“Lucas. Everett. Out. We aren’t done with this conversation,” my father said.
“Far as I’m concerned, we are,” I said.
“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Lucas asked.
“Yes. I would. And I don’t see why that’s a bad thing, asshole,” I said.
“We’re done with it when I say we’re done with it. Now the two of you? Get your asses outside,” my father said.
“Andrea?”
I heard Lucas scoff as my father rolled his eyes.
“Yes?” she asked from behind the door.
“I don’t want you to worry about a thing, okay? I’ll get this all sorted out and we’ll talk soon,” I said.
I pinned my father with my eyes as a sniffled emanated from behind the door. It broke my heart. I wanted to run to her. To scoop her into my arms, pull her close, and kiss the top of her head. I wanted to toss my brother out the window and punch my father in the face. Never in my life had I been so livid with them. What were they, animals? My hands clenched into fists as sniffle after sniffle fell against my ears, and I watched as my father’s eyes flickered toward her closed bedroom door.
“Yeah. Revel in it. Good job, Dad. You made a young woman cry for no reason,” I said.
“We need to leave,” my father said.
“No fucking kidding,” I murmured.
I didn’t want to leave Andrea while she was crying, but it was the only way to get my family out of her apartment. I held the door open as my father and Lucas barged out of her apartment, then I looked back at her bedroom door one last time. Memories of the night before rushed to my mind. How soft she felt beneath my fingertips. How easily she had molded to me. How I whipped her around and took all of her in the palms of my hands and how I fell asleep with my cock still sheathed within her warmth.
I was going to kill my family for ruining my morning with her. It seemed as if we couldn't get a decent one to ourselves.
“Coming?” my father asked.
I wanted to tell him no. I wanted to tell him to get lost. But I knew I had to go. Andrea needed to be alone and I needed to redress a very stark balance that had apparently tipped out of my favor. I looked around the apartment and made sure I wasn’t leaving anything behind, then I stepped out onto the porch and shut the door.
I should have known the argument wouldn't have been that easy to shut down.
TWENTY-THREE
Everett
“What the hell were you thinking, son?” my father asked.
“I’m not saying another damn word to either of you until we’re downstairs,” I said.
“How could you keep something like this from us? We’re family, Everett,” Lucas said.
“See this reaction!?” I asked.
I panned my arms around the porch entryway of Andrea’s apartment as the two of them stood there, dumbfounded.
“See what’s going on!? This is why I didn’t tell you. It’s why I never tell you anything. You and Dad both are absolute hot-heads who do nothing but yell and barge into other people’s words and jam their lives underneath your thumbs. Now, get your asses downstairs or this conversation is over,” I said.
Before they could get in another word edgewise, I tossed myself down the stairs. I practically jumped down them to get this argument away from Andrea. I was livid. Seething with anger. I’d never felt anger like this in my entire life. It was as if I couldn't see straight. What the hell were they thinking? Where did they get off having the right? The only thing I was thankful for was the fact that Andrea held herself with a grace and a poise unlike anything I’d ever seen.
Anything I’d ever experienced.
I strode over to my car and leaned myself against it. I looked back up to Andrea’s apartment and sighed. I saw the curtain of her bedroom door. I saw the light on. I saw a shadowed silhouette walking back and forth, and it looked to be running something through its hair.
Andrea.
She was running her hands through her hair.
“We’re going home,” my father said.
“I’m not going anywhere with the two of you,” I said.
“Everett, stop being an ass. Everyone is headed back to Mom and Dad’s to talk,” Lucas said.
“Do you mean to tell me the entire family knows about an issue I’m already handling?” I asked.
The two of them fell silent as a snicker fell from my lips.
“Let’s get one thing very clear. I’m not going with either of you. I’m not going back to my home, nor am I going back to Mom and Dad’s,” I said.
“Then where are you going? Because it’s not back up there,” my father said.
I turned and looked him straight in his eyes as a calm came over me. I couldn't explain it. I didn’t have time to understand it. All I knew was that the right words had popped into my head and that I felt comfortable expressing them to him.
Whether or not he was about to enjoy my expression of them.
“Father, you made a fool out of yourself up there. You're the one who taught me how to treat women with respect. How to open doors for them and treat them with kindness. I watched your marriage with Mom and absorbed how it should be to spend your life with someone. And then you turn around, stick your finger in a young girl’s face, and yell at her? Berate her? Call her names? In her own damn home?” I asked.
I watched my father take a few deep breaths before his posture settled back into its normal state.
“And you, Lucas.”
I turned my gaze toward my brother as his eyes locked onto mine.
“Your relationship with Jessica started out by you stumbling into her bar bleeding from your gut. You threw an entire party that cost us almost five hundred thousand dollars alone in the hopes that she might show up. And when she did, you violated the grounds of the mansion we were about to renovate to have some time with her. Sure, you didn’t get drunk and marry her. But you hopped into things incredibly quickly and you used whatever means necessary to get to her, but that’s okay because you can remember it?” I asked.
I sighed and looked back up to Andrea’s window, but I didn’t see her. There was no light, no shadow, and no fluttering of her curtains. There was only darkness.
I wanted to be up there with her in that darkness. Holding her and comforting her and telling her it’s going to be okay.
“You know nothing about this woman, Everett. For all you know, you’ll go to do the uncontested divorce and she’ll change her mind,” my father said.
“I know a lot about Andrea actually,” I said.
“What could you possibly know about her if you spent the entire weekend drunk with her?” Lucas asked.
“I know she owns and operates the inner-city youth center downtown,” I said.
“She what now?” my father asked.
“Yeah. Andrea grew up in poverty with a father who drank everything away. She worked from a very young age, and even then she always had to choose which bills she would pay during the month and which would go to the wayside. She told me she always favored her water bill because she knew she could build a fire and wrap up into blankets to get warm,” I said.
I watched my father chew on the inside of his cheek.
“I know she went to school. Got a degree. Honestly? I can’t remember what the degree was, but I plan on asking her again about it. I do know that it had to do with social work and kids, because that’s what brought her to Charleston. She started working at the youth center, got very close to the previous owner,” I said.
“Mr. Wilson,” my father said.
“So you knew him.”
“I was very good friends with him until he passed.”
“Well, his judge of character of Andrea was to pass down his entire youth center—operations and all—to the woman up there you just lit into for absolutely nothing,” I said.
I watched him turn his head back up to the apartment as Lucas cursed underneath his breath.
“She not only owns and runs it, though.
She fixes anything that gets broken inside it. The air conditioning. The internet. Holes in the walls. Small electrical issues. Technological issues. The woman can damn near fix anything. And then, if she has to fix something and it’s outside of her budget for the year, do you know what she does?” I asked.
“What?” Lucas asked.
I panned my gaze over to him and saw him growing pale with every word I said.
“She dips into her own damn pocket and pays for the difference so the center doesn’t suffer,” I said.
The three of us stood there and I watched shame and regret roll over my father and my brother’s features. And it served them right. I was embarrassed to call them family. Embarrassed to be related to them. Embarrassed to have to claim them in any way.
“I care about Andrea. And I admit, getting married was a mistake. Whether or not I can remember it, it shouldn’t have taken place. But as I’ve gotten to know her and as I’ve spent time with her, I’m beginning to realize that she is exactly the kind of woman I would have married someday. The kind of woman I would have whisked away on dates and weekend vacations and brought home to you and Mom, Dad.”
His eyes whipped back to me, as if I had snapped him out of a trance.
“What we did was reckless, Lucas. I admit it. But it has nothing to do with the fire or the business. I don’t know what’s going on in your personal life. Maybe something’s wrong with you and Jessica. Maybe you didn’t wind down over the Vegas weekend like you would have hoped. But you don’t get to dump that stress on me and rage out over my life because you’re unsatisfied with yours,” I said.
“There should be a prenup in place,” my father said.
“He’s right. You still need to protect yourself and your part of the business. Because it isn’t just you that affects. It’s all of us,” Lucas said.
I narrowed my eyes at him and had every want to call him out on his blatant hypocrisy.
“Have you asked Jessica about a prenup?” I asked.
“Why would he? He’s not getting married,” my father said.
“I haven’t even bought a ring yet,” Lucas said.
My eyes danced between my brother’s and I watched a silent plea cross his face. Ah, so he hadn’t talked with our father. He hadn’t told Mom and Dad that he had, in fact, purchased a ring for Jessica. He hadn’t told them that he probably wouldn't offer her a prenup because he was head-over-heels in love with the woman. He hadn’t told them any of that, and now he wanted me to cover his ass so he didn’t get it chewed off by Dad while we were standing in the parking lot.
But I decided to be the bigger man that day. No matter how much I would have loved to turn the tables on my brother, it wouldn't solve anything. It wouldn’t fix the insanity that had just ensued and it wouldn't patch up what was broken. If anything, it would bring out an uglier side of my father. I knew he had his flaws, but this was the first time I was beginning to see my father as less than the superhero I had painted him to be. Less than the perfect man I had emulated growing up. Less than the god I had always looked up to as a kid.
The perfect image of my father had been forever shattered, and by the look in Lucas’ eyes I could tell he was experiencing the same thing.
That was enough trauma for one day.
“I will be consulting none of you with regard to this issue,” I said.
“Son, you need to have someone—”
“Dad. Shut your mouth,” I said hotly.
I turned on the balls of my feet and pinned him with a glare.
“You’ve done enough. You’ve done more than you think you’ve done in this particular situation. You don’t have a say, you don’t have a right, and if I have anything to do with it, you won’t ever have an opinion about it ever again,” I said.
“We really should go and sit down with the family,” Lucas said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you two after what you just did. But here’s what is going to happen. I’m going to watch the two of you get into your cars and drive away, then I’m going to go do some soul-searching, place some phone calls, and get to work,” I said.
“We’re having a family dinner tonight, Everett. You need to—”
“You needed to be a better role model!” I exclaimed.
I whipped back around to my father and approached him, standing toe-to-toe with the burly man in the parking lot.
“You need to be a better man! You needed to make better decisions! You needed to not charge into a woman’s apartment like some hostile abuser and demean her in her fucking face, but you did, Dad!” I exclaimed.
His eyes flashed hot as Lucas put his hand on my shoulder.
“Get off me, you asshole. You’re the reason this has all spiraled out of control in the first place,” I said.
“I had to call someone when Jessica told me,” Lucas said.
“No, you didn’t. You wanted to because you use drama to fuel your own purpose in life. Because having a woman and having a business and dealing with your insomnia issues aren’t enough. But I don’t care. I won’t be dragged down by either of you. I got myself into this situation, so I’ll swim through it and resolve it the way I see fit. Like a man. Which is not how the two of you conducted yourselves in that apartment. Now get into your cars and drive off,” I said.
“Not without you,” my father said.
I reached into my pants and pulled out my cell phone, then hovered my finger over the red emergency call button.
“You wouldn’t,” Lucas said.
“Fucking try me,” I said.
The three of us stood there at a stand-off. My father, with his wary look and his rolled back shoulders; Lucas, with his worried glance and his constant pleading with me to keep my mouth shut even though he wouldn’t; and me, wondering how the hell I was going to diffuse this situation, get shit under control, and reassure Andrea’s mind that none of this had anything to do with her.
“Come on, Lucas. Let’s get to the house. I’m sure your Mom’s going to want help with dinner,” my father said.
“Good choice,” I said.
“Please come with us, Everett,” Lucas said.
I inched my thumb down over and pressed the button, holding it as the button darkened on my screen.
“Get in your car and fuck off,” I said.
I watched the two of them get into their cars, shaking their heads and sighing. I didn’t give a damn what they thought. What they wanted. What they thought was best. I loved my family, but this was beyond them. Beyond the scope of anything I thought they were capable of. They both started up the engines of their cars and pulled out, keeping their eyes on me as they inched toward the road. I stood there with my finger on the button until both of their cars were out of sight, then I slid my finger off and quickly canceled the phone call going out.
Then, I looked back up to Andrea’s window.
I didn’t see her there and I wondered what she was doing. What she was thinking. I wanted to go back up there and finish our morning. Cook her some breakfast, or maybe take her out somewhere. Anything to apologize for how my family had just reacted. Because she deserved it.
But something in the pit of my gut told me she didn’t want to see anyone right now.
I slid my phone back into my pocket and opened the door of my car. I turned over the engine and slowly inched my way out, keeping my eyes on her window. Just in case she appeared. Just in case she beckoned for me. Just in case she came outside and started following after my car. It wasn’t until I hit the road, however, that I saw her curtains flutter. That I saw the shadowy figure appear.
And I watched that figure wipe at something on their face.
The mere idea that Andrea was crying made me sick. And I didn’t care that I was going to miss a family get together because of it. The fact that my father could incite a response like that from someone—a woman, no less—made me disgusted with him. The man I idolized. The man I emulated all throughout my life. Nothing but a small, pathetic man who made women c
ry.
I wondered how many times he had made Mom cry like that over the years.
I didn’t want to go to my house nor was I going to dinner. So, I headed back to the only other place I knew would give me some sort of solace. Some sort of purpose. Some sort of goal. I whipped a U-turn in the middle of the road and ran through my favorite breakfast place to snag some food and some coffee. Then, I started for my office.
If I couldn't reason with my family and if Andrea didn’t want to see me right now, then all I had left was my work.
I used to take pride in that. In always working and never having any fun. I saw myself as the anchor of the business. As the first mate to the captain that helped keep everything under control and flowing smoothly. I took work home with me routinely and was always in my office on the weekends. It was almost tradition for me to be the one that worked more hours and put in more time than anyone else around me.
But now, I wasn’t so proud of that fact.
I wasn’t so proud of the fact that I was a workaholic. That I had no fun. That I never took vacations and that I never got out and experienced the world. I wasn’t so proud of the fact that file folders of work were stacked on my kitchen table at my own apartment and that I had all of fifteen numbers in my phone, with over half of them being my own family. I used to be proud of that. It used to be a token of honor for me.
The only thing it felt now was pathetic. And the only thing I wanted was Andrea.
Fuck. I had no idea how I was going to fix things with Andrea.
TWENTY-FOUR
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 19