It wasn’t so much Romero’s question as it was Brandon’s reaction to it that had Regina slowly coming unglued. As if watching the uncomfortably long moment he and Sofia shared when they first saw each other hadn’t been enough to make Regina’s skin crawl, what Romero had said suddenly sunk in. Brandon grew up with these people, the junkyard dog brothers who didn’t like him around their sister. Brandon had practically frozen at the sight of her then was in no way able to recover casually from what seeing her had done to him. Sofie. This was the girl from Brandon’s past—the only girl he’d had such heavy feelings for before Regina—the girl who’d started off the chain of events that ultimately led him to give up attachments of any sort, to stop living. Regina wanted to think rationally. That was a long time ago. Sofia was happily married now and had been for years. Brandon was in love with Regina now, and she absolutely believed that—his feelings for her were practically tangible.
