Best Friend's Brother #5 (Best Friend's Brother Romance Series - Book #5) Read Free

almost empty, even when it
wasn’t late evening and in the middle of the week. I think the city owns it now
and they don’t care if they made money off of it or not. It was just one of
those historical icons that they left in place to keep the historical societies
from raining heat down on them. I parked in the lot and went up to the
ticket-booth. I had to smile when I saw what was playing. Sometimes I had to
believe that Emma was still around, leading me places. The movie was the
Prisoner of Zenda . It was a movie made in 1937…long
before our parents were born even. But for some reason, it was Emma’s favorite.
She used to say it was the most romantic movie ever made. My vote went out to
Gone With the Wind, but this one was perfect for
tonight. I asked the kid in the booth for a ticket.
    “It’s almost over.”
    “That’s okay. I’ve seen it a bunch of times. The
ending is my favorite part.”
    He raised an eyebrow like he thought I was a little weird, but he took my money and gave me a ticket. I
bought a box of Junior mints, Emma’s other favorite
and I went inside the dark theater and found a seat near the back. I was one of
only four people in the whole place. An elderly couple sat near the front. She
had her head on his shoulder and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was
remembering back to when they were young. There was a middle aged man sitting
not too far from them. He was all alone…like me.
    I looked up at the screen at Douglas Fairbanks. Emma
always found him so appealing. It was hard for me to look at a man from the
thirties and find him attractive. Today as I looked at him instead of seeing
him, I saw my best friend’s smiling face. It was what I needed to top off an
already wonderful day with Ian. While the movie played, my thoughts switched to
Ian and what it would be like to be in a real relationship with him. I was sure
that was what I wanted and he seemed to want it to. Maybe our “rough start” got
all the kinks worked out already and it would be smooth sailing from here on
out.
    I was dragging my feet about going home and talking
to dad. I had to talk to him, there would be no
getting out of it. I was too happy when I was with Ian to let my dad’s
unsolicited opinions get in the way. I know that he loves me, but he needed to
learn how to love me differently as an adult than he had as a child. I popped a
junior mint in my mouth and thought about the last time he did this to me. I
was a senior in high school and there was a guy named Rob that I really liked.
He was gorgeous and funny and smart and we had a bunch of classes together.
After about a month of flirting, he finally asked me out. He showed up that
Friday night to pick me up and Dad was polite to him as he could manage. It
wasn’t warm politeness…but it was friendly enough. When we left, I was
breathing a sigh of relief that he hadn’t done anything to ruin it.
    We went out to dinner and then a movie. He was sweet
and respectful and he made me feel good about myself. We took a walk through
the park after the movie and he held my hand. He didn’t try to get into my
pants like other guys always did at that age. He was
perfect. He took me home and gave me a sweet kiss at the door. He told me he
would call and maybe we could go to lunch or something on Sunday. I thought
about him every second the rest of the weekend…but when lunch time on Sunday
came and went and he hadn’t called, I started feeling horrible…about myself. I
started going over everything I said and did, wondering where I’d gone wrong. I
picked up the phone to call him at least a dozen times, but I didn’t have that
kind of confidence. I finally called Emma…who I’d talked to about how amazing he
was for an hour the day before and I broke down in tears.
    Emma was at my house in fifteen minutes and we sat
in the back yard and talked. Her advice to me was that he wasn’t worth my time
if he couldn’t even be bothered to call and cancel. “You’re better