The Imperfections: A Forbidden Romance

by Sam Mariano

  “I can’t,” she says a tad awkwardly, frowning as she seems to realize it herself.

  “Well, why not?” Bri demands, her smile deepening as she tries to gloss over all the discomfort in a transparent attempt to win back her favorite babysitter. “It’d be romantic, wouldn’t it?”

  “We aren’t dating,” I state, for some reason.

  Well, not for some reason. I can already see my sister glomming onto a potential love interest, and I need to nip this in the bud.

  Alyssa was already flushed, but now she flushes even more and tenses like I just insulted her. “That’s right, we’re not,” she says a little stiffly. “I’m actually here with someone else. I don’t think I can in good conscience finish the date now, but I should probably… not leave him to wonder where I ran off to.”

  Bri’s eyes widen. “Oh. Okay.” Her smile is gone and now she frowns at me, wordlessly telling me I had better not fuck this up for her. “Brant, can I talk to you for a second?”

  I glance back at Alyssa. Since I told Bri we aren’t dating, she looks like she can’t wait to get away from me again, so I say, “Don’t go anywhere yet.”

  “I can’t go anywhere. My panties are in your stupid truck,” she mutters, crossing her arms over her chest and turning to look up at the firework display.

  Technically, she could, just not without me hearing her in time to stop her. Just to be safe, I grab my keys out of my pocket. I press the button on my key fob and lock the doors, ensuring she can’t get her panties out of my truck until I let her.

  If Alyssa notices, you can’t tell; she doesn’t look away from the fireworks.

  To get a little privacy, I follow Bri over to a spot behind her SUV. Once we’re there, her pretense of politeness falls away. “How could you do this?”

  I sigh, raking a hand through my hair, but she starts up again before I even have a chance to respond.

  “And you’re not even dating her? Was it really worth it if all she is to you is some random fuck? You could’ve had that with anyone—why my babysitter? You had to know she’d stop working for me if you fucked her over, Brant. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “Trust me, it wasn’t something I planned.”

  “You have to fix this,” she tells me, planting a hand on her hip. “I don’t know how the hell you’re going to, because it seems like you’ve made a real mess, and I honestly don’t understand it. ‘Don’t shit where you eat’ has always been your philosophy. That’s why you don’t hook up with women who work at the bar, so why did you think it was okay to hook up with someone I employed?” Again, without giving me a chance to answer, she goes on. “But, whatever, it’s done.” She shakes her head, vibrating with annoyance. “You have to fix it, though, Brant. I told you what a great sitter she is. The boys love her and I want her to keep working for me, and since it’s your fault she stopped, you need to find a way to make amends.”

  “How do you suppose I should do that?”

  Bri shrugs. “I don’t know. Does she like you? Date her,” she suggests. “Stop treating her like a casual hook-up and lock her ass down. You’ve already made it weird enough that she quit talking to me. You can’t make it worse.”

  “I am not going to date her just so you have a babysitter. I’ve done a lot for you in my time, Bri, but I have to draw the line somewhere.”

  I don’t consider how that would sound because I think Alyssa is far enough away she won’t hear me, but all of a sudden I hear her say angrily, “I’m standing right here.” Then she walks around behind the car and glares at me so hard, I’m surprised I don’t drop dead.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” I tell her.

  “Bullshit,” she fires back, scowling at me. “Just like you didn’t mean it like that before, right? But you did, and you keep saying this shit like I even want to date you at this point.”

  Bri’s eyes widen and she shoots me an accusing look, like I’ve just killed every last one of her goddamn dreams.

  “She doesn’t even mean that,” I tell Bri, since she obviously doesn’t know our dynamic.

  Alyssa’s eyes widen in disbelief and she tries to glare harder, but it’s physically impossible. She’s so angry I can practically see steam coming out of her ears, but even so, I am in no way prepared for what she does next.

  “Actually, Bri, I didn’t come out to the parking lot to fuck your brother again. I came out here because I had something important to tell him.”

  I get a real bad feeling about that, every last one of my instincts propelling me toward her. “Why don’t we go over here and talk, then?” I grab her arm. “Privately,” I add, more pointedly.

  She looks up at me, fire in her narrowed, oceanic eyes. Before I can drag her away and avert disaster, her pretty little mouth opens, and right there in front of my sister, she announces, “I’m pregnant.”

  15

  Brant

  It’s not quiet with the fireworks exploding in the sky above us, but among the three of us, no one makes a sound.

  I’m fucking floored, staring at Alyssa, wishing I hadn’t made the colossal mistake of pissing off a pregnant woman who is apparently given to life-ruining mood swings. Bri is so stunned, a light breeze could knock her over. Even Alyssa looks a little shocked, and she’s the one who said the damn thing.

  Bri is the first one to recover enough to speak. “You’re pregnant with my brother’s baby?”

  Even though I never thought she would before, I’m too afraid Alyssa will tell the truth to let her speak now. “We need to talk in private, Alyssa.”

  She looks up at me but makes no move to go anywhere with me. “No. I’m done talking to you. I’ve heard all you have to say.”

  My hand closes a little more tightly around her arm, my gaze dangerous. “Oh, I don’t think you’ve heard everything just yet.”

  Alyssa swallows, but she tips her chin up in an extremely inconvenient fit of stubbornness. The stubbornness would piss me off more, but I can see a fleck of real fear in her eyes, too. “I’m not going anywhere alone with you right now.” Her gaze jumps back to Bri. “Don’t you leave me here with him.”

  Bri is wide-eyed and completely flabbergasted. She looks from Alyssa to me then back to Alyssa, struggling to catch up on our relationship when she’s been completely in the dark about it up to now. I can see her trying to reconcile the things Alyssa is saying with what she knows about my relationships, but she doesn’t have much to go on. Last time Bri saw me in a serious romantic relationship, I was a hair younger than Alyssa is now.

  “Honey, Brant’s not gonna hurt you,” she says, trying to comfort Alyssa as she takes a step toward her. “Hell, if he got you pregnant, it’s more his fault than yours. He’s a grown-ass man, and you’ve only been able to vote for a stinkin’ month.” Her eyes widen in realization and she looks over at me. “Good lord, Brant, you started sleeping with her before she even turned 18.”

  I didn’t, but her lousy-ass husband did. Obviously, I don’t say that.

  Alyssa is the tempest I need to control tonight.

  “Alyssa, don’t be difficult. This is not Bri’s business, it’s ours. You and I need to talk about this—alone.”

  I start to tug Alyssa back toward my truck, but she resists—and much to my fucking surprise, my sister intervenes. She walks over and grabs my hand, pulling it off Alyssa’s arm and pulling her under her wing, literally. With a skeptical frown, Bri asks, “Why is she so afraid you’ll hurt her?”

  The subtle accusation in her question heats my blood. “What the hell are you trying to ask me, Bri?”

  She has the grace to blush, but she doesn’t back down. Instead, she tries to get rid of me. “This is obviously surprising news. Maybe it’s best if you go home, take some time to process everything before you talk to Alyssa about it. Heaven knows you don’t want to say or do anything in the heat of the moment you’ll regret later.”

  My jaw locks, and I swear to God, I’m shocked I don’t exhale a blaze of fire when my
mouth opens. “I don’t appreciate the implication of what you’re saying,” I tell her tightly. Looking at Alyssa, narrowing my eyes at her, I add, “And I don’t much appreciate you letting her think you have a reason not to feel safe alone with me.”

  Alyssa opens her mouth then closes it, like she decides against saying whatever was first on her tongue. After a pause, she says, “I’m not trying to make it seem like that, I just think Bri’s right and it’d be better if I left now. We can talk tomorrow.”

  My lips curve up faintly. “Back to your date? I don’t think so, sweetheart. You’re gonna text him and tell him you’re not coming back. While you’re at it, text your mother or sister, whoever the hell you answer to at home, and let them know you’re not coming home, too. You’re staying with me tonight.”

  “Brant, you’re angry right now. Why can’t you—” Bri begins, but I interrupt.

  “You stay out of this,” I tell her, pointing at her then walking over and reclaiming Alyssa’s arm. “Don’t piss me off more than you already have, Alyssa. Get in the goddamn truck.”

  “I don’t like the way you’re treating her,” Bri objects.

  “And I don’t like the way Theo treats you,” I shoot back. “Seems we’re just destined to be unhappy about one another’s love lives. Now, let go of her goddamn arm so we can leave.”

  Rather than obey my command like Alyssa would if she didn’t have Bri here to hide behind, Bri looks me square in the eye and asks, “Does she know about Nicole?”

  I stare at my sister, the roots of betrayal wrapping around me so tightly I can’t breathe properly.

  Alyssa is alert, looking between the two of us. “Who is Nicole?”

  The verification that Alyssa doesn’t know one of the more important parts of my history seems to be all the proof Bri needs that it’s dangerous for me to leave with her. Trying for placating sympathy since she can tell how angry I am by the look on my face, Bri touches my arm and says gently, “Brant, she even looks a little like her, and she’s around the same age. I don’t know why Alyssa’s here with someone else tonight or what’s been going on between you two, but… I think it’s in everybody’s best interest—”

  Cutting her off, I say lowly and distinctly, “I don’t care what you think.”

  Turning back to Alyssa, I see a look on her face like she realizes she’s in over her head now, but doesn’t know which way to swim. Since I don’t have much to threaten her with and I’m done arguing with her about going with me, I bring out the biggest gun I can level at her with my sister standing here.

  I keep my voice calm and even so as not to scare her more in the wrong way, but there’s steel in my tone and I hold her gaze so she knows how fucking serious I am. “If you don’t get in that goddamn truck and leave with me right now, baby in your belly or not, you will never see me again.”

  Her eyes widen and she inhales sharply, a mix of fear and confusion written all over her pretty face. I only have the space of a few breaths to worry she might be scared enough to stand her ground regardless of my threat, then she turns without a word and hauls her little ass over to the passenger side of my truck.

  Relief trickles through me. I know I still have a long night ahead of me, but it’ll be more manageable once my sister’s not around to butt in.

  “Brantley Morrison, don’t you bully that girl,” my sister attempts sternly, like I’m one of her boys misbehaving.

  I start walking toward the truck, but I look back at her over my shoulder as I do. “Don’t say a word about this to anyone, Bri. Don’t tell anyone you saw her tonight—not even your husband.”

  “Why?” she demands.

  I don’t answer her. I just take my keys out of my pocket, unlock my truck, and keep walking toward it.

  “Don’t you hurt her, Brantley!” she calls after me, the pitch of her voice rising with increasing concern. “I swear to God, if you do, I won’t cover for you this time!”

  I ignore her and get in my truck, jamming my key into the ignition and starting it up. I look back to make sure my sister isn’t in the way. She’s a pain in my ass, but I don’t want to run her over.

  Before I back out of my parking spot, Alyssa says quietly, “Your own sister doesn’t trust you.”

  I don’t respond right away, waiting to see if she has more to say.

  She turns her head to look at me, something sober on her face I haven’t seen before. “That’s not how that usually goes. She took my side over yours, and she’s only known me for a year. She’s your twin sister. Normally people will defend their loved ones no matter what, even if they are guilty of wrongdoing, but she… she assumed if I was afraid of you, I had good reason to be. She jumped right to that conclusion, like…like it wasn’t that hard to believe.”

  Up until now, Alyssa’s impression of me has been entirely insulated. No one on the outside even knew we were acquainted. Every single opinion she formed about me was independent, based solely on her own interactions and observations, unassociated with my past transgressions or anyone else’s input. She made up her own mind about me, and maybe that’s why it has been so different with Alyssa. It was something people don’t get too often—an honest-to-God clean slate.

  Now, I watch her struggle with this new perspective, but I don’t say a goddamn thing to ease her fears. If she wants to play with the big dogs and corner me the way she has, she deserves to sweat a little. She deserves to worry about how dangerous I am and just what exactly she might have gotten herself into.

  Especially since now, she’s stuck with me.

  She just effectively told my sister she’s carrying my baby, and since the truth of the matter can never be found out, this is the truth now.

  Since the moment she said it, knowing she was backing us both into the same corner when she did, I’ve been feeling myself adjust to accommodate this new reality. I’m not as angry as I ordinarily would be if someone tried to strong-arm me the way she just did, but that’s because this revision of reality really is better for everyone involved—though right at this moment, I guess Alyssa probably doesn’t think so.

  Too goddamn bad.

  Serves her right for trapping my ass like that. It’s one thing when I was drunk and I apparently offered, but she didn’t give me a choice when she said it in front of Bri, and she damn well knows it.

  “Did you send your texts?” I ask, as I ease back out of the parking spot and cut the wheel to navigate through the rows of parked cars toward the exit.

  Alyssa shakes her head, looking down at the little purse on her lap. “Not yet.”

  “Do it.”

  She fidgets with the phone. “Are you taking me back home tomorrow?”

  “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Just focus on getting through tonight.”

  Taking a few deliberate in-and-out breaths, she tries to keep herself calm. I hear her swallow audibly as she stares out at the dark road ahead of us, but she doesn’t say anything more.

  Coming from an ordinary man, a comment like mine might be easy enough to dismiss as bluster, but given the way Alyssa and I met, I knew it’d pack an extra punch.

  Ordinarily I might not scare her on purpose, either, but tonight she has really pissed me off.

  A wave of paranoia hits me when she finally starts typing out her messages. On a whim, I make her read them to me before she sends them so I can be sure she isn’t doing anything stupid. Despite her disobedience in front of Bri, though, she reads me the texts, holds her phone out and shows me, and then sends them without adding anything I told her not to.

  The ride home is quiet but not uncomfortable, all things considered. Now that it’s just the two of us and Alyssa doesn’t have anyone else in her corner, she behaves as if duly chastised.

  Thing is, I don’t like us being in separate corners. I liked how it was when we were in our own little world and she was teasing me about my murder workshop, not this, not back to her being afraid of me, and that might only grow and grow now that our bubble has been penetrated an
d the rest of my life has a chance to flood in and poison everything.

  My well-meaning sister, my dodgy past—I alluded to it all the first night I met Alyssa, but I never offered details and she never asked for any. Seemed to me she was as content as I was for ours to be a fresh start.

  Now that probably won’t be possible anymore, and the damned girl went and tied herself to me irrevocably. I don’t know which is worse—her timing or her judgment.

  It’s a relief to pull into my driveway, but when I look over at Alyssa and she looks back warily, it feels like an echo of the first night I brought her here, and I don’t know how I feel about it.

  Tonight I’m not worried about her running, at least. I walk to the front door knowing she’ll follow behind me, and when Scout comes running, she kneels down and gives him a quick hug.

  “Let him outside, would you?” I tell her before heading to the kitchen.

  I don’t feel like lingering downstairs tonight. I’m tired and I still have to deal with her before I can go to bed. I leave her and Scout in the living room so I can go pour a cup full of dry food into his bowl, and I only give him a few minutes outside to do his business before calling him back in.

  I was off today, so I had a chance to take him outside for a while earlier, otherwise I’d feel worse about it.

  Alyssa hangs back while I lock up and bring the dog back inside, then she looks at me cautiously when her gaze catches mine. I don’t say anything, just nod for her to go up the stairs, and then I follow her to my bedroom.

  Alyssa stands by the bed awkwardly, like she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do.

  “Take off your dress,” I tell her as I close the door.

  She hesitates for only a second, then gathers the girly material and pulls it off over her head. I do a double take as I undress myself, seeing she’s not wearing a bra underneath. Her panties are in her hand, picked up off the floorboard of my truck, so she’s completely naked now and has the cheek to look bashful about it.