Page 26 of Never Over You
CHAPTER9
Brooke
NOW
“Alex,what are we going to do?” I pushed myself up in the bed Alex and I had barely moved from in the last 24 hours, pulling the sheet up to cover my bare breasts.
He rolled onto his back beside me and sighed. “We have to tell them the truth.”
Leah and Liam were due back in a few hours. The reality that I’d managed to avoid since the moment I’d first kissed Alex was about to rear its ugly head, and I was suddenly terrified.
“Tell them what? That we got drunk and had sex? That we slipped up in a moment of weakness?”
“I wasn’t that drunk,” he said.
Neither was I, and he already knew that. And maybe that would have explained away one slip-up, one bad decision, but we’d repeated our bad decision so many times since that I’d lost count.
“Okay, then we tell them the whole truth. That we’re cheaters.” I clamped my eyes shut. “Oh my god. I’m a cheater. I cheated on my boyfriend with my ex-boyfriend, who cheated on me.”
“Brooke—”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? You cheated on me, you broke my heart, and you made it impossible for me to love anyone else until Liam came along. And now look how I’ve treated him.” My stomach churned. What the hell had I done? “I’m such a fucking hypocrite.”
Alex sat up and grabbed my hands. “Brooke, sleeping with Mariah was the biggest mistake of my life. I thought we were done. I thought there was nothing left between us, and I lashed out in the dumbest way I could have. It’s not an excuse, but this, now, it’s not the same thing.”
Burgeoning tears stung the back of my throat. I stared straight ahead, afraid to meet Alex’s eyes. “How is this different?”
“I didn’t sleep with you out of revenge, or to lash out, or because of some emotional decision I made in a misguided fit of rage. I hate what this will do to Leah, but I still love you, Brooke. I’ve always loved you, and while I regret how we came back together, I don’t want to lose you again.” He squeezed my hand. “Look at me, please.” I took in a sharp breath and slowly met his gaze. “Do you still love me?”
My heart felt like it might beat out of my chest. My mind flashed to Liam—sweet, kind Liam who had left me here thinking he could trust me. The image of his face made my response that much more painful.
“Alex. I never stopped loving you.”
He brought my knuckles to his lips, brushing each finger with a kiss. “We need to tell Liam and Leah the truth as soon as they get back and deal with the consequences.”
I pulled my hand free of his, shifting so I could face him dead-on. “Do you realize what you’re saying? It will be the end of your engagement. Are you sure that’s what you want? Leah is strong and fierce. And insanely smart. She’s obviously kind and incredibly beautiful—she’s the perfect—”
“She’s not you,” Alex said. “She’s all those things, yes. You’re all those things, too, and you’re you.”
I blinked, sending tears cascading down my cheeks. Even with all the confidence I’d developed over the years, I would never have put myself in the same league as Leah Grey. But Alex saw me in a way I’d never seen myself. He saw me like no one else. He always had.
I ran my free hand along his jaw, his stubble making my fingers tingle before I cupped his cheek. “We really made a mess of things, huh?”
He nodded, leaning into my touch. “We did. But we’ll get through this, Brooke. You and me. Together.”
* * *
The Grey family got home exactly three hours and thirty-two minutes later. As hard as I had tried, I couldn’t stop watching the clock from the moment Alex and I had left our cocoon of sheets. It was just after 10 p.m. when the family walked in, and Lillian and Robert were both exhausted the moment they’d stepped into the house, so they quickly said their goodnights and went to bed.
Alex and I had fixed up the spare room we’d used for our lovemaking—both of us had felt too weird to use either of our assigned bedrooms—and had erased any trace of our sordid activities. Not that our cleanup did anything to erase my guilt or shame.
He didn’t say much, but I could tell Alex was twisted up inside, too, sending me a worried glance the second the door creaked open.
After some short small talk in the foyer about how fancy the party was and how nice it was to be back, Alex and Leah, and me and Liam retired to our rooms. As we made our way down the hall, I couldn’t help but glance behind me, catching Alex’s gaze for just a second before he walked into Leah’s room—just long enough to say a silentgood luck.
Once Liam and I were inside his room, I closed the door.
“How was the event?” I asked as he undid his tie and slipped it over his head.