I flinched. “What does that mean?”
Oliver tugged at his tie again until it snapped out of his collar. He jammed it into his pocket before shrugging out of his suit coat. “It’s too blasted hot.”
I lifted a brow. “I thought you were impervious.”
“Yeah, well, don’t look at the line of sweat down the middle of my back. I’m not a fucking machine, no matter what you people think.”
“I…” I didn’t even know what to say to that, actually. Oliver had always been cool and aloof around me. Had I started it? Or had he?
He blew out a breath. “This wasn’t where I wanted to go with this. I’m here to save my meathead brother from making a mistake.”
“Meathead?” I blinked. First he was de-suiting and now he was plain-speaking.
I squinted at him to make sure he wasn’t Seth playing a joke on me, but the edges of his tattoo told me better than anything else. They were both covered in ink, which was interesting considering Oliver’s penchant for suits. But their ink was as opposite as their personalities. Seth’s was more dark and heavy, while Oliver’s contained more streaks of color.
Not that I would ever mistake the twin brothers for each other. The differences were staggering to me, if no one else. But there was a new glint in Oliver’s eyes. Frustration and an openness I’d never seen before.
“Look, Ally.” He swiped his hand over the back of his neck and my heart melted. Such a Seth gesture. For the first time, he really looked and acted like his brother. They always seemed like the opposite sides of a coin. “I may have had an idiotic moment when I pushed Marj into Seth’s life. Intentionally.”
I wrapped my arm around my middle, the quick flash of pain hitting me harder than I though it would. I knew it. At least a part of me always knew Oliver didn’t want him with me. And it wasn’t like the revelation was a total surprise. Oliver had mentioned introducing Seth to Marj at the diner. But a casual intro wasn’t the same as an intentional one. I could tell from Oliver’s expression he’d had a method to his madness far beyond Seth just meeting his friend.
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t need me anymore, dammit.”
My eyes burned and I blinked away the quick rush of tears. “What? Of course he did. Of course he does. You’re his brother.”
“The minute you came into his life, there was nothing else. We even went to different schools, for fuck’s sake. He was supposed to try out public school for a year and then come back to prep school junior year if he didn’t like it, but he met you. He didn’t want to leave here after that, no matter what he thought of the school. He didn’t say that, but that’s the truth of it.”
I frowned. “You think he chose me over you?”
“I know he did.” Oliver’s dark eyes were fierce. “And I hated you for it. Stupid, petty, and small, I know, but I did.”
“We’re just friends.”
“You were never just friends. You both may have hid in that role for the majority of your relationship, but deep down, you both knew it wasn’t just platonic.”
“I…” I had to swallow hard. I’d always loved him. Even when my mother’s caregiving took over my life, I’d always put him in the back of mind as the end goal. The unattainable goal.
Maybe that was why I couldn’t ever choose a college away from Crescent Cove. The only thing I’d ever really wanted was here—Seth, and the family we could make. Simple maybe, but honestly, it was the only thing I’d ever really wanted.
“I love him so much,” I whispered.
Just saying it was like dropping a burden. I’d held those words back for so long.
“I know you do.” Oliver sighed. “And he loves you too.”
“How can you—”
“Look, if you want to question it after all this? After he found every reason in the known universe to get you to stay in his life, then I don’t know what to tell you. But I had to at least try to help out for once. Because that man is drowning. You’re everything he ever wanted, he’s just too stubborn to put the label on it because he’s afraid you’ll run.” Oliver shook his head. “You’re both so fucking afraid.”
“Well, look at what we come from.”
“Guess what, sweetheart? We aren’t what we come from. We’re exactly what we choose to be. You want that idiot I call a brother, then you go after him.”
A loud pop and whistle startled me and I swung around. A huge spray of white fireworks fanned up into the night sky. Then in the center of it was a spray of red that shot out in dual arcs.
A heart.