his parents, his face wistful. “Yeah. Me, too. I miss them. Sometimes, I try to block it out, but there are big moments that I know they’ll never see, and it makes me feel their loss even more.” His stare turned distant. “If they could’ve only seen how Sarah and Mary have grown.” His eyes dropped to where we were connected. “Or see Charles get married or me one day.” His voice trailed off, and the quiet spanned the space between us, in the open air, when people passed us by to get to the church.
The whole world disappeared, and there was just us.
A moment later, he shook his head. That vulnerability that I had just witnessed disappeared and that cocky smile was back. “But my parents never did like Mason’s girlfriend, even in college. They never said it to his face, but they would let things slip to let me know that they never liked her.”
“Protective brotherly type, I see.” I leaned in, playful.
“He just deserves more, and I know he can do better.” His gaze dropped back to our intertwined fingers, and he gave it a cheerful little shake. “Feel better?”
I nodded. He’d diverted my crazy, worrying thoughts for a moment. My tiny reprieve from all this chaos happening in my head.
“Let’s go meet your friends,” he suggested, tipping his chin toward the steps to the church.
Before I could think further, he was pulling me toward our destination.
As soon as we entered the doors, Carrie lifted her head, and her smile was blinding. She rushed over to me and encased me within her arms in a bear hug that could rival my grandma’s. “Sonia! I’m so happy you’re here.”
I patted her back, and all annoyance of the Jeff-and-Replacement thing eased.
“I’m so sorry. You’re so right,” she whispered against my shoulder, hugging me tighter. “If I could disinvite his ass, I would.”
“It’s fine.” It wasn’t totally fine, just a little fine now. “I’m not going to let a boy destroy years of friendship.”
Because our friendship transcended boys and drama and gossip. It had been here before Jeff and I were even together and would outlast any other major catastrophe in my life. Good friends were hard to come by, and Ava and Carrie were the best kinds of friends. I hadn’t been feeling it the other day, feeling betrayed by the sting of her inviting Jeff and disregarding my broken heart, but this here, this wedding, went