Realization dawned, and I drew to a stop. “Monroe?”
Arran winced and stared out at the sea, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “She was one of Brodan’s best friends since primary school. He was her protector. Reading between the lines, she didn’t have the best family life, and Brodan wanted to make her feel like she had a family with us. She was good friends with Arro, too, as they got older, even though there were a few years between them.” He looked at me now. “Bro never made a move on her. He was always fucking around with other girls, so I never imagined there was anything more between them.”
Oh, Lordy. I knew what was coming.
“Brodan left for uni, but Monroe couldn’t afford to live at school, so she got into Inverness and commuted. They still saw each other, we all did, but Bro was gone, and I was pissing Lachlan off by not going to college, kicking around Ardnoch, getting into trouble …” Regret flashed in his eyes. “Bro was twenty, and, um, he started dating this one girl at uni, so I didn’t know …” He bowed his head and sighed. “I should have known.”
“You slept with Monroe,” I guessed.
Arran lifted his head and nodded. “We were seeing more of each other because we were both in Ardnoch. She became one of my closest friends. Then one night we had a bit too much to drink, and we had sex.”
Jealousy bloomed hot and fierce and horrible inside me.
Damn.
Why him?
He was complicating everything.
“Brodan found out?” I asked quietly, forcing the words past my stifling possessiveness.
“Aye.” Arran nodded, his remorse evident in his bright eyes. “Timing couldn’t have been worse. He surprised us with a trip home, and we were in my room at the castle. He caught us mid act.”
“Oh, hell.” That couldn’t have been comfortable.
“And I honestly thought he was going to kill me.” Arran’s countenance shuttered, and I could tell he was back in the memory. “I’ve never seen Brodan lose it like that. Thane was always the hot-tempered one. Brodan, contrary to all the wild stories about him in the papers a few years back, was always the calm kid. Aye, he was a Jack the lad, sleeping around, but he was never unpredictable or wild. But when he saw me with Roe, he lost his fucking mind. To this day”—Arran looked at me, his expression considering, searching almost—“he has never admitted that he was in love with her. But I think back and I see things I was too self-involved to notice then.”
The thought of Brodan loving someone else might have hurt months ago, but now I felt nothing but sadness for him. I realized whatever feeling I’d had for Brodan, it was only a crush, an infatuation. I hadn’t ever truly known the man. Not like I know Arran. “If he loved her, why wouldn’t he have done something about it?”
“Christ knows. But my brother had never lifted his hand to me, and he beat the utter crap out of me that night.”
“Whoa.” I couldn’t imagine Brodan doing that, but to be fair, a few years back, around about the same time Robyn came into our lives, we’d all been worried about him. Brodan had been photographed in the tabloids hitting a bouncer outside a club, behavior so unlike him.
“It devastated Roe. She felt guilty,” Arran continued. “She left a few weeks later, and I never saw her again, until this week.”
I nodded, but my curiosity got the better of me. “Did you love her?”
Shame flushed high on his cheeks. “No. I think it might have been forgivable if I had. But I was just an eighteen-year-old arsehole who could only think with his dick, and she was beautiful.”
Relief filled me. “Oh.”
“Do you think I should tell Brodan she’s back?”
“Yes,” I answered immediately. “If he comes to visit and bumps into her without a warning … don’t let that happen to him.” Something occurred to me. “Maybe he’ll come home if he knows she’s here.”
His eyes lit with amusement. “That wouldn’t bother you?”
No, it really wouldn’t. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about me, Arran, but I’m a secret romantic. How amazing would it be if your brother found happiness with his childhood best friend?”
Chuckling, Arran slid his arm around my shoulders and drew me into his side for an affectionate hug. It felt beyond nice to be tucked into his body. I wanted to nuzzle my face against his neck, but refrained. “I love your heart, Ery, but I don’t think that’s how things would pan out. It’s been eighteen years since they saw each other. Whatever love Brodan had for Roe is probably long gone now.”
I thought of Monroe and the panicked look on her face when she first saw Arran.