Brant looked around. “Now look at me. I’m sitting outside a meditation tent with my half-naked grandfather, a stranger who wants to sleep with Nikki, and my brothers who keep looking at me like I have two heads. And Nikki, it brought me back to Nikki. Full circle.” Brant tossed a stick into the fire. “Running just got me back to my original state, only now I’m exhausted, confused, still angry, and”—his voice cracked—“it was a setup. All of this.” Brant sighed. “Working for Nadine, seeing Nikki again.”
“Noooo,” Brock said in a no shit voice.
Grandfather eyed him sadly. “The question is: What action will you take because of it?”
“That’s not an easy answer.”
“Then I guess you better decide if you want easy or hard.” Cole stood. “And I’d make my decision pretty damn fast, because I’ll be only too happy to sweep her off her feet once you’re done destroying the stability beneath them.”
Brock pointed back at Cole. “Seriously. I really like this guy.”
“Speaks jackass fluently. It’s incredible,” Bentley agreed.
Brant stood on shaky legs and scowled at Cole. “Any other advice?”
“Baby steps.”
“Huh?”
“Up until a few hours ago you’ve been a complete jackass, so now you need to do something nice—and when I say nice, I mean something that doesn’t make her yell at you or cry or run away.”
“Easy.”
“Hah!” Cole shook his head. “If it was easy, you would have already done it. Let’s go.”
“God, you’re like the Ghost of Christmas Past.”
Cole shuddered. “Hate that movie, especially the Disney version.”
“I couldn’t knock on doors for months. I was always afraid they would come alive and swallow me,” Brant agreed.
Cole smiled and then his stern expression was back. “All right, you’ve got a girl to win back.”
“And you’re still doing this out of the goodness of your heart?”
“Hell, no. I just want to be there to watch you fail,” he said in a serious voice. “Also, I may have told Annie to add in an extra five hundred dollars to the bet if you get the black eye next.”
“You’re going to punch me?”
“Not me.” Shaking his head, Cole grinned. “But I wouldn’t put it past Nik. And let’s be honest—they never specified who had to punch you.”
“Some friend you are.”
“More like enemy with a vested interest in the next black eye you get.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was official. She was a zombie. It had been two hours since she’d walked away from Brant.
Two hours of sitting in silence while trying to eat her feelings. The only problem with the staff room? It had about a billion types of sugary treats that promised happiness only to suck it away the minute the last taste left your lips and attached its fattiness to your body.
She’d been moping. Feeling sorry for herself.
The fact that Brant was a complete idiot wasn’t helping. They’d shared something in that shower this morning, and now, now it was like he wanted to just suddenly ignore the fact that they’d both been that vulnerable. He wanted to be friends.
Twenty minutes later, she found herself sitting at the bar while George took her order.
“IPA, please,” she said, and regretted it the moment the words left her mouth. She used to drink IPA when she was with Brant, before actually, but not since. She’d been drinking one the night they’d met.
The night her world had changed.
He’d approached her. He’d chased her. He’d been relentless. And then he’d announced he was going to marry her, like a complete lunatic.
And like a hopeless romantic—she’d actually believed him.
Because it was Brant, who could convince anyone of anything. He oozed sex appeal, and you felt confident around him just because he was so damn confident.
She smiled to herself as George placed a cold bottle in her hands. “You okay there, Nik?”
“Yeah.” The condensation from the bottle spread across her fingertips. “I’m good.” Not really. But the last thing she wanted to do was get drunk and then blurt out all her feelings.
“All I’m saying”—Brant’s voice sounded to her left; did he see her?—“is that your ideas suck.”
“Wow, let me down easy,” Cole responded.
Brant? With Cole? On purpose?
“Look, I know you’re her best friend, but…she’s different.” Her heart sank. “You can’t use typical ways to get her to like you. Hell, I had to trick her to fall in love with me and even then I’m pretty sure the minute she realized what a complete asshole I was—”