Savior Complex: A Small Town Love Triangle Romance

“I’ll think about it,” I finally say.

Chapter Seven

Brayden

My hand on Nina’s shoulder is a brazen move, with Jordy right there across the street. All she has to do is look up and she’ll see me touching Nina in a way that is too familiar, too much for someone I should barely know. Part of me wants Jordy to look up. To see my hand on another woman. To realize that I have wants and needs too. That I had a direction for my life once that didn’t include the one we’re on now.

This isn’t Jordy’s fault, though. She didn’t ask for this anymore than I did. And now we’re in this place where she sees the future in my eyes, and I am just getting through a day at a time. I love her. I think I love her. But is it enough? I thought it could be. But that was before I met the girl sitting in front of me now.

A portion of my awareness remains with my fiancé, but most of it is with her cousin, as it’s been this whole drive home. On the sweet air she breathes into my car. On the quiet way she hums when she’s thinking. On the few times she’s laughed, and in the way her eyes blaze when she’s angry. On my hand that rests on her shoulder. I’m barely touching her, but fuck, my hand could be inside her with the way she’s affecting me right now—for the past two hours, since I saw her at dinner, since I met her two nights ago.

“I’ll think about it,” Nina says, agreeing to something I had no right to ask in the first place.

I hear the car door across the street slam, and my hand drops from Nina in a heartbeat, and in the next, I see Nina’s face fall, just for a moment before her mask is back on. Jordy knocks on my window, and I roll down the window.

“I have to use the bathroom,” Jordy says, then pokes her head in. “Nina, please let me use your bathroom.”

“There’s a gas station a few blocks down the road,” Nina says, sliding out of the truck, grabbing her purse behind her. “Thanks for the ride.” She doesn’t even look at me, pretending like we’re perfect strangers—and we are, I suppose. So why does it feel like my heart is folding inside of itself?

“Come on, Nina, it’s an emergency. I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

Nina shakes her head. “Hell, no. I don’t need you poking around so you can report back to the family.”

“Come on, Jordy,” I say. “We’re only about fifteen minutes from home.”

“I cannot hold it that long,” Jordy hisses, and the panicked look on her face tells me she’s serious. I take one look at her white pants, and then the sudden paleness of her usually tan face, and I realize this is a do or die situation.

“Nina,” I start, and she sighs.

“Fine, but don’t look around. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and the place isn’t exactly company ready.”

Jordy practically sprints up the stairs while I slowly follow behind. She squirms while Nina fishes for her keys, and I’m fairly sure is taking her time on purpose. When she finally finds them, she unlocks the door and pushes against it, but then pauses.

“Not a word,” she warns Jordy, then opens the door. Jordy pushes through, and I can hear her footsteps retreating down the hall. I start to follow, but Nina stops me. “Nuh-uh, buddy, you stay out here with me.”

“You’re not going to watch to make sure she doesn’t steal anything?” I’m trying not to laugh, especially as I see the mischievous glint in her eyes. She was fucking with Jordy the whole time, probably hoping she peed her pants.

“I keep all of Nanna’s good stuff in the safe,” she says. “Alongside my millions of dollars.”

“Is this what it will be like if you actually let her move in?”

Too far. I realize it as I see her expression darken, her whole body go rigid. She might be considering letting Jordy move in, but she’s definitely not there yet. And I’m sure as shit not saying anything to Jordy about this at all. Let the two of them figure it out.

Besides, if Jordy doesn’t move here, maybe we can put the wedding off for a little longer.

Jordy comes out a few minutes later, visibly relieved. Keeping to her word, she says nothing negative to Nina as we say goodbye. I turn back to the house after I help Jordy into the truck—just a glance—and then swallow my disappointment that she’s not there.

“You should see what she’s done to my Nanna’s house,” Jordy says as soon as I’m in the driver’s seat. “The place is a hoarder’s wet dream. There isn’t a space in that house that’s clean. It’s like the rooms threw up and covered every inch of the floor, the furniture, everything.”

“Was it unsanitary?”

“Who knows, with Nina,” Jordy says, grimacing. “But no, not exactly. I mean, the kitchen looked gross. But the bathroom was usable. It was mostly just her clothes everywhere, or things not put away, and it was like that in every room on the main floor.”

“So you snooped.” I shoot her a sideways glance, and she shrugs her shoulders.

“I mean, wouldn’t you?”

No, I wouldn’t. But I don’t bother answering her.