Maybe Not (Maybe #1.5) (2 page)

He walks toward the door and grabs his keys off the dresser. “I’ll be back next week after the last show. Do you have our hotel rooms squared up?”

I nod. “I emailed you all the confirmation numbers.”

“Thanks,” he says as he walks out of the room.

I fall back onto the bed and hate the fact that Brennan isn’t into her. That means she’s fair game.

I was kind of hoping she wasn’t.

But then I smile, because she is.

Chapter Two

“What are you doing?” Ridge signs.

I walk back to Bridgette’s bedroom with another glass of water. Once I carefully place it on the floor with all the others, I come back to the living room. “She’s lived here two weeks,” I tell Ridge. “If she wants to be a roommate, she has to live with the pranks. It’s the rule.”

Ridge shakes his head disapprovingly.

“What?”
I say defensively.

He sighs heavily. “She hardly seems like the type to embrace pranks. This will backfire on you. She hasn’t even spoken to us since she moved in.”

I disagree with a shake of my head. “She hasn’t spoken to
you
because you’re deaf and she doesn’t know sign language. She hasn’t spoken to me because I’m pretty sure I intimidate her.”

“You
annoy
her,” Ridge signs. “I don’t think that girl is capable of being intimidated.”

I shake my head. “I don’t annoy her. I think she might be attracted to me and that’s why she’s avoiding me. Because she knows it’s not a good idea for roommates to hook up.”

Ridge points to her bedroom. “Then why are you making an effort to prank her? Do you
want
her to speak to you? Because if you think roommates shouldn’t hook up, then you probably shouldn’t be . . .”

I interrupt him. “I didn’t say
I
think roommates shouldn’t hook up. I said I think that’s why she’s avoiding me.”

“So you want to hook up with her?”

I roll my eyes. “You don’t get it. No, I don’t want to hook up with her. Yes, I like staring at her ass. And I’m only pranking her because if she’s going to live here, she needs to get used to it. When in Rome . . .”

Ridge throws his hands up in defeat and heads toward his room, just as the front door begins to open. I rush to my bedroom and shut the door before she sees me.

I sit on the bed and wait.

And I wait.

And I wait some more.

I lie down on the bed. I wait some more.

She never makes a sound. I don’t hear her getting angry that I just filled over fifty cups of water and placed them strategically around her entire bedroom. I don’t hear her stomping into the kitchen to pour them out. I don’t hear her beating on my door to throw the cups of water at my face in retaliation.

I’m so confused.

I stand up and walk out of my bedroom, but she’s not in the kitchen or living room. Her work shoes are by the front door where she keeps them, so I know she came home. I know she went into her room.

What a disappointment. Her lack of response makes me feel like my prank was a failure, when I know it wasn’t. It was epic. There’s no way she could have made it one foot into her room without having to move all those cups of water.

I stalk back to my bedroom and lie down on the bed. I want to be pissed at her. I want to hate her for sucking at prank retaliation.

But I don’t. I can’t stop smiling because I love that her re
sponse caught me off guard. She’s unexpected, and I like that.

• • •

“Warren.”

Her voice sounds so sweet. I must be dreaming.

“Warren, wake up.”

So, so sweet. Angelic, even.

I give myself a few seconds to adjust to her voice, to the fact that she’s waking me up, to the randomness of her being at my bedroom door, calling out my name. I slowly open my eyes and roll onto my back. I lift up onto my elbows and look at her. She’s standing in the doorway between the bedroom and our bathroom. She’s wearing an oversized Sounds of Cedar T-shirt and it doesn’t even look like she’s wearing anything underneath it.

“What’s up?” I ask her.

She wants me. She totally wants me.

She folds her arms tightly over her chest. She tilts her head to the side, and I watch as her eyes narrow into tiny, angry slits. “Don’t ever step foot inside my bedroom again.
Ass
hole.” She straightens up and backs into the bathroom, slamming the door.

I glance at the clock, and it’s two in the morning. That was an extremely delayed reaction to my prank. Was she just waiting for me to fall asleep so she could wake me up and yell at me? Is that her idea of revenge?

She’s such an amateur.

I smile to myself and roll over, shifting on the bed. I gasp when a rush of water pours down on top of me.

What the fuck?

I look up, just as an empty cup falls from the edge of the headboard and hits me square between the eyes.

I close my eyes, ashamed that I didn’t see that coming. I’m so disappointed in myself. And now I’ll have to sleep on towels, because my mattress is soaking wet.

I throw the covers off and swing my legs over the bed, only for my feet to be met with even more cups of water. I knock several of them over in my attempt to stand and it creates a sort of domino effect. I bend over and try to stop them from falling over, but I just make it worse. She’s placed them so close together, all over my bedroom floor, and I can’t find a safe spot to step.

I try to reach for the nightstand while at the same time lifting my right leg so that it doesn’t hit any more cups, but I lose my balance in the process and . . .
yes.
I fall down. Onto the remaining pile of cups that are full of water. Water that is now all over my carpet.

Touché, Bridgette.

• • •

I’m carrying the cups of water from my bedroom to the kitchen, back and forth, back and forth. Ridge is sitting at the table, staring at me. I know he wants to ask why the cups are now in my room, but he better not. I’m sure he can see by the look on my face that I don’t need his,
“I told you so.”

The door to Bridgette’s bedroom opens and she walks out with her backpack slung over her shoulder. I pause and stare at her for a few seconds. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She has on a pair of jeans and a blue tank top. She’s usually wearing her Hooters uniform, which, don’t get me wrong, is fantastic. But this? Seeing her dressed down with her flip-flops on and no makeup is just . . .
Stop looking at her.

“Good morning, Warren,” she says, shooting daggers in my
direction. She glances at the cups in my hands. “Sleep well?”

I smile at her with vengeance. “Screw you, Bridgette.”

She crinkles up her nose and gives her head a quick shake. “No thanks,” she says, heading toward the front door. “Oh, by the way. We’re out of toilet paper. Also, I couldn’t find my razor, so I hope you don’t mind that I used yours.” She opens the front door and turns to face me. “And . . .” She scrunches up her nose again. “I accidentally knocked your toothbrush into the toilet. Sorry. I rinsed it off for you, though.”

She closes the door right when one of the cups of water flies out of my hand and meets the back of the door.

She’s such a bitch.

Ridge calmly walks past me, straight to his bedroom. He doesn’t even look at me, because he knows me better than anyone, and therefore, he knows not to speak to me right now.

I wish Brennan knew me that well, because he’s laughing, making his way into the kitchen. Every time he glances up at me, he laughs even harder. “I know she’s mean, but Christ, Warren. She
hates
you.” He’s still laughing as he opens the dishwasher to unload it. “I mean really hates you.”

I finish the trek across the living room and set the empty cups next to the sink. “I can’t do this anymore,” I say to him. “I can’t live with a girl.”

Brennan glances at me, amused. He doesn’t think I’m serious.

“Tonight. I want her out tonight. She can move in with a friend, or with that sister of hers she’s always on the phone with. I want her gone, Brennan.”

He can see that I’m not kidding. He straightens up and presses his hands onto the counter behind him, eyeing me. He shakes his head. “She’s not leaving.”

He reaches down and closes the dishwasher and presses the button to start it. He begins to walk away so I follow after him. “You can’t have final say in who lives here. I’ve tried for two weeks to get along with her, and she’s fucking impossible.”

Brennan glances at all the cups lining the countertop. “You think pranking her is making an effort to get along with her?” He looks back at me. “You have a hell of a lot to learn about women, Warren.” He turns away from me and walks back toward his room. “She’s not leaving. She’s our roommate now so
deal
with it.”

He slams his door, and it pisses me off even more because I’m really tired of everyone slamming doors lately. I stomp across the living room and swing his door open. “Either she goes or I go!”

As soon as I say it, I regret it. Actually, I don’t. I’m not going anywhere, but maybe the threat will change his mind. He shrugs.

“See ya,” he says casually.

I turn around and punch the door. “Seriously, Brennan? You would let me leave over her?”

He stands and walks toward me, not stopping until we’re eye to eye. “Yes, Warren. I would. So go think it over and let me know when you’re moving out.” His hand grips the door and he tries to close it in my face, but I slap my palm against it and push it back open.

“You’re fucking her,” I say.

“Stop it, already! I’m not fucking her.”

My jaw is clenched tightly and I’m nodding my head slowly. That’s the only explanation for why he’s endlessly defending her. “I don’t know why you won’t just admit it, Brennan. It’s fine. You’re in love with Bridgette and you don’t want her to move out. If you would just admit it, I’d stop.”

Brennan’s jaw tenses and he expels a quick, frustrated breath.
He runs his hands through his hair and that’s when I see it. I see it written all over his face.

Brennan is in love with Bridgette.

I don’t know how I feel about that, which makes no sense, since I’m trying to kick her out.

“Warren,” he says calmly. He backs into the room and motions for me to step inside. I don’t know why he thinks he needs privacy when the only other person in this apartment is Ridge. He closes the door behind me once I’m inside his bedroom. He puts his hands on his hips and stares at the floor for several seconds. When his eyes finally meet mine again, they’re full of defeat.

I knew it.

“I’m not in love with Bridgette,” he says calmly. “She’s my sister.”

Chapter Three

I’m pacing the room, holding my forehead, pausing every few feet to look at Brennan and shake my head, only to continue pacing again.

I liked it better when I thought he was fucking her.

“How?” I ask. “How is that even possible?” I pause again and face him. “And why didn’t you guys tell me before now?” I feel slightly excluded, like Ridge and Brennan were trying to keep some big family secret from me. That isn’t right, because
I’m
their family. They lived with me after they left home. My parents took them in and gave them a roof over their heads and food on the table.

“Ridge doesn’t know,” Brennan says. “And I don’t want him to know until we find out for sure. We’ll have a paternity test done soon, but our schedules just haven’t worked out yet and it’s kind of expensive.”

Great. I can’t keep secrets from Ridge. We’ve been best friends since we were ten. I’ve never kept a secret from him, especially one this big.

“Warren, swear to me you won’t tell him. The last thing he needs right now is more stress, and if he finds out I’ve been in touch with our father, he’ll take it personally.”

My hands fly up in the air. “Your father, Brennan? Why in the hell would you ever want to contact that bastard again?”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t. After Bridgette found out that her biological mother had an affair with our father, she found me
and asked me to help her find him.” He folds his arms over his chest and looks down at the floor. “I warned her, but she had to see it for herself. I won’t be seeing my father again, but if Ridge knows I even took her to see him, he would think I was going behind his back to reach out to our parents, and I wasn’t.”

“What did your father say when you showed up after all these years?”

Ridge and Brennan moved in with me and my parents when they were only seventeen and fourteen, so it’s been about seven years since either of them has had contact with their father.

Brennan shakes his head. “He hasn’t changed. He barely said two sentences to us before he sent us on our way. I think it disappointed her so much, she’d be fine not having a paternity test completed if it weren’t for Ridge and me possibly being her brothers. I think she just wants someone she can call family, which is why I’m helping her out with all this. I feel bad for her.”

I can’t believe this. I never would have guessed it. “She doesn’t even look like either of you.” Brennan and Ridge look almost identical, and they both look just like their father. If their father is the common link between them and Bridgette, you would think she’d have some form of similarity to them. Other than her brown hair, there’s nothing about her that looks like Ridge or Brennan. Her green eyes aren’t even close to their dark brown eyes, so if she is their sister, she must have taken a hundred percent after her mother. I could just be justifying the fact that I don’t want them to look alike. That would be a little strange for me.

Brennan shrugs. “We still don’t know for sure, Warren. If it turns out she’s not his daughter, then Ridge will never even have to know about this.”

I nod, knowing full well that Brennan is right. Ridge has
enough on his plate having to deal with Maggie’s issues, and until they know for sure, this isn’t something he should have to stress over.

“What happens to Bridgette?” I ask him. “If it turns out she’s not your sister.”

Brennan shrugs. “Then I guess she’s just our new roommate.”

I sit down on the bed and try to soak everything in. This changes everything. If she’s Ridge and Brennan’s sister, she won’t just be my roommate. She and her attitude and her tiny little Hooters shorts will be part of our lives forever.

I don’t really know how I feel about that.

“Are you sure she’s not just trying to swindle you?”

Brennan rolls his eyes. “That girl is just trying to survive, Warren. She’s had a really fucked-up life and even if it turns out we’re not related, she just needs someone to give her a chance. So please. You don’t even have to be nice to her. Just be understanding enough to allow her to live here.”

I nod and fall back onto the bed.
Sister?

“So,” I say to Brennan. “I guess that means you definitely aren’t into her. Which means I
can
be.”

Brennan’s pillow meets my face. “You’re disgusting.”