Read Best Friend's Brother #4 (Best Friend's Brother Romance Series - Book #4) for Free Online Page B

that landed on the side of Ian’s face. Ian barely
flinched and came back at him with a series of punches and jabs, not stopping
until he had him backed against the mesh and the buzzer sounded for the end of
round two.
      I watched as
his trainer put a towel across Ian’s shoulders and handed him his drink. Ian
squeezed whatever it was into his mouth and the trainer started talking again.
Once again, Ian seemed to be ignoring him. I felt better…maybe it wasn’t just
me.
      Ian came out
on the third round looking like he just wanted to finish this. Billy threw a
jab at him and he dodged it, coming back with a thunderous hook into his
opponent’s midriff. Billy’s grunt was audible but he didn’t go down. He tried
getting off his own hook but before he did, Ian snapped back with a jab that
landed directly in the center of his face and an immediate uppercut
which did knock him to the floor on his back. Ian waited and as soon as
Billy rolled over to try and push himself up, he
pounced down on him and wrapped his arm around Billy’s neck. He pulled up and
Billy struggled with him for almost a full minute before he had to concede
defeat. He raised his hand and let it drop, twice. Ian got up and stood there,
breathing hard and waiting. The referee checked on Billy and then let his
trainer help him get up and go back to his side of the cage before turning to
Ian and holding up his arm. He won. Again. I was impressed as
usual and full of adrenaline myself and selfishly happy because I
thought that would also mean he would be in a good mood and he would talk to
me. I was wrong.
    I got up before he started down the aisle and I
waited near the door he always disappears through in the back. He was smiling
as he came out of the octagon and on the way down the aisle, he even high-fived
a few guys and signed an autograph…and then he saw me and he stopped. I mean,
literally stopped…dead in his tracks. People started crowding around him and I
think he realized that he couldn’t just stand there so he came my way again and
when he got there, he reached for the door…like he was just going to walk right
past me.
    “Ian…”
    “What are you doing here, Alexa?” It was a knife
straight through the heart.
    “I came to watch you fight. I’d really like to talk
to you too.”
    “I have an interview after this. I need to hit the
shower. I don’t have time for this Alexa.”
    “Make time,” I told him, getting pissed off now. “I’m
not leaving until you agree to talk to me.”
    “Shit! I really don’t have time for this.” That
seemed to be the theme lately.
    “Really? Because I get the feeling that you just
want me to disappear so you don’t have to break up with me to my face. It’s not
going to happen. If you don’t want to see me anymore then man up and tell me.”
    He sighed. “That’s not it, Alexa…”
    “Then what is it?”
    “Ian!” His trainer was calling to him.
    “I need to go. Meet me at Fatte Albert’s tomorrow at noon. We’ll talk then.”
    “Okay, I’ll be there…but make sure that you are
too,” I told him. Fatte Albert’s was a pizza parlor
near his apartment.
    “I will,” he said. He gave me a sad look and then
jogged off to meet his trainer. I would have liked to talk tonight and get it
over with, so I could stop obsessing and get to sleep. But, it was more than I
had to start with, so I was happy.  

 
    CHAPTER
EIGHT
    IAN
    I’m not sure what the sound was that startled me
awake, but I was thankful for it. I was having a nightmare…again. Since Emma
died, I had them almost every night. I only remembered parts of them, but they
were all about my sister being dead, and sometimes in the dream I was there
with her…dead too. I woke up hot, with my body bathed in a cold sweat. The
sheets would be soaked with it and twisted up like restraints around my arms
and legs. My heart hammered like a rabbit’s against my rib cage and I would
have to sit there and tell myself that it was