Saved by the Crush's Brother - Maggie Dallen Page 0,15

way he’d been talking to me all night. I wouldn’t say he’d been gentle. A big guy with tattoos, big muscles, longish hair, and a five o’clock shadow didn’t exactly scream gentle. But he’d been...sweet.

Kind.

Thoughtful.

I turned back to see Cristian glaring at Alex and...whoa. I backed up another step.

This was like a whole new guy. One who had baggage and anger issues, clearly.

Alex didn’t even seem to notice. He turned to me with a smile that I usually found sweet but now set me on edge. “What’s this about?” he asked. He looked so genuinely perplexed, for a minute I wondered if I’d imagined it all in my exhausted state. Had he really ignored my texts and calls?

Surely not.

Not this guy. He couldn’t have done that. “I—I tried to call. And I texted.” Ugh. Why did my voice sound so weak?

I blamed it on the tiredness. I blamed it on the fact that I had two guys staring at me, that I had no idea what time it was or how long I’d been sleeping on Cristian. And…

Oh crap.

I lifted a hand and felt the disheveled mess that was currently resting atop my head. I could only imagine what my face looked like. I didn’t even have to look down to know that I was still wearing yoga pants and an oversized T-shirt.

I felt the sting of unshed tears all over again, but this time I wasn’t sure if they were born out of anger, frustration, humiliation, or just plain old sadness. Looking at Alex right now, all I could think was, this was not the way this was supposed to go!

I’d had such a great plan. Those magazine articles had all told me to find something to bond over and this was it.

That was the reminder I needed to remember I was holding a baby.

Our baby.

Of course, the wailing in my ear was also a pretty vivid reminder of why I’d come here in the first place. I thrust the baby toward Avery. “Here. If you want a good grade, you need to do some of the work.”

“What...what do you want me to do?” he asked.

I waved a hand, not even bothering to turn back. Maybe I was making a mess of everything, but my sleep-deprived brain couldn’t handle this tonight. I didn’t trust myself not to cry or scream or make a scene.

I definitely couldn’t trust myself not to speak out of turn. I might say the truth—heaven forbid—or something nasty and spiteful that I couldn’t take back. So instead, I listened to Cristian order Alex to shut the heck up and give the baby the fake bottle already.

Then I was at the front door and walking out, blissfully alone and minus a crying child.

My shoulders sagged as I stopped at the door of my car.

I might have been confused, I was definitely miserable, and I thought it was safe to say I was entering into territories of exhaustion never before known by man...but at least I was alone with my crazy self.

“I’ll drive you home.” The gruff voice behind me was somehow supremely familiar after only one night of hanging out.

Still, I spun around and gave a high-pitched screech as if it was the Scream guy behind me and not Cristian—the guy who’d cuddled my fake baby while I’d dozed.

“W-what?” I stammered, backing up until I hit the car with my back.

I wasn’t scared of this guy.

I wasn’t.

Sure, he looked intimidating. Even without the tattoos, and the height, and the muscles, he’d have been intimidating with that brooding glare. He was Alex’s opposite. The Dark Knight to Alex’s Superman. They were night and day. But that didn’t make this guy bad or scary, just…

Overwhelming.

That was the only word that came to mind as he stalked toward me, stopping a few feet away so he wasn’t crowding me and shoving his hands into his pockets as if that could make him less...overwhelming.

Overbearing.

The guy took up space, but I had a feeling he’d take up space even if he wasn’t tall and lacked in the muscle department. Some people just had an aura like that. They were bigger than life.

Alex had it too, but again, it was the opposite. His persona was big but bright. Shiny. It demanded attention but that charisma made him shine like a squeaky clean trophy.

Cristian demanded attention but everything about him said he resented it. His body language said, look away if you know what’s best.

But I couldn’t have looked away if I’d tried.

His