The WRONG Brother (Love You Forever #1) - Alexis Winter Page 0,33
as we try to figure out what it is we need to say.
“I’m sorry for letting things get out of hand last night. I’m not sorry about the kiss, but I’m sorry it happened when we were drunk and you were hurting,” I finally manage to get out.
She offers up a weak smile and nods her head. “I’m sorry about what I texted you. It’s not you. You were great. I just . . . I keep fucking up. I knew Preston didn’t feel that way about me and I tricked myself into believing a drunken kiss was his way of telling me he had feelings for me. I went about telling him in the wrong way, and worst of all, I realized you’ve been in front of me my whole life and I’ve done nothing but take advantage of your kindness. Can we start over?”
“Clean slate?” I ask, wondering if this is really what we need to get us to where we need to be.
She nods. “You’re too good a friend to lose, Calvin. Especially over something like this.”
I take her hand in mine and offer her a smile. “Deal.”
She lets out a long, drawn-out breath. “Good. Now, how about some ice cream while we walk?”
I laugh. “Whatever you want,” I agree.
We get up and walk across the street, going into the ice cream shop. As we stand in line waiting to order, I can’t help but watch her as she reads over the sign detailing the flavors. Just thinking about ice cream has her smiling. Her eyes are lit up and her skin is practically glowing. She’s fucking breathtaking and I don’t get how my brother doesn’t see it. He’s a fucking idiot as far as I’m concerned.
We step up and order our ice cream. I get one scoop of vanilla on a sugar cone and she orders two scoops of mint chocolate chip. When they’re handed over, her eyes stretch wide with excitement. I hand over some cash to pay, but I can’t keep my eyes off her as she licks the ice cream. I hate to admit it, but it makes my jeans a little tighter.
We continue on our walk and find ourselves in the park, sitting on a bench and watching the ducks splash around in the water. She’s working double time to eat her ice cream before it melts all over her hand. I laugh and she glances at me from the side of her eye.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You trying to eat it before it melts. That’s why I only got one scoop.” I bite into my cone.
She rolls her eyes. “I didn’t think about it,” she admits, licking the melted ice cream off her finger as it runs over the side of the cone.
“Give me that,” I say, reaching over and taking her cone. I knock the top of it onto my cone and hand it back.
“Hey, you stole my ice cream!” She frowns in the cutest way possible.
I laugh. “It’s better than it melting all over you and making you sticky, isn’t it?”
She shrugs. “I do hate being sticky.” She goes back to licking.
“So, are you going to pursue an acting career now that you’ve had your first 15 minutes of fame?” I jokingly ask.
She snorts. “No way. I’ve already had enough eyes on me. I don’t need more.”
“You looked good on there though,” I blurt out.
She laughs. “Yeah, real good getting rejected.” She rolls her eyes and her cheeks turn a slight shade of pink from reliving the embarrassing moment.
“I bet no one even noticed. They saw you and were blindsided.”
She shakes her head but the corners of her mouth lift a tad. “I don’t know how you do it, Calvin.”
“What’s that?” I ask, licking the mint ice cream.
“Make me feel better. I mean, my whole life you’ve been there to pick me up and dust me off. And you’ve never asked for anything in return. If every guy were like you, this world would be a better place.”
I offer her a smile before turning my gaze to the water. I can only hope she takes her observation to heart.
We sit on the bench for a long while, talking and finishing our ice cream. We talk about things going on in our lives, plus our favorite books and movies. I’m blown away when she claims to have never seen Fight Club and I insist that she watch it.
“I’ll find it and we’ll have a movie night. Deal?”