Headlines (Prime Time #3) - Ella Frank Page 0,30

way they were. Or maybe not even that. End things now and hope they would go back to the way they were.

“Did he ask you to break up with me?”

Sean blinked, and the look from a second ago vanished.

“Sean? Did Bailey ask you to end things with me?” Sean lowered his eyes to the empty glass, and when he went to refill it, I snatched the bottle out of his hand and got to my feet. “Answer me.”

Sean looked up at me, and no words were needed.

“He did, didn’t he? Wow…” I turned my back on him so he wouldn’t see the pain I could no longer hide. Not only was I going to lose Bailey because of this, I was also going to lose Sean. This was the one thing I’d feared most.

“What did you tell him?” I whispered, and when silence was all that met me, I closed my eyes and asked again, a little louder this time. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him that wasn’t going to happen.”

I slowly pivoted to face him. He was staring down at the table, his eyes trained anywhere but on me.

“But maybe it should.”

If I hadn’t been looking directly at him, I might not have believed the words I’d just heard. As it was, it took a couple of seconds for me to digest. “Excuse me?”

Sean finally looked up, his dark blue eyes full of conflict and pain. “Maybe it would be smarter to, I don’t know, put a halt on this thing before it ruins something you can never replace.”

Each new word out of Sean’s mouth was like a physical blow to my body.

“This thing? I’m confused, Sean, because I thought this thing was a relationship you wanted to fight for. Isn’t that what you told me? That you didn’t want to lose me?”

“It is. It was. I just—” Sean shoved to his feet and took a step toward me, and I took a giant one back. “I don’t want to be the reason you and Bailey don’t talk anymore. What if this desire, this moment with us, cools? What if I fuck it up somehow? It just might be better to end it before it really begins, you know? Are you really going to throw a lifetime of friendship away for this?”

My stomach dropped as I stared at the man I’d stupidly fallen in love with, and I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. I would not fall apart. Not here, not now. Falling apart in Sean’s arms was what had landed me in this mess to begin with.

“If you don’t know the answer to that, then I can’t help you.” Sean took another step toward me and reached for my hand. But I quickly drew it back. “Don’t.”

He looked off toward the hall that led to the front door, then back to me. “I think I’m going to go out for a bit.”

It took everything I had not to beg him to stay. “Fine.”

Sean nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

Then, without another word, he disappeared down the hall. The last thing I heard was the sound of the key in the deadbolt, and that was when it sank in that I was well and truly…alone.

15

Sean

I’M AN IDIOT. Such a fucking idiot that it was difficult to think of a time where I’d been more of one. I stood at the foot of my drive and stared up at my house, and wondered if Xander had put the chain on the door to keep me the hell out.

After the dumbass things I’d said to him today, I wouldn’t blame him.

I scrubbed a hand over my face and shut my eyes. Jesus, how had I managed to fuck this up so badly? Not only did my brother hate my guts, now Xander was probably in there packing his bags. But that was what I’d told him to do, wasn’t it?

My chest tightened, and I rubbed the heel of my hand over the ache. So this is what it was like to fall in love, huh? Moments of blissed-out happiness coupled with moments of pure torture? Apparently so. But sometime during my hours-long tour of my neighborhood, I’d come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t trade it in for a second.

“So what the hell are you doing standing out here, moron?”

Good question, and the fact that I was now talking to myself was probably a clear indicator that I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to make any monumental decisions