Page 20 of I'll Carry You

Brad shifted with discomfort, loosening the collar of his button-down shirt. He’d buttoned the top button, no wonder. “Look, it’s a lot of jumping through hoops. We can’t talk at night because you’re working or sleeping with your kid in the bed. I’m looking over my shoulder at all times because everyone has warned me about the sudden parking and speeding tickets I might get from your police officer brother. And then, this whole thing with that kiss? My mother was the one who called to tell me about it. What was I supposed to say to that?”

Her eyes narrowed at him. “You could have asked me what happened.”

Brad leaned forward. “She wasn’t the only person who saw it, Jen. And it’s not like people don’t know about you.”

What. The. Hell.

She envisioned grabbing her glass of water and tossing it in his lap. Her hand shook as she reached for it and sipped it, trying to take a calming breath. “It was a harmless kiss with a stranger. Because the crowd was chanting.”

“Three dates, well over several hundred dollars, and I can’t even get to second base. Now you’re telling me you were making out with a stranger to make people cheer? My mom said you looked like you really enjoyed that kiss.”

“Glad to know you were trying to buy your way into my pants.” She stood, yanking her purse from the back of the chair. She reached into her purse. The only thing she had was a fifty-dollar bill—her change from signing up for the baking competition before Brad arrived earlier that evening.

Her heart fell. Another fifty dollars she didn’t have to waste,down the drain. She threw the money on the table. “Don’t worry. I can pay for myself. Keep the change and make sure you give the server a good tip. Most people tip twenty percent, you know.”

Cheap asshole. She’d wanted to hide her face when she’d seen the last few tips he’d left.

Brad didn’t even look apologetic. “You’re not exactly a known catch, Jen. Everyone whom I’ve even told about dating you says I’m crazy for trying.”

Asshole.

Dammit, Dan.Warren, too, to a lesser extent. Her brothers had made her basically un-dateable. After the incident with Garrett the year before, Dan had sworn to never get involved in her love life again—but by then, the damage was too great. Dan beating up a man he thought she was interested in had made the rounds faster than she could control the spread. Her pathetic dating life had dwindled to online matches who lied on their profilesand guys like Brad.

Mad as she was at Dan and Warren, they were her brothers. They did it because they loved her.

Brad was just a dick.

She wished she could overturn the table and make a big scene as they did in the movies. For once, she wished she had the gumption to really put a jerk in his place. She’d been screwed over on one too many dates, by one too many assholes.

His panties were seriously in a twist because she’d kissed Jason duringAChristmas Carol?

“Just so you know, maybe the reason I looked like I enjoyed that kiss is because that guy knew what the hell he was doing.” It was the only thing she could think to say. Her throat tightened, her lack of imagination frustrating her as much as Brad was. Instead, she turned and fled through the tables at Yardley’s, determined not to cry.

Brad didn’t deserve her tears.

She made it outside and yanked on her coat, so flushed with anger that she practically didn’t need it.

Brad had picked her up,and she wasnotgoing to have him drive her back. The heels of her nude pumps wobbled as she traipsed down the sidewalk toward Bunny’s. Travis would still be there—it was only a little past nine—and he’d drive her if she asked.

“You’re not exactly a known catch.”

Ouch. Not that she’d never had insults hurled in her direction, but why such vitriol?

Brad must have been furious about that kiss.

Angry enough to dump her without bothering to talk to her about it first. And be a first-class asshole about it. She could understand being bothered by the kiss, especially hearing about it from someone else. But the rest was unforgivable.

She hugged her arms to her chest. She was tired of all this. Tired of getting her hopes up. Tired of failing. Tired of being the girl whoscrewed up. Between the impossible standards of her brothers and being held to constant scrutiny, she would always fall short.

She hadn’t been the first woman to have an unplanned pregnancy with a deadbeat dad.

On days like this, she wanted to find Kevin, wherever the hell he was, and scream at him.

Whatever he saw in her that had made him leave, she couldn’t comprehend a reason he would skip out on even meeting their beautiful boy. Of all the ways she’d failed, that was the one that hurt the most: she’d failed to give her son a good daddy.

She couldn’t let herself continue going down that train of thought. Nothing good ever came from it.

The familiar bell on Bunny’s Café rang as she stepped inside. Most people couldn’t wait to leave their jobs when they were off. They didn’t spend their time off at work.