There Goes My Heart (The Sullivans #20) - Bella Andre Page 0,73

another reason that she hadn’t yet admitted. The biggest reason of all.

Zara was afraid she’d lose Brittany if she confronted her.

Since the age of fifteen, her stepsister had been one of the most important people in her life. If not for Brittany, Zara might never have recovered from losing her mom. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing her stepsister too.

Only, she hadn’t given Brittany nearly enough credit, had she? Because if their relationship was as strong as Zara had always believed, then talking through a messy emotional situation wouldn’t make her stepsister run.

Plus, once Zara had seen Chelsea standing outside the warehouse—and had been unable to stop herself from jumping into the fray to protect the man she loved—she now fully understood why he so badly wanted Brittany to apologize for her behavior.

There was nothing worse than knowing someone you loved had been hurt.

She dearly hoped that Chelsea had finally seen the light and apologized to Rory. Zara knew he was hoping for the same for her from her stepsister.

So as soon as Zara shut the office door behind them, she asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue for a year. “Why did you do it? Why couldn’t you have at least waited until we broke up to date Cameron?”

As always, Brittany didn’t have a hair out of place, nor was there a single wrinkle in her expensive dress. The look in her eyes, however, was far from self-assured. For the first time in recent memory, she looked nervous and upset. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I swear I was just trying to show you that you deserved better, that you deserved to be a guy’s absolute number one.”

Zara folded her arms across her chest. “You’re right, that does sound completely crazy.”

“Let me explain,” Brittany begged. “I didn’t mean to fall in love with Cameron—”

“Your explanation sucks so far. But go ahead, I’m still listening.”

“At first,” Brittany continued, “my goal was to show you that any guy who didn’t put you first wasn’t worthy of you. I wanted you to hold out for a guy like Rory, who would never stray from your side, not in a million years.” Brittany scowled. “You should know that once his ex-girlfriend found out you two were an item out there, she tried to give me an earful about all the ways he had wronged her. Clearly, she wanted me to try to break you up. But I didn’t buy anything she was saying for a second.”

“Why didn’t you? You’ve only spent an hour or so with Rory, so it’s not like you know much about him at all.”

“Zara, he didn’t even look at me when you were in Camden. Or here, for that matter.”

“That’s how you knew? Because he didn’t ogle you?”

“I don’t want to sound vain—” Brittany ignored Zara’s raised eyebrows. “—but every other guy you’ve been with undressed me with his eyes the moment we met. Only Rory was different. He didn’t even seem to notice I was female. Trust me when I say that you’ve definitely found your one in a million with Rory.”

One in a million. Zara had never wanted anything more than she wanted her stepsister to be right.

“Just so I’m perfectly clear here,” Zara said as she returned her focus to their discussion, “are you saying that you betrayed me with Cameron to help me?”

“Yes.”

Zara couldn’t hold back her laughter at such a classic Brittany move. Her stepsister always wanted to be thanked for whatever she did—even stealing Zara’s boyfriend! In some strange way, though, she supposed it was nice to know that she could always count on Brittany to be Brittany.

“I don’t know what to say, Britt.”

“I do.” Her stepsister had never looked so contrite. “I’m an idiot. I can see that now. All this time, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I only had your best interests at heart, and I swear that I did…” She fell silent for a few moments. “But the truth is that I’m also really envious of you and your career and talent and style.”

Zara held up a hand. “We both know I can’t touch your style, which then puts everything else you said into question.”

“You have more style in your pinkie finger than I have in my entire body. You couldn’t pick me out of a lineup of blondes in PR—but you’ve never been afraid to be unique.” Brittany reached for Zara’s hand. “I should have found another