“The affair,” Blake said softly.
“Whose?”
“Ours.”
“Ours,” Marley repeated. “Ours…so you knew about her and Theo? You knew she was the one he was cheating on me with and you still did it?”
“No,” Blake rushed. “At that time I just knew he was cheating. I didn’t know who with. I didn’t know that until after we got together. I swear it.”
“Right,” Marley said with a chuckle. “Because that means anything to me now. Was it some schoolboy obsession that made you want to try everything your friend had? Simone… Me…”
Blake let out a strangled noise and the sound of something heavy smashing against something harder filled the air. “Jesus Christ, Marley! What the hell do you want from me here? I’m fucking human!”
She let out a startled laugh. “Human? That’s the excuse you’re going with?”
Blake let out a shaky breath. “You have this fucking perfect image of me in your head. I’m not flawless! I’m—”
“Yeah, human, I know,” she said in a clipped tone.
“You’re not even going to consider forgiving me, are you?” Blake asked, hurt creeping into his voice.
It took her a moment to answer. “I don’t know if I can. It’s all I’m ever going to see when I look at you.”
“It was a fucking one-night stand,” he muttered.
“So was I.” Marley sniffed like she was trying to keep from crying. “I’m going to stay at the hotel tonight.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Blake said. “If you find it that hard to be around me we have plenty of other bedrooms I can stay in.”
“Tonight I’ll go to the hotel. Tomorrow I-I think I should go stay with Hayley for a while.”
“I won’t chase you this time, Mar. If you leave, I’m not coming after you. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I know. You’re only human.”
The sound of the patio door closing snapped me out of my fog. Fuck me… I’d thought that once they got all their crap out into the open then they could take a breath and move on…not move out. Blake’s threat was empty. There was no way in hell he wouldn’t chase Marley. It might take him a day or two, but he wouldn’t be able to let her go without a fight.
But did she know that?
I rushed toward the front door and threw it open. Marley was struggling with her car door when I caught up with her. Tears streaked down her face, her body shaking. “Marley, where the hell are you going?”
“Away from here,” she said, her voice thick.
“Don’t do this,” I pleaded. “Don’t leave.”
“How much did you hear?” she asked, finally throwing open her car door and climbing inside.
I scratched the back of my neck. “Pretty much everything.”
She laughed and threw her purse across the car so it hit the passenger door. “You heard everything and you’re still out here trying to convince me to stay?”
“Of course I am. Despite what Blake thinks, I do give a shit about other people. And right now, I give a pretty big shit about you and my moron brother.” Okay, that was probably a poor choice of words, but I didn’t have time to wrap it up like a pretty little poem. “You’re mad as hell. Trust me, I get it. But running away isn’t the answer. Take some time to cool off then decide if you can leave him.”
Marley scrubbed at a fresh tear running down her face. “If I stay then he’ll make me want to forget and move on. I don’t know if I can do that. Maybe he deserves for me to leave him.”
“Maybe he does,” I agreed. “But maybe you don’t. When this doesn’t feel so raw and you can look at the situation rationally, it won’t seem as bad. I promise you that.”
She let out a long breath. “I guess I’ll have to wait and see. But right now I need to be as far away from this place as I can get.”
I glanced back toward the house. No sign of Blake. “Then move over, because I’m sure as hell not going to let you drive in this condition.”
Marley sniffed and wiped her face again, but didn’t argue with me. She moved across to the passenger seat and hugged her purse to her chest. I drove us to The Oasis without either of us uttering another word. Marley tapped on her phone and clutched it so hard I’m surprised the thing didn’t snap in half.
I parked in her usual spot, and when I got out, Henry stood near the entrance. Guess that’s who she was texting.
“Um, I know this is crazy inappropriate to even ask, but would you grab some of my things from the house? I’ll need some clothes for the morning,” Marley said as we got out of her car.
At first I didn’t even react. I was too goddamn stunned to even quirk an eyebrow. “Are you fucking kidding me? Do you have any idea what Blake would do to me if he saw me moving your shit out of his house?”
Marley folded her arms across her chest, a stubborn frown marring her forehead. “It shouldn’t come as a great shock to him that I might have the need for clean underwear.”
“Fuck me, Marley…you’ve got some giant-ass lady balls, I’ll give you that much.” I sighed and shook my head. “No promises, okay?”
She nodded.
I went around the front of the car and pulled Marley into a bear hug. Her breath hitched and she hugged me back just as tightly. “Take care of yourself, okay?”
She nodded into my chest.
“If you get snot on my sweater, I’m sending you the dry-cleaning bill.”
Marley hiccupped a laugh. “Okay.”
I let her go and she turned and headed for Henry. He gave me a short wave that I returned, and I watched until they were both through the door. Then I called another cab to drive my sorry ass home again.
Chapter Eighteen
The house was quiet when I got back. Blake wasn’t in the kitchen—the evidence of their fight, however, was. The fruit bowl lay smashed to smithereens across the floor, spilled fruit littering the length of the room. Uneaten Chinese food had been neglected on the island.
I checked the living room but it was dark. I turned to look upstairs. His car was parked in front of the garage when the cab had dropped me off. He had to be around here somewhere.
“Where did you take her?” Blake asked, his voice coming from the darkness of the living room.
I turned around and squinted, finally spotting him slumped on the couch. “The Oasis. To Henry.”
Blake lifted a beer bottle to his lips and took a long chug. “How nice of you.”
Looked like I was in for any residual wrath my dear brother may have. “She wasn’t fit to drive, man.”
“Guess it would have been too much to ask for you to talk her into staying.”
“I tried. She’s almost as stubborn as you.” I blew out a breath. “She’s hurting. Give her time.”
Blake stood and walked toward me, an ugly sneer on his face. “Because you’re such a goddamn expert? Give me a fucking break.”
I shook my head and held my hands up. “I’m not getting into this with you.”
“Don’t give me that shit. You put yourself into this.” Blake poked me in the chest with his bottle.
“Blake, seriously, I get that you’re looking to blow off steam, but back the hell off.”
His eyes narrowed. “Or what? Are you forgetting whose fucking house this is?”
“Like you’d let me. And you’ve made it perfectly clear just how much of an inconvenience I am for you.” The words were out before I even thought about them. Blake and I barely ever argued. What would be the point? He’d tell me what a useless little shit I was, and I’d make a joke and laugh my way out of it. Just like most of our encounters.
“So do me a favor and get the hell out,” Blake said, his face twisting in distaste.
“Sure thing. I’ll get Marley’s stuff too before I leave—like she asked me to when I dropped her off.”
Blake blinked.
I blinked.
Shit.
In my peripheral I saw Blake’s hand clench into a fist. I had half
a second to brace myself before he slammed it into my jaw, sending me stumbling back into the wall.
“Fuck me,” I mumbled, flexing my jaw to test it. No apparent breaks, thank Christ. I looked up at Blake, half expecting him to be on me in heartbeat and give me the pounding I think he’d been itching to give me for most of our lives.
The beer bottle was at his feet, amber liquid seeping out from the neck. He lifted his punching hand and cracked his knuckles. Blake raised his eyes to mine and I found they were no longer angry. A frown pulled at his eyebrows. “She really left. She really left me.”
I nodded.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, looking lost and really fucking broken. “She really left me.”
Approaching my brother felt like approaching an angry bear, but I did it anyway. I picked up the beer bottle and slapped his arm. “I’ll get you another.”
“Bring the Scotch, too,” Blake mumbled.
“You got it,” I said, turning to leave the room.
“I’m sorry,” Blake said quietly.
I opened my mouth to say it was okay, but really, my big brother punching me was fucking not okay.
As I got out a six-pack of beers from the fridge, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Setting the beers on the island, I pulled out the phone and there was a new text message from Cassidy.
Just how much of a girl are you that it takes this long to get ready?
Cassidy…fuck. I hit Call and pressed the phone to my ear. It rang three times before she answered.
“Hey,” she said, her tone sardonic. “So what’s the excuse?”
I let out a breath. “I’m really fucking sorry, Cass. Marley and Blake got into the mother of all fights. She left him.” It was weird saying it out loud. Like it made everything all the more real.
Cassidy swore under her breath. “I didn’t see that coming. Are they okay? Stupid question, I guess.”
Glancing over my shoulder to make sure Blake wasn’t lurking anywhere nearby, I dropped my voice. “Not really. I drove Marley to the hotel where she’s going to crash for a few days until she sorts her head out.”
“And Blake?”
I snorted. “He’s swell. I think he’s in the drink-and-punch-things stage.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Are you going to hang out there with him, then?”
“Would you mind if I did?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck. “I’m really sorry I didn’t call you earlier—I completely forgot about everything until right now.”
“No, Seth, it’s fine. Yeah. I’m not exactly thrilled you forgot all about me, but I get it. Don’t worry about it.” Her voice was understanding, and I had no choice but to take her words at face value. Cassidy wasn’t the kind of girl to play games, and I had to trust that this wasn’t some twisted trap.
“When can I see you again? I’ll take you out to make up for it.”
“I’m on days all next week. Do you have any nights off?”
“I can do Tuesday?”
“Perfect.”
“Let me know if you feel like doing anything specific.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you later, then?”
“Definitely.”
We hung up and I took the drinks into the living room, where I had a feeling Blake would be drinking until he didn’t feel very much of anything at all.
* * * *
I slept late the next morning, exhausted from spending the night sitting up with Blake in brutal, awkward silence. After he’d worked out some of his feelings with his fist, Blake hadn’t said another word. But I’d sat beside him anyway, keeping his scotch glass topped off and being as there for him as either of us knew how.
He was clearing up the mess in the kitchen when I stepped inside, heading straight for the coffee pot. Blake had looked…better. His eyes were bloodshot, his face pale and sallow. Blake usually went for the I’ve-got-all-my-shit-together look, but the faded jeans and rumpled T-shirt that he wore now weren’t his typical attire.
“Morning,” I said, pouring myself a cup.
Blake grunted in response.
“How’d you sleep?”
No answer.
“What’s your game plan, then?” I asked, sipping the coffee. Last night I might have condoned his wallowing, but I wasn’t about to let it take over his life. Never in all my years as Blake Hamilton’s little brother had I ever seen him so wretched and defeated. All the fight had left him, and if he didn’t pull himself out of his funk soon, there wouldn’t be anything left for him to go back to.
Blake glanced at me. “You’re looking at it.”
I frowned. “Cleaning? That’s your game plan?”
He sighed and tipped the dustpan full of glass into the trashcan. “Yup. I told her last night I wasn’t chasing her. Can’t go proving that I really am a worthless liar like she thinks.”
“Fuck me, Blake. Are you serious?” I shook my head as I stared at my brother. “I get that you’re pissed, I really do, but…you’re not going to do anything? You’re not going to fucking fight for her?”
“She left me, Seth,” Blake said, slamming his hand down on the countertop. “I’m the same goddamn person she’s always known. If that’s not good enough for her, then hell if I know what is.”
“You know that’s not what this is about. She’s hurt, and with good reason. Why aren’t you doing everything in your power to make it right?” Jesus, this was worse than if he was mad. At least if he was angry it would prove he still cared. This… It was as if he’d just given up. “Blake, why won’t you just give her what she wants?”
Blake lifted his eyes to meet mine in a hard stare. “The fucking DNA test?”
I wasn’t the same little boy from last night. I met his stare, and stared right fucking back. “Yeah, the fucking DNA test. Just give it to her. You know you’re not the father, so prove it. And prove to her that she’s more important than your goddam pride.”
Blake shook his head, taking a pause before answering. “It’s not even about that now. She looked at me like I’d been unfaithful.”
“Blake, for Christ’s sake, she’d just found out that you screwed the bitch her ex was screwing behind her back. She was never going to have a rational reaction to that. Give her a day or two to cool off, then give her the DNA test. Hell, if she wants your balls on a barbecue fork, give them to her.”
“It’s really that simple to you?”
“It’s really that complicated for you?” I laughed. “You were the asshole, Blake. Not her.”
He huffed out a breath and scrubbed a hand over his short hair. “Where the hell is this coming from? Wouldn’t have been too long ago that you’d have wanted to celebrate I was single again and offered to buy me a lap dance. Since when are you the one fighting to keep relationships together?”
I shrugged. “Maybe since I realized that some are worth fighting for.”
Blake’s lips twitched as though he fought a smile. “This girl is really getting to you, huh?”
“Like a flesh-eating virus,” I said, rolling my eyes. Cassidy was under my skin and I didn’t want her any place else. “I was relieved when Mom and Dad split. You were in New York at school, but I was there, every day, watching them grow further and further apart.”
Kicking out a stool at the island, Blake took a seat. “I was always under the impression it was amicable, and as far as divorces went, theirs was pretty easy-going.”
“It was, I guess. They didn’t love each other anymore, and not because either of them did anything. So, yeah, I guess it’s better than the other kind where the spouses scream and fight and make everybody miserable. But… Shit, Blake, have you ever watched two people fall out of love?”
He shook his head. “I can’t imagine it was easy for you.”
“It was what it was. I’m glad it wasn’t painful for them. But I hated that my parents, who once loved each other enough to make a life together, to commit, to have kids…couldn’t do anything to keep it going. And the worst part was there wasn’t
any reason. Nothing happened. Nothing broke them so there was nothing to fix. I hated being in that house with no life in it. I was glad when they finally said they were done.”
Blake blew out a breath. “I’m sorry, man. I guess I should have been around more.”
“What could you have done? What I’m trying to say is you have something worth saving, something worth fighting for. And if you really are just going to sit back and piss it away without even trying…then I guess you never deserved it in the first place.”
For a scary second, I thought I’d gone too far. Blake observed me with an eerie calmness. Sort of like a tiger, right before it lunged and ripped its prey’s throat out. He dropped his eyes and rose from his seat.
Blake headed out of the room but paused at the doorway. “When you take her stuff, remember her house keys. She left them last night.”
“How much stuff should I take her?”
“Enough for a day or two. If she wants more, she’ll have to come home.” He stalked out of the kitchen, his back tense.
I grinned but he didn’t see it.
Maybe little brother wasn’t so useless after all.
* * * *
That night before I headed into the club, I stopped by Marley’s hotel room with an overnight bag of her stuff. She answered the door with a spoon hanging from her mouth and a half-empty tub of ice cream in her hand. Her eyes fell to the bag I was carrying and she frowned.
Marley pulled the bag from my hand. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” I said, pushing past her into the room. I dropped the bag on the bed and turned to face her. “If you want any more than that, you can go and get it yourself.”
She rolled her eyes and sank into the armchair in the corner of the room, tucking her feet underneath her body and digging back into the ice cream. “He wouldn’t let you take any more than that, huh?”
I tilted my face and pointed to my jaw, which was sporting a gorgeous bruise. “My pretty face wasn’t willing to push things too far with him.”
Marley’s face fell. “Oh, God, Seth, I’m so sorry.”
Secrets, Lies & Imperfections Page 19