Andrea
I didn’t know what to do. I felt shocked. Numb. Scared. Saddened. I wanted to call the police, but I also wanted to stand my ground and fight. I’d always been that way. Fighting my own battles instead of looking for someone to do it for me. But when I peeked out the window and saw Everett driving away, I figured it was for the best.
Even though a part of me wanted to call him and tell him to come back.
I didn’t know where the urge came from and I wasn’t sure how to fight it. As I watched his car ease itself out onto the road and move away from me, I wanted to wave after him. Run after him. Call him and tell him to get his ass back into my apartment so we could talk. Maybe he simply needed space. After all, he was probably embarrassed. Ashamed of what his family had just done. At least, he seemed like he was, anyway. I knew he was angry. Maybe he needed to take a drive and clear his head.
What I did know was that I couldn’t stand at the window pining over a man that wasn’t really mine anyway.
I peeled off my nightgown and my robe and settled myself in for a long, hot shower. I smelled like Everett, and I didn’t want to. I still felt his lips on my neck, and I didn’t want to. I still felt his body pressed against my back, and I didn’t want to. Because it made me miss him. It made me want to call him and ask him if he could come back. I turned on the water as hot as I could get it and stepped in, hissing as the pain coursed through my body.
Then, I settled in with the explicit purpose of running the water cold.
Steam filled my bathroom until it became hard to breathe. I washed myself down, making sure I deep-conditioned my hair. It felt crunchy from last night. Everything about me felt crunchy, honestly. The bed. The sheets. My skin. All of it. Everett had marked every part of my life with him last night, and then it all went up in flames the second we got up.
I was going to kill Jessica when I saw her next.
When the water started to cool my skin, I rinsed my conditioner out of my hair and turned it off. I reached for my fluffiest towel and wrapped it around my body. I loved that towel. It wrapped around my twice and was the softest thing I’d ever put my hands on. Granted, I spent fifty dollars on it. But it was a splurge I allowed myself to have a few months ago and it hadn’t failed me yet.
I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, then went and laid on my bed with the towel wrapped around me.
I wasn’t even there five minutes before my doorbell rang. And when it was followed by a timid knock, I groaned. I knew exactly who was at my door and I had no idea if I was in the right state of mind to speak with her. I laid there, hoping she’d go away. Hoping she’d get back in her car and drive off and give me time to process everything that had already happened.
“Andrea. I know you’re in there. Your car’s downstairs,” Jessica said.
Fuck. She was really going to do this now.
I sat up from my bed as my hair dripped down my back. I slowly made my way to the door, trying to put myself in the right frame of mind for this conversation. I opened my front door, eyeing Jessica hard as she stood there shuffling on her feet. Her eyes fell to my towel before she nodded and cleared her throat, then her eyes looked around my apartment.
“Everett still here?” she asked.
“No,” I said flatly.
“So, it’s just you?”
“Yep.”
“Could I come in then?”
“Depends.”
“On what?” she asked.
“On why you want in.”
“Because I want to apologize.”
I drew in a deep breath before I stepped over to the side.
I ushered Jessica in and closed the door behind her. She went and sat on my couch, her feet curled in and her elbows on her knees. She looked down at her clasped hands, her fingers picking at the beds of her nails.
“That’s a terrible habit you should stop,” I said.
“I’m really sorry, Andrea,” she said breathlessly.
I shook my head and bit down onto my tongue to keep from yelling at her.
“I know I screwed up. It just all happened so fast. Lucas made some small joke about you and Everett always disappearing in Vegas and how it was probably because you two were hooking up. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know where he was going with it, but honestly? I kind of thought he knew already. Lucas always says that out of all his brothers, he’s the closest to Everett.”
I shook my head as memories of earlier that morning pummeled my mind.
“What?” Jessica asked.
“You don’t have the right to ask questions right now,” I said.
“Well, Lucas started making all these jokes about how you two might hook up when you guys got back from Vegas and I made the small comment that sometimes Vegas follows you home. Then, he just started pressing me for information. Bombarding me with questions about what I knew that he didn’t and he got really defensive, right? You know, like a brother.”
“Uh huh.”
“And I didn’t feel like I could lie to him, Andrea. He’s my best friend. My confidant. I love him. I didn’t want to lie to him.”
“Uh huh.”
“So, I told him.”
“Good for you,” I said flatly.
“And at first, he seemed calm about it, you know? He even laughed about it a little bit when I first told him. Then, he got all serious when he realized I was serious and that’s when everything changed.”
“I’m sure it did.”
“He started calling Everett out of the blue and getting angry that he wasn’t answering his phone. He kept asking me how I could keep something like that from him about his brother and I told him that my best friend told me in confidence.”
“I thought Lucas was your best friend,” I said.
“Don’t do that, Andrea. Please.”
“You're not in a position to make demands either, Jessica.”
“I was put in a tough position.”
“The only thing you were asked to do was keep a secret! That’s the only thing that was required of you! Let me tell you something, have you heard from Lucas recently?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Like, within the past fifteen or twenty minutes?”
“No. Why?”
“Then maybe you should start re-thinking as to whether or not Lucas is as honest with you as you are with him.”
I knew it was cruel. I knew it was selfish. But I was so angry and so fed up and so absolutely irate with myself that I could have trusted Jessica with something like this. Especially when she was being swept off her feet by a man. She always lost her head in things like this. Always. And I should have known better than to trust her with something like this.
In the end, it was nothing but my fault that I was in the position I was in.
“So, keep going with your explanation,” I said.
“Well, um… well, Lucas. He…”
I stood there with my arms folded over my towel as Jessica stumbled over her words.
“After Everett didn’t pick up, he started mumbling to himself. About the fire and his business. Then, he asked me where you lived. Practically demanded your address. I didn’t really know what that had to do with anything, but after I told him and asked him why he was out of bed and proclaiming that he had to go speak—”
“With his father,” I said.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“Lucky guess,” I said flatly.
“Andrea, I’m so sorry,” she said breathlessly.
I watched tears pool in her eyes and I shook my head.
“Do you want to know what happened after Lucas left the bed and went to see his father?” I asked.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Let me go put some clothes on. I want you to get me a spoon and grab my ice cream out of the freezer. You’ll want to sit for this conversation,” I said.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Just do as I’ve asked you, Jessica. It’
s the least you can do.”
I came back out fifteen minutes later in sweatpants and a t-shirt. I wasn’t going anywhere or doing anything for the day. I couldn't bear it. I sat down next to Jessica before she handed me my ice cream and my spoon, then I popped it open and began eating. But I could tell she was nervous. She couldn't stop jiggling her legs. I took my first bite of ice cream as she got up and started pacing my living room, trying to release some of the pent-up energy she had.
“Lucas and his father showed up here while Everett and I were still in bed,” I said.
“You and Everett were—”
“Shut up, Jessica.”
She snapped her mouth shut as I took another bite of my ice cream.
“Everett answered the door and they came barging in here, hot-headed and yelling.”
“What?” she asked.
“Yeah. His father loomed over me and put his finger in my face. Started calling me things like ‘gold-digger’ and ‘selfish’. Said I had no right to his son or his money and that I had intentionally gotten him drunk to marry him.”
“And Lucas didn’t kill him on the spot?”
“No, Jessica. Your best friend didn’t kill his father on the spot. You want to know what your best friend did do, however?”
I watched her face fall as I took another bite of ice cream.
“He stood back and agreed,” I said.
“He did not.”
“He did.”
“Lucas wouldn’t do that,” she said.
“He would, and he did.”
“He’s not like that. He’s kind and sympathetic.”
“No, he’s not. He’s a hot-head, like his father. But more than that, he started blaming the fire on Everett,” I said.
“What?”
“Everett was talking with me last night over a dinner I cooked for us and he said they had just found out a competitor burned down their mansion.”
“Wait, what!?” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. Said some guy is trying to muscle his way into the real estate marketplace of South Carolina or something like that, and that he’s targeting the Wilder family. Then, all of a sudden, Lucas starts blaming everything on Everett.”
I watched Jessica’s lip quiver before she came and sat beside me. I passed her the ice cream and she took it willingly, then took a couple of bites as tears spilled down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry, Andrea,” she whispered.
“It’s okay. I mean, it’s not okay that you prioritized a multi-year friendship like ours over some guy you’ve been seeing for a few months, but other than that, it’s okay. I get it. You don’t want to be alone, and neither do I. But maybe it’s time for you to re-evaluate who you’re spending your time with. Because the Lucas that barged into my apartment with his hot-headed father is not the kind of man I know you want to spend your time with,” I said.
Tears silently dripped down her cheeks as she continued to eat the ice cream.
“I fucked everything up so badly,” she said.
“You did, but at least you’re owning up to it,” I said.
“You’re upset with me, Everett’s probably upset with me, and now I don’t even know if Lucas is the man I thought he was.”
“He might not be.”
“Is Everett okay?”
She panned her eyes over to me and I shook my head.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think so. He’s very upset with his family right now. I had to threaten to call the police just to get them out of my apartment, and even then they all stood at their cars and kept on bickering. The only thing I heard from Everett while they were down there was when he yelled to tell them both to shut up or something like that,” I said.
“Oh my gosh, I’m such a fuck up. What am I going to do? This entire thing is a giant mess, Andrea.”
“Well, I can tell you the first thing that’s going to happen.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“I’m going to accept your apology.”
“Really?”
“I am. I shouldn't. And I have to tell you, the angry little girl in me is wanting to toss you out a window right now.”
“I’m sure it is,” she said.
“But I’m an adult. And I can put myself in your shoes and understand the situation you were put in. You want to make it work with Lucas. I get that.”
“Why? Are you wanting to make things work with Everett?”
Her question punched me in the gut and brought me face-to-face with a reality I wasn’t ready to pick part.
“I don’t know. But I do know one thing, you need to start re-evaluating whether or not you want to be with Lucas. Because if he’s anything like the man I saw this morning? He’s no good for you, Jessica.”
She took one last bite of ice cream before passing it back to me, and I took it willingly. However, I didn’t get the first bite in my mouth before my doorbell rang again.
“You expecting someone?” Jessica asked.
My body automatically tensed and she noticed it.
“I’ve got this. You sit there,” she said.
“Jessica, don’t. I don’t know who that is. It could be Everett’s father again, for all I know.”
“And if it is, I’ll look through the peephole and then call the police.”
I nodded my head as Jessica started for the door. My nerves got the best of me, however. I sat the ice cream off to the side and stood up, readying myself for another fight. I watched Jessica put her eye up to my peephole before her shoulders tensed, then she turned to me with a confused look on her face.
“It’s Lucas,” she said.
I furrowed my brow as her hand settled onto the doorknob.
“Do you want me to…?”
I nodded at her before she opened the door, and I saw a very sheepish Lucas standing in my doorway. His eyes flickered over to Jessica and he went to go hug her, but I watched her step away from him. And it looked as if someone had punched him in the throat. His eyes turned back over to me as he walked into my apartment with Jessica shutting the door behind him. Then, he stopped in the middle of my living room.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I want to apologize. What my father and I did this morning was wrong. Coming over here and blowing up that like at you and Everett,” he said.
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” Jessica asked.
Lucas whipped his head around and stared down at her before he shook his head.
“This morning, when I found out what happened, I thought for a moment that the reason the fire issue hadn’t been resolved was because Everett had been so focused on you,” he said.
“Despite the fact that the fire happened well before Vegas?” I asked.
“I didn’t know if maybe the two of you knew one another beforehand? I honestly didn’t know anything about the situation. Everett isn’t an impulsive guy. He doesn’t do things like this with women. Yeah, sure. He’s had a handful of one-night stands over the years. But Everett’s a damn workaholic. He doesn't do anything but work and go home.”
“I know how that is,” I said.
“I thought maybe the two of you knew one another beforehand and ran off and eloped or something. It never occurred to me that the two of you would have gotten drunk and blacked out and gotten married or something. Again, because that’s way beyond the scope of Everett,” he said.
“It’s beyond the scope of Andrea, too. Trust me,” Jessica said.
“Either way, I know none of that is true. Everett isn’t to blame for the fire. Or for the money we lost because of the fire.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Technically, for every project we take on, we have to have temporary homeowner’s insurance. Our company has an umbrella policy, and the homeowner’s insurance shores up any holes that might turn up. Everett’s usually in charge of that, but he dropped the ball with his one mansion. He didn’t take insurance out on it because it was only supposed to take us th
ree, maybe four weeks to patch up the issues before putting it on the market.”
“So, you blame Everett for the money you guys have lost when the mansion burned down,” I said.
“I think he blames himself more than any of us blame him. It’s caused some issues, yes. But every businessman makes oversights. Especially with all the responsibility Everett takes on. I’m surprised the man isn’t a weeping ball of stress every night.”
“He’s stronger than you take him for,” I said.
“And honestly? I’ve got no dog in this fight, anyway. Every spare ounce of my time has been spent with Jessica, so I’ve got no right to accuse him of spending time he doesn't have with a woman he obviously likes.”
I felt myself blush as Lucas’ words.
“But anyway, I wanted to come over and apologize. I don’t know what the hell came over my father with how he treated you, but neither of us had the right to act that way. I’m sorry, Andrea. I’m sorry that I came at you with that kind of frustration and anger,” Lucas said.
“Make sure you apologize to Everett, too. I can't imagine how much you’ve hurt him,” I said.
I watched him nod before he turned to Jessica and took her hands within his.
“Jess, I’m sorry for all of this. For putting you in the middle. For forcing you to turn on your closest friend. For using that information like a total asshole. I’m not perfect, and I know it’s something I have to work on. But I promise you, my family won’t ever come between us again. Business won’t, my father won’t. Nothing ever will. It’s been a very stressful time in my family’s life, and in our business life. And I’m not dealing with it well,” Lucas said.
I watched Jessica reach up and cup his face.
“We’ll get through it, okay?” she asked. “But don’t you dare ever call one of my best friends a bad word ever again. Or I’ll end this in a minute. My girls are off limits.”
I grinned and looked down to the floor as Lucas sighed with relief.
“Of course they are. I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“Come here. Give me a kiss,” Jessica said.
I gave them the privacy they needed as I lost myself in my own mind. I didn’t really know what to do. As Jessica stood there with Lucas in my apartment, the only thing I kept thinking was that I wished Everett was here. I wished he was here for all of this. I wished he was here so he could kiss me. I wanted to be with him. To be next to him. To spend time with him.
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 20