His last statement didn’t sit well with me and I opened my mouth to grill him more but he beat me to the punch. He stood, towering over me. I stood as well.
“L
ook, I have some place I need to be. See you later, sis,” he said.
Although he leaned over to kiss my cheek, our meeting ended far from satisfactory.
I watched him leave the bakery and hated to agree with my father by my brother was definitely hiding something.
I was going to find out what.
I grabbed my book bag and headed back to campus. I still had one more class for the day before I had to pick up Noah from daycare.
As I drove, I was plotting how I would uncover what was up with my little brother.
Chapter Thirteen: Hailey
I kept hitting a road block in trying to get my brother to confide in me.
A week had passed since meeting up with Joe at the bakery. And I was no closer to finding out what he was hiding now than I was then. In fact, I felt like I had taken several steps back on that front.
He had started avoiding my calls and another one on one talk had resulted in him clamming up on me and walking off angry.
I swallowed a sigh as I walked the hallway of the campus, heading for the organic chem lab. I needed to fit in some studying before I had to pick up Noah in a few hours. I was behind on the material with dealing with my family drama.
The lab was usually empty around this time and I wanted to take advantage of the quiet space.
My mind was on my brother and I wasn’t really seeing where I was going, my body moving on autopilot when I stepped into the lab.
I abruptly stopped as I noticed that I wasn’t only one who thought to use the empty lab to study.
Wyatt was seated in his usual seat, his head bent over an open text book and headphones plugged into his ears.
My eyes couldn’t help trailing over him in appreciation of his own unique brand of male perfection. Shit, why did he do these things to me?
His hair was mussed as if he had dragged his fingers through it a few times. It was getting longer as the days passed and falling over his brow. My fingers itched to push it back.
He wore a simple tee shirt and full-length cargo pants over brown boots. The fabric clung to his hard body. The muscles his arms looked like one good flex would tear the clothes off him.
Yum, came the unbridled thought even as I fought to control my hormones.
He had respected my wish to keep things plutonic between us. Apart from a few teasing comments that were rather tame for him, he had made no moves toward me. We still sat next to each other for bio labs but he kept his attention on the lecturer during those times and left with an impersonal smile and goodbye after the professor dismissed us.
We were just as I demanded – classmates and nothing more.
I couldn’t explain why the fact left me feeling annoyed when I should be ecstatic. He listened to me, he never fucking listened to me. Why now?
Yet…
Yet my heart was silently asking that he ignore my words.
I should not be here with him. Alone.
I had a feeling I would do something stupid if he even just looked my way.
He looked up just as I was about to turn and leave. Of course.
For a moment, we just looked at each other. So much was said with that lingering look yet nothing at all.