Saved by the Crush's Brother - Maggie Dallen Page 0,12

sat there.

“Do you know when Alex will be back?” she asked.

I shook my head.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Do you want to wait?”

I honestly wasn’t sure which of us was more surprised by my question.

She blinked. “Do you mind?”

Yes. The answer was obviously yes. “No.”

And so...here we were. Alex’s girl and me. Just hanging on the couch with a fake baby.

Like we do.

“So, uh...what are we supposed to do with this thing?” I asked, pointing to the baby, which she’d shifted so she was cradling it in her arms.

“Take care of it like you would a real newborn,” she said with a weary sigh. “Buttercup is a spectacularly needy baby.”

“Buttercup, huh?” I shifted so my arm wasn’t around her but we were sitting side by side as I studied the doll in her arms. “It’s also a spectacularly ugly baby.”

She made a choking noise which I realized was a sort of laugh-snort combo that had my lips twitching with amusement.

“She is pretty ugly, huh?”

I nodded. That was an understatement. “Where’d the name come from?”

She gave me a smile—a smaller, less enthusiastic version of the megawatt smile she’d been wielding the other day around Alex.

Alex. The guy who should be here right now helping this girl but who’d shirked his duties.

My hands clenched into fists but I forced myself to relax as she started talking.

“I was with some of my friends when I picked the baby up from Mr. McClusky’s office,” she said. “My friend Simone is really into movies and she said the doll looked like that short angry guy from The Princess Bride.”

I choked on a laugh because as soon as she said it, I saw the resemblance. “Vizzini?”

She nodded, a smile hovering over her lips. I wanted to see it. The real smile. The one that made her look like a cartoon character it was so over the top.

She shrugged. “Anyway, I said that she was being mean and that my little girl was a princess and….long story short, she ended up being named Buttercup.”

“Did my brother have any say in this?” I asked.

Okay fine, I prodded. I had this nagging notion that there was something going on here between this girl and Alex and…

I hated that thought.

She pursed her lips in clear annoyance. “No. He hasn’t done anything to help.”

Ah. So...not together then?

Should I just ask? Was it my business or was that crossing a line?

My mom was big on teaching us good manners but she never once mentioned what one of us ought to do if trapped alone in a room with a crying girl holding a fake baby.

There were no rules for this.

I watched as she gently adjusted the baby in her arms as I debated whether or not it was my place to pry.

Nope. Definitely not my business. Whatever was between her and Alex was so not my business.

“What is your brother’s problem, anyway?” she asked suddenly. She was frowning down at the baby and for a second I thought she was talking to Buttercup. But then she lifted her head and those gorgeous blue eyes met mine and…

Oomf.

Another blow to the gut.

This girl was beating me up without even lifting a finger.

Her brows pulled together and for a second I feared she might cry again but the look morphed into anger. “Is he this thoughtless with everyone or is it just me?”

I flinched. “Look, Avery, I don’t know what Alex has said or how he’s led you on…” I trailed off as I searched for a nice way to give her the ‘it’s not you, it’s him’ speech all the while cursing Alex for pulling this crap on a sweet girl and making me clean up his mess.

Before I could figure out how to continue, she sighed. She deflated, really, her whole body sagging to the side as she rested against the loveseat’s edge. “He didn’t lead me on.”

Oh. I shifted uncomfortably. I’d been happy reading my book earlier. In peace. And now...this. There were few things I wanted less in this life than to be stuck having a weird emotional relationship talk with a stranger.

Although, I couldn’t truthfully say I didn’t want this particular stranger here next to me…

“This was such a bad idea,” she said with a sniff as she shifted toward the edge of the couch.

“Don’t go.” I said it too quickly and it came out sounding harsh. We both froze and she blinked at me in surprise.

“I wasn’t going to leave,” she said. “Just getting