“Um, the sister is right here and can probably decide for herself what is and isn’t stupid,” Brynn said.
I just grunted as I got up and slipped my wallet into my pocket. “You’re welcome for cleaning up your vomit last night.”
I didn’t wait for Zoe’s reply. Just stalked out the door, my heart pounding against my ribs.
13
Roland
Whatever. Forget it, I have to go to work.
~Text from Roland, four years ago
I spent the next week basically in seclusion. I went from the cottage to the office and back again. Ate when I needed to. Slept at night. And worked.
My CEO was fine with me telecommuting for a while, but I had at least three conference calls a day. I worked a full day for my real job, then turned my attention to Salishan. It kept me up late most nights, but at least I successfully avoided everyone.
Brynn went back to school. Or at least, I assumed she did. Her car wasn’t outside anymore, and the guest cottage next door was once again empty. I caught glimpses of Cooper a few times, but he was busy with his own responsibilities. My mom tried to talk me into having dinner with her and Dad, but I made up an excuse. I didn’t want to deal with him. Leo was even more of a recluse than I was. I tended to forget he was around, he so rarely came out.
And then there was Zoe.
She was around, all right. She had to be, because my fucking parents employed her. That had never bothered me before, but hearing her coming and going—her footsteps, her office door—left me constantly on edge. I didn’t like fighting with her—I never had—but I didn’t know why it mattered, now. Why I couldn’t just do what I needed to do and quit thinking about her?
Besides, were we really fighting? That implied something that was ongoing. As it was, we’d argued, I’d gotten pissed, and I’d left. That meant it was over. It wasn’t like we had a relationship to repair. I wasn’t sleeping on the couch because my wife was mad at me.
No, I was sleeping on sheets that still smelled like her.
Fuck.
Friday night, the sun had gone down before I realized how late it was. I’d eaten a quick dinner at my desk earlier, but it felt like I looked up and suddenly it was ten-thirty.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and stretched my back. This chair was shit. If I’d known I’d be here for so long, I would have ordered a better one. At this point, it probably didn’t matter. I was on the verge of just walking away from the whole place, anyway. Booking a flight back to San Francisco and leaving this mess to my father. I knew that would put my mom in a bad place, but my dad pushed back against every suggestion I made. I didn’t know if I’d be able to help more than I already had.
Regardless, I was done for the day. I closed things down and headed outside.
I found Cooper leaning against his truck. He looked up at me and a shit-eating grin crossed his face.
“It emerges from its den,” Cooper said, adopting a terrible Australian accent. “The corporate executive is rarely seen this early in the evening, preferring instead to remain hunched over a laptop until the wee hours of the morning.”
“Hilarious,” I said.
He laughed. “I know, I’m fucking hysterical. What are you up to tonight? Wait, never mind. I already know the answer. You’re working.”
“I was,” I said. “You going out tonight? Or heading home?”
“Neither, man, I have shit to do.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen before putting it back. “Just waiting to hear from Chase.”
“What shit do you have to do on a Friday night?” I asked. “Especially with Chase? Picking up girls or something?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes, yeah. But we have a more important mission tonight.”
“Mission?” I asked. “Does this have anything to do with Brynn’s boyfriend at school?”
“Nah,” he said. “Leo and I already took care of that.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing permanent,” he said, his voice casual. “Just fucked with him a little bit.”
I decided the less I knew about that, the better. “Then what are you doing tonight?”
“Why, do you want to help?”
“Help with what?”
He eyed me for a second, nodding slowly. “Yeah, you definitely want to help with this.”
“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing?”
“Nope.” He brought out his phone again and typed something.
I glanced back toward the Big House. Lights glowed in the windows and soft music drifted out from the back terrace. Zoe was probably in there somewhere, working a late event.
Cooper’s phone rang, and he put it up to his ear. “Yeah. Okay. Yep, Leo’s set. Fuck yeah, he did. I know, we should have. Oh shit, really? Oh my god, that’s perfect. Yeah, he’s coming with me. Just stay out of sight, we’ll be there in a few.”
“Was that Chase?” I asked after he hung up.
“Yep.” His eyes lit up with an intensity that made me very nervous. “Let’s go.”
“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” I asked.
He grinned. “Maybe. But I doubt it.”
Against my better judgment, I got in Cooper’s truck. We headed out of town on the highway. I thought about asking where we were going, but had a feeling he wouldn’t tell me. He turned up the music and drummed the steering wheel to the beat. Belted out the lyrics. Thankfully his voice wasn’t terrible.
We got to Tilikum about half an hour later, and he drove straight toward the college campus. When he pulled into the parking lot of a bar called the Rowdy Bear, I figured he’d been fucking with me. He was going out, probably just meeting Chase here. I had no idea why he hadn’t said so up front. Or why we’d come all the way here for a drink when there were perfectly good bars in Echo Creek.
“So, your mission is drinking at a bar?” I asked as we got out.
“Nope,” he said. “But we’re going to act like it. So go in and order something. You’re part of our cover.”
“Your cover? Cooper, what the hell are you talking about?”
“You’ll see,” he said.
There was a hint of humor in his voice—a tone I was all too familiar with. He used to sound like that when he was pulling a prank on me or Leo.
Knowing I was probably about to be the butt of one of Coop’s jokes, I followed him inside.
The place was packed. Every stool along the bar was taken, as were most of the booths and tables. The pool tables had games going, and small groups of people stood in knots around the room. Mostly a college crowd. It reminded me of late nights getting drunk on cheap well drinks with Zoe.
I tried to push that image out of my head. But it was tough to walk into a place like this on a busy Friday night and not think of her in a black tank top and jeans, her makeup a little smudged, her eyes glassy.
Chase appeared from somewhere in the crowd. “It’s about time.”
“We came right over,” Cooper said. “What’s going on in here?”
“Some girl’s twenty-first birthday party,” Chase said.
“Holy shit, are you serious?” Cooper looked wide-eyed toward the bar. “Fucking perfect.”
Sure enough, there was a group of girls in clubbing outfits—sequined tube tops and halters, showing a lot of skin. Tight skirts. Stripper heels. Most of them had matching plastic crowns. But the birthday girl stood out, with a hot pink feather boa around her neck and a large crown with a sparkling 21 on the front.
I watched Cooper and Chase as they eyed the party. This was their mission? If Cooper had told me he was going to crash some college chick’s birthday party, I definitely would have passed. And this seemed odd, even for them. They were twenty-six, so not that much older than these girls. But creeping on a bunch of drunk twenty-one-year-olds seemed kinda low. These girls were basically Brynn’s age.
“Guys, there are better ways to meet girls,” I said.
“No shit,” Cooper said.
“Hey, that table is open. I’ll grab it before someone else does. Go get us beers.”
I was about to argue, but Cooper and Chase pushed their way through the crowd toward the open table.
Whoops and hollers in high-pitched female voices came from the birthday party end of the bar, so I veered toward a clearer space. One of the bartenders—a petite girl with a red pixie cut and at least seven visible piercings—got my three beers, and I took them to the table.
“Did you get any good ones yet?” Chase asked.
I set the beers down and sat in the open chair. “Good what?”
“This one is pretty good,” Cooper said, holding his phone out so Chase could look.
“Please tell me you aren’t taking pictures of those girls,” I said.
“Shit, no,” Cooper said, rolling his eyes. “Come on, we have morals. A few at least. Those girls are like Brynn’s age.”
“Then what the fuck is going on?” I asked.
“Dude, he’s gonna do a body shot off the birthday girl,” Chase said.
“Oh my god, this is perfect.” Cooper raised his phone, keeping it low toward the table like he was just texting.
The birthday girl was indeed laid out on the bar, and some guy was sprinkling salt up her stomach. She pulled her shirt over her bra, and he sprinkled salt in the valley between her tits. He placed a lime wedge in her mouth, then turned and flashed a smile at her friends.
Holy shit. Was that Van?
He got up on the bar and knelt in front of her, then pushed her legs open and leaned down to lick up her belly. Her friends cheered as he stuck his face between her tits. When he came up smiling, someone handed him a shot glass and he tossed back the tequila. The girl’s legs were around his waist and he made a show of grinding her a few times while he took the lime wedge out of her mouth with his teeth. Then he spit the wedge on the floor and kissed her.
I was so fucking angry a haze of red tinged my vision. My jaw clenched tight and I balled my hands into fists. This piece of shit was sleeping with Zoe, but here he was literally dry-humping some girl on a goddamn bar.
He got down and took a dramatic bow while the party-goers cheered. The birthday girl was clearly drunk off her ass. Van and one of her friends had to help her down. She stumbled, and her skirt was hiked up so high it was practically a belt. Van grabbed a handful of her ass with one hand, pulled her hair back with the other, and planted a raunchy kiss on her already open mouth.
“Holy shit,” Chase said.
I’d been about to say the same thing, but Chase was laughing.
“What the fuck are you laughing about?” I asked. “Isn’t that the prick Zoe was with?”
“Yeah, exactly.” Chase turned to Cooper. “Did you get the whole thing?”
“Every second,” Cooper said.
“Should we stay and get more?” Chase asked. “Or do you think that’s enough?”
“I want to see where this goes,” Cooper said, his eyes still on the bar.
Wait, were they taking pictures of Van? “Are you guys trying to catch him cheating on her?”
“Basically,” Cooper said. “The problem is, they’re not exclusive, so what’s really cheating? Zoe knows he probably sleeps with other girls. But this? She is not going to be able to ignore this.”
“We got the fucker this time,” Chase said.
“I take it you guys don’t like this guy,” I said.
“No, I want to smash his fucking face in,” Cooper said.
Another one of the girls had her shirt pulled up to her chin and a plastic shot cup wedged between her tits. Van grabbed her boobs and squeezed while he took the cup between his teeth, then rocked his head backward to swallow the liquor.
“You didn’t say anything about hating him when we saw them last time,” I said.
Cooper typed something on his phone. “You didn’t ask.”
I took a deep breath to keep from smacking my brother upside the head. My eyes flicked to the bar. Van had one arm around the birthday girl—leaning on him was probably the only reason she was still standing—while he made out with her friend. He broke the kiss and turned to the birthday girl again. Shoved his tongue in her mouth with the second girl still hanging on his other arm. Cooper was recording the whole thing.
Why the fuck was Zoe giving this guy the time of day? She used to like to party, but not like this. Even if she had been single at twenty-one, she wouldn’t have let some guy slobber all over her while he grabbed some other girl’s tits.
“Jesus, is this what Zoe does on her nights off?” The image of that prick licking salt off her skin made me want to fly across the bar and break my beer over his face.
“No, he wouldn’t pull shit like this when Zoe is around,” Cooper said. “He acts like he’s not a total scumbag when he’s with her, so she doesn’t know.”
“Why the hell is she with him?” I asked.
Cooper shrugged. “I told you, she’s not with him. I guess that’s why she doesn’t worry about what he’s really like. I’ve been trying to tell her for months, but she just blows it off, like it doesn’t matter because she’s not in a relationship with him.”
“But she’s sleeping with him.”
“Yeah,” Cooper said. “Sometimes.”
That wasn’t Zoe. The wrongness of it screamed at me. “That’s fucked up. She deserves better than that.”
Cooper narrowed his eyes at me, like he wasn’t sure what to think of what I’d said. “Yeah, she does.”
“So why does she do it?”
“I guess he’s a good fuck,” Chase said.
My eyes landed on Chase and for the second time since I’d been back, I wanted to drag him outside and beat the shit out of him.
“Dude, no.” Cooper shook his head.
Chase winced. “Sorry.”
“Come on, Coop,” I said. “You know her as well as anyone. Zoe should not be some asshole’s side piece.”
“No, she shouldn’t,” Cooper said.
“But she’s dated, right?” I asked. “You know, since me. She’s been in an actual relationship?”
“Yeah,” Cooper said. “Twice.”
“What happened?” I asked.
He shrugged again, and that nonchalant attitude was seriously pissing me off. “I don’t know. She broke up with them.”
“Did she break it off, or did they?” I asked.
“Why does it matter?” Cooper asked.
“Because I want to know what the fuck happened to her.”
Cooper stared at me, his silence stretching out long enough to make me shift in my chair, uncomfortable.
“She got fucking divorced, man.” The usual lightness was gone from Cooper’s tone. “That’s what happened to her. And as for the details, here’s the thing: Zoe is my friend, and I love the shit out of her. So yeah, I know about the guys she dated and why they broke up. I know what she’s said about this thing with Van, and why she’s doing it. But I’m not going to tell you all her personal shit. If you want to know, go ask her.”
“Coop, he’s leaving with two of them,” Chase said.
“I don’t have a good angle,” Cooper said. “Can you get it?”
“Yeah.” Chase held up his phone and pretended to look at something on the screen while he took pictures of Van leaving the bar with two very drunk college girls. “Got it.”
“If you’re such good friends with her, why doesn’t she listen to you?” I asked. “Why is she still sleeping with that prick?”
Cooper’s brow creased, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “You were married to her. Are you telling me you don’t remember how stubborn she is? Besides, we’ve never caught him doing anything on this scale. Hitting on some girl, sure. But she wasn’t expecting him to be faithful, so that wasn’t enough.”
“Let me get this straight,” I said. “You planned this?”
“Yeah,” Cooper said. “Took us too long to come up with the idea, though. We should have done this months ago.”
“How did you know he’d be here?” I asked.
“We didn’t,” Cooper said. “Chase followed him.”
I was finally realizing what this was all about. They hated the guy Zoe was sleeping with, and they’d tried to get her to break things off with him, but she was being stubborn. No surprise there. So they had come up with a plan to catch him being especially douchey so they could show her.
Cooper patted my shoulder, like he could tell what I was thinking. “Makes sense now, doesn’t it? We are pretty fucking brilliant. And I told you you’d want to help us tonight.”
“What are you doing with the pictures?” I asked.
“And video,” Chase said. “You recorded the whole body shot, right?”
“Oh hell yeah.” Cooper tapped on his phone screen. “I’m sending it all to Leo.”
“What’s Leo going to do with it?” I asked.
“Put it online,” Cooper said.
“Why?” I asked. “Why not just show her?”
Cooper gave me another you’re an idiot look. “You’re supposed to be the smart one in the family. If I show her, I’d have to admit we did this, and that’s not going to happen. Then she might find out about the other shit we’ve pulled on him.”
“What other shit?” I asked.
Chase and Coop grinned at each other.
“Let’s see… there was the ten-gallon bucket of lube we shipped to the bar where he works—in his name, of course,” Cooper said. “We followed that with a shipment of condoms, size extra small.”
“We started a rumor that he does gay porn,” Chase said. “The gif Leo made is really convincing, but I don’t think Zoe ever saw it.”
“I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve put gum under his car door handle,” Cooper said.
“We recruited the barista over at the coffee place in town,” Chase said. “I’m pretty sure she spits in his coffee every day.”
“Whenever he’s at the same bar as us, we buy some random guy a drink and have the bartender say it’s from him,” Cooper said. “He’s almost gotten his ass kicked like five times.”
“And one guy wanted to take him home,” Chase said. “I think that dude might have heard the gay porn rumors.”
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