“Yes. You’re my sister; I had to find you.”
My whole body burned with anger. “Have you ever thought for one second that I didn’t want to be found?”
“Are you angry at me?” Eric frowned and took a step toward me. “You’re the one who ran away and broke my heart. You’re the one who kept my niece from me. I didn’t even know I was an uncle until one minute ago.”
I loved my brother—he was my hero, but he was also a very selfish man.
“Why do you think I ran, Eric? Have you ever thought of that? No, you didn’t. You only think of yourself. Like trying to make me marry a guy I didn’t even like.”
He groaned. “I already apologized for that. I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“Are you in your right mind now? Because you’re trying to marry me off to Jenner.”
He threw his hands in the air. “But you love him, and he loves you. This is me trying to make up for my mistake.”
Did Jenner love me? I thought he might yesterday, but now... not so much.
“That’s for Jenner and me to decide. You have no say in that.”
“I do now.”
“How?”
“I am Jenni’s uncle. It’s my duty to get her parents to marry.”
The mental gymnastics of this man.
I rubbed my forehead. “That doesn’t even make sense. You, being her uncle, doesn’t mean you have any say in our marriage. Whether Jenner and I marry is none of your business.”
He pursed his lips and began pacing around the café. I noticed he was breathing rather loudly. After a minute, he stopped right in front of me. “Fine. But I want to meet Jenni since I haven’t yet.”
I nodded. “You’re right. That’s my fault. You can come over after I get off work today. Okay?”
He smiled. “That’s great. But one more thing...”
I waved for him to continue.
“Since I have no say in your dating life, then Jenner has no say in me dating his sister.”
“Okay. Wait, what? You want to date Jocelyn?”
Maybe one of his other sisters had showed up. That must have been it because Jocelyn was not someone I’d call dating material. I may not have had much experience with dating, but even I knew that much.
His smile grew. “Yes. I say dating very loosely... more like fucking.”
My hands flew to my ears. “What the hell? Oh God, no.”
After a few seconds of forcing myself to think about Jenni playing in the park to get the disgusting image of Eric and Jocelyn out of my head, I lowered my hands. “Never say that again to me. You may date her if you wish but know that Jenner doesn’t even like her. If her own brother wants nothing to do with her, then what does that say about Jocelyn?”
His frown deepened. “What do I care what Jenner thinks? He lied to me about your relationship. To. My. Face.”
I blinked. This was the reason I ran. Eric’s anger was turning a dark corner, and I worried about what he’d do next.
He took another step closer, so I backed up.
“If he can lie to me about you, then what else is he keeping from me? You know, I came here today, worried how Jenner would react about me dating his sister. I came to you for advice. What an idiot I am... You’re just as bad. You didn’t even tell me I had a niece until today.”
He lifted his hand to his head and took a deep breath, then he slowly let it out while lowering his hand. It was strange, but it was better than him throwing things.