My Cone and Only (King Family #1) - Susannah Nix Page 0,42

down my throat. “What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, how about just tell Andie how you feel about her?”

I barked out a laugh. “Sure. And ruin my oldest friendship? Sounds like a great plan.”

“At least tell her the truth instead of a lie. Don’t you owe her that much?”

I did, but I was too much of a coward to do what was right when an easier path presented itself—one that would get the job done decisively and with a lot less arguing. If I’d told Andie the truth—that Josh was the reason I’d slammed on the brakes—she wouldn’t have let it lie. She’d have tried to talk me out of my reservations.

And I would have let her.

I shook my head, staring into my glass. “It wouldn’t have worked.”

“Maybe together you could have figured out a way to make it work.”

“There’s no making it work. On this particular issue, neither Andie or Josh are prone to being reasonable.” My mouth twisted into a dark smile. “You know how siblings can get about stuff.”

“So what?” Tanner said. “Maybe it’s messy and painful for a while. But Josh won’t stay mad at you forever. He’ll get over it once you show him you know how to treat Andie right.”

That was half the problem right there. When had I ever treated a woman right in my life? I wanted to believe I’d treat Andie better, but what if I didn’t know how? I couldn’t even blame Josh for not wanting me dating his sister. Not with my track record.

I swallowed around the knot in my throat and made a face. “It smells like cat piss in here.”

“Radagast has another kidney infection.”

I glanced around, but didn’t see Tanner’s big old brown tabby anywhere. Usually he’d be trying to climb into my lap by now. “Where is he?”

“Probably asleep on my bed. The antibiotics make him nauseous.”

“Is he okay?” I asked, but what I was really asking was if Tanner was okay. He’d had that cat for ten years. Our dad was allergic to cats, so we’d never been able to have one growing up. The first thing Tanner did when he got his own place, even before he bought himself a couch or a bed, was go to the local shelter and pick out a cat to bring home.

“He’s a sixteen-year-old cat in renal failure, so no, not really.” Tanner took a drink of his whiskey and shrugged. “But he’s still got a few more good years left, hopefully.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing it was going to tear him up when Radagast finally gave up the ghost.

He shook his head at me. “Don’t change the subject. We were talking about you and Andie. You love her, don’t you?”

I didn’t have an easy answer to that. My feelings for Andie were too deep and tangled. I loved her as a friend, absolutely. And I fantasized about loving her as more than a friend. But I couldn’t separate the two enough to know if I was in love with her. I’d never fallen in love before, so I had no idea what it was supposed to feel like.

“That doesn’t mean I can actually pull off a relationship,” I said, dodging his question. I scrubbed at my face and downed another mouthful of whiskey. “My track record with commitment doesn’t speak in my favor.”

“That’s because you’ve never been in a relationship with a woman you actually cared about. It’ll be different with Andie.”

“You can’t know that. I sure as hell don’t.”

“Love doesn’t come with guarantees, Wyatt. You have to take a risk to reap the rewards.”

“I can’t.” There was too much at stake. My knuckles whitened as I squeezed my fingers around the glass. “I can’t lose her. And I can’t lose Josh.”

“You won’t.” Tanner leaned forward to grab the whiskey bottle off the table and refilled both our glasses. Neither of us would say it, but we both knew why I was so afraid of losing the people I cared about. He didn’t need to point out that I hadn’t let anyone new get close to me since we’d lost our mom.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was nine and Tanner was eleven. She fought it for more than a year, but in the end all the surgeries and treatments hadn’t been enough to save her. Six months before she died, our oldest half-brother, Chance—Brady’s twin—was killed in a car accident. A few months after that, Brady left town and I never heard