Mary's, but a clearer green, probably thanks to his asshole of a father.
"So, you're saying you feel nothing for me, then? I'm just the asshole who accidentally knocked you up and ruined your life?" His tone was hurt. Defensive. Still, it pressed my fuck-you button.
"That's not even remotely what I said, Dylan!" I argued, scooting up the bed to a sitting position so I would feel less vulnerable. "Fucking hell, talk about twisting my words! For your information, I fell in love with you freaking months ago. It's why I walked away and deleted your number, you moron."
Now he sat up as well and faced me. "Wait. Let me just get this right. You deleted my number and ghosted me worse than a bad Tinder date because you were in love with me? In what fucking world does that make sense, Brooke?"
"In a world where I thought you were in love with Riley!" I replied, shouting now. "That last night we had together, I wanted to tell you everything. About my real name and... Blake. But you..." I broke off with an exasperated noise, remembering how utterly crushed I'd felt when he took that call from Riley. It had been like the ultimate sign from the universe to get the hell out of there.
Dylan nodded slowly. "But I took a call from Riley and asked you to wait."
I was scared I would start crying if I verbally responded, so I just nodded and ducked my gaze away from his face. It hurt too damn much to see that realization dawn over his handsome features. Of course, that lasted about three seconds before I needed to see his expression.
"Jesus, little bird," he muttered, running a hand over his face in exasperation. "I'm not in love with Riley. I briefly entertained a crush on her three years ago and have since realized it's purely platonic love, just like how I love my brothers."
I puffed out an embarrassed breath. "I know that now," I admitted.
A tense silence descended over us. We truly were terrible at communicating with one another.
"If you were so interested," I started to ask in a quiet voice, then needed to lick my lips before I could finish my question, "then why did you never look into my story and find out I'd given you a fake name?"
He shifted his position, moving a fraction closer to me. "I thought about it. When you turned me down for a dinner date for the third time, I guessed you were hiding something, and I went so far as drafting an email to request a full background work up."
That confession shocked me. "But you didn't do it?"
He shook his head. "It felt wrong. I wanted you to tell me when you were ready. I wanted you to trust me, eventually. Digging around in your private life without your consent seemed like a bad way to start out, don't you think?"
My jaw dropped slightly. "Um. Yeah. Fair point." My voice was a husky whisper as Dylan's information bomb detonated inside my brain. "So, you just planned on wearing me down slowly?"
I still found that hard to believe. I'd spent so long thinking of him as Dylan Booty-Call Grant that it was taking a lot of mental gymnastics to reassess our entire history together.
He gave me a sheepish smile. "I wasn't in a rush," he told me. "I just thought... the more time we spent together, the more you'd grow to trust me. Maybe then you'd tell me why we needed to be so secretive. Maybe you'd eventually fall for me as hard as I'd fallen for you."
Wow. Just... wow.
"But I already had," I mumbled under my breath, still not meeting his gaze despite feeling his eyes locked on my face. "Shit, what a mess."
He gave a soft laugh, then reached out to take my hand in his. "I wouldn't change a thing. It worked out exactly the right way, even if it took us a little longer to get here." His thumb rubbed circles over my skin. "So... can we both now admit that we're madly in love and it has nothing to do with our baby growing inside of you?"
My heart raced and my mouth went dry. That was what we were saying, wasn't it? For all our arguments and miscommunications, the core of it was pure. Dylan loved me... for me. It was like a freaking Christmas miracle.
"Yeah," I whispered, then swallowed heavily. "But we need to establish some ground rules." I