by C. M. Owens
@MavSterling: @SalemWithNoWitch @BellaHasABigBun shouldn’t you be breastfeeding or something?
@BellaHasABigBun: @SalemWithNoWitch @MavSterling I can multitask. Checking out the guys liking her pic now. #Competition
@MavSterling: @BellaHasABigBun @SalemWithNoWitch my cockblocking game is strong. #LookButDontTouch #MyGirl
@BellaHasABigBun: @SalemWithNoWitch @MavSterling is such a romantic… I think.
@EthanNolesIDGAF: @SalemWithNoWitch @BellaHasABigBun Mav doesn’t have shit on me. #legend
@ArleneMommaBear: @EthanNolesIDGAF @SalemWithNoWitch @BellaHasABigBun none better than my boy.
@SalemWithNoWitch: @EthanNolesIDGAF if your mom says it on twitter then I guess it must be true. #ThatsSoSweet
@ArleneMommaBear: @SalemWithNoWitch you need to see his scrapbook!
@EthanNolesIDGAF: @SalemWithNoWitch you and @MavSterling deserve each other. #SmartassesUnited
@MavSterling: @EthanNolesIDGAF @SalemWithNoWitch #Soulmates #PowerCouple
@EthanNolesIDGAF: @MavSterling @SalemWithNoWitch #GagMe
@MavSterling: @SalemWithNoWitch @EthanNolesIDGAF is just mad because Isa Noles looks more like me…
@EthanNolesIDGAF: @MavSterling MY daughter is going to watch me kick your ass for that.
Laughing as I put my phone away, I glance at the door, wondering where Sean is. He usually doesn’t make me go in.
Sighing, I get out and head up the front steps of Mom’s, walking in since the door is unlocked.
“Sean?” I call out, wondering why he’s not meeting me at the front door like he usually does.
When he doesn’t answer, I jog up the steps, finding him sitting at the very top.
“Hey. Why are you up here? Do you not feel like coming with me and Maverick to see the baby again? We’ll only be at the hospital for a second. I promise it won’t be all day.”
He just stares at the step beneath him, head hanging low. It isn’t until I see a tear roll off his nose, drop the short distance to the stair and splatter that I get worried.
“Sean, what’s wrong?” I ask, putting my hand on his shoulder.
“I hate her,” he whispers brokenly.
Before I can ask what the hell she’s done, I hear, “Salem? Come here. We need to speak.”
A gnawing dread unfurls in my stomach. Apparently Sean has done something to piss her off, and now she’s grounding him from my house for a while.
Mom is in Sean’s room, sitting on his bed as she smiles timidly at me. “He just needs a moment. I think he liked this place a little more than some of the others,” she says with no emotion.
But I’m not without emotion.
Confusion is the first emotion.
Denial is the second emotion.
Pain is the third.
“What?” I ask her hoarsely, then clear my throat.
“We’re moving back to Georgia in two weeks. Our time in Sterling Shore has come to an end.”
I shake my head. “No. No! That doesn’t make any sense. Ian is still fawning all over you,” I argue, not believing for one second this conversation is real. “It’s like he can’t look away from you. Why would you even want to leave?”
“It’s not up for debate, and my reasons are none of your concern. Come or don’t. Obviously, I can’t force you.”
She stands and starts walking away, moving down the hallway, and I take a few deep breaths as my heartbeat drums in my ears. Finally, I burst out of Sean’s room, my shoes thudding against the tile floor.
“Like hell it’s not up for debate. We’ve made a home here. This isn’t some random drive-by, and you know it. It’s different this time, for me and Sean,” I snap.
She doesn’t turn around, her heels still clicking and echoing through the halls as she turns into a room. I pursue.
“Is this because I’m with Maverick? Is it really pissing you off that much to see me happy and now you have to rip it away? Is that it?” My voice is raw, my chest is aching, and my tears are relentless.
“Don’t be so melodramatic,” she sighs.
She puts a necklace on the dresser, moving it away from her jewelry box like she doesn’t want it around any of her other things. “Two weeks. That should be plenty of time to tidy up goodbyes,” she says heartlessly.
My eyes scan over the necklace. I only saw it at a glimpse last night when Ian presented her with it. But upon closer inspection, I find it to be an almost exact replica of the one Mom used to have from her grandmother. It broke and fell off of her when I was about thirteen; she never could find it. I remember it, because it’s the one and only time I’ve seen her cry in my entire life.
“This is about the necklace, isn’t it?” I ask, piecing things together, even as my jaw grinds.
She feigns indifference, but I can see it in her eyes that she’s struggling not to look at it.
“God forbid you feel anything for anyone,” I mutter under my breath.
“What was that?” she asks, her voice even and not strained or emotional like mine.
“I said, God forbid you feel anything,” I bite out, looking over at her. “Ian bought you something that meant something to you. Because he listens to you. Clearly you mentioned it, probably during one of your human moments when you unintentionally allowed someone to see who you really are. And you know he bought it because he cares. It fucking means something to you, and your icy heart just refuses to thaw. So you’re running. Never mind that Sean and I love this place. Never mind it’s the first time we’ve felt like we have a home. Just so long as you don’t have to feel anything, nothing else matters.”
Her bottom lip wavers only briefly before she recovers.
“I’ve emailed you the address to the house I’ll be renting so that you can find appropriate housing nearby if you decide to follow us. Two weeks. Consider that a generous courtesy. Stay here if it’s so important to you. Your brother will be going home with me.”
I point to my chest. “My brother’s home is with me. You know why? Because I’m the one who loves him. I’m the one who keeps him warm. I’m the one who works her fucking ass off to keep him from ever being a fraction as cold as you. And trust me, it’s really hard when you constantly take everything away that he loves and work to make sure he can never form healthy attachments.”
Her eyes go a little glossy, but as I said, my mother has only ever cried once.
“Say whatever you want, Salem. Get it all out. This isn’t the first time you thought you loved a boy, and we both know that’s why you’re really showing out right now. Don’t use your brother as a beard to hide your true, juvenile agenda.”
I take a step back, more appalled by her now than I was when she screwed my boyfriend. “It’s amazing to me that you managed not to turn us to ice. It must suck to never want anyone to care about you, since that leaves you always feeling alone. But don’t you worry; Sean and I will be just like Tyler and Connor one day. Just as soon as Sean is old enough to break away. And we’ll forget you even exist.”
This time, I know her eyes water, even as her jaw tics with anger.
“And when you’re all alone in that ice fortress you built so proudly…you can go fuck yourself,” I say in disgust.
I turn, ignoring her as she shouts my name, and slam the door of her bedroom behind me. Mother doesn’t chase. It goes against her rules.
So I don’t worry about looking over my shoulder to find her coming after me.
Sean is right where I left him, and I drop down to sit beside him on the stairs. Neither of us say anything for a few minutes, both of us crying silently in the company of the other.
“We can’t stay, can we?” he finally asks on a hushed whisper.
I clear my throat, wiping away my tears, but find I can’t answer that.
“You could stay,” he says even quieter.
The tears are making it impossible to see now, and I force myself to speak over the lump in my throat. With a monumental effort that comes straight from the most unselfish place in my body, I man
age to force a smile for the sake of my brother.
Reaching over, I put my hand on his shoulder, shaking him a little. “You and me, kiddo. You can’t get rid of me that easily. Besides, who the hell is going to love me like you do? I can’t lose that.”
I can tell my words have zero effect on his mood, though I can’t blame him.
“Maverick loves you,” he finally says on an exhale.
Freaking emotion starts choking me. “I’m going to go pack for Georgia and see about getting an apartment. I’ll call you later, okay?”
He just nods dully, drawing his knees up to his chest and resting his cheek on them, his face away from me.
As I stand up, I hear him whisper again, “I hate her.”
Usually I encourage him not to say that. Today, however, I just don’t have it in me to be the better person.
Because I hate her, too.
Chapter 34
MAVERICK
“So these three are a little soft for my liking. They can’t handle a good teasing without getting bent out of shape. But they are really nice looking. Almost too nice looking to simply scratch off,” Mom says, currently in the process of traumatizing me for life.
She points to three other pictures she has hanging on her chalkboard in her old-school office. Under it—I’m going to be sick—the words “Well Endowed” are written.
“I think this category speaks for itself,” she says with a nauseating giggle.
She points to another category that has KINK—
“Mom!” I say before she starts talking, shutting my eyes when I get worried what else I might see. “You need to call one of your friends for this. Not a mother/son thing.”
“But you and your father always talked women. I’m late to the game, but—”
“Women,” I groan, still keeping my eyes screwed shut. “Not men. And he was my dad. Not my mom.”
“Maverick Sterling, I didn’t raise you to be sexist,” she says, sounding genuinely affronted.
I imagine she’s glaring. I’m not opening my eyes. I’m still trying to unsee what I’ve already seen.
“Not even a little sexist, Mom. Not even Dad broke down this much detail for me,” I tell her.
“Oh,” she finally says, then sighs. “Will my friends think I’m a slut when I tell them about all this?”
I groan, hearing the word slut come out of her mouth. “Not the right friends,” I assure her. “Call Aunt Elizabeth. Or maybe Eleanor. Or even better, call Wanda.”
Seeing all these guys worries the hell out of me.
Carefully avoiding that nightmare-inducing blackboard, I ask Mom, “Are you being safe?”
Hell, these guys could be criminals for all she fucking knows.
“Of course, Maverick. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the one who stocked your bathroom cabinet with condoms until you moved out, since it was apparent you weren’t going to stop having sex. No glove, no love. Just like you used to tell the girls who came through here.”
I turn a little puce.
“Not the kind of safe I was meaning, but thanks for completely ruining sex for me.”
Her mouth forms an O and she refrains from laughing.
“No big deal. I’m twenty-seven, after all. I’m too old for sex.”
“Now you’re just being dramatic,” she says, laughing lightly. “Of course I’m safe. I have a friend run a background check on all of them, and we meet at hotels for—”
“Stopping you there,” I say, holding both hands up in front of me, pleading with my eyes for her to have mercy.
She swallows down the rest of her words before giving me a knowing grin.
“Fine. I’ll call a friend for this. When is Salem coming back over for dinner? I feel like I’ve barely gotten a chance to know her.”
“That’s because I’m in the phase where I’m keeping her to myself as much as possible,” I say before coming to drop a kiss on her cheek.
She follows me out, hand patting my back.
“I like seeing you in a meaningful relationship. It makes me not worry about you so much,” she says softly. “I want you to know, I’m searching for someone. This isn’t just me trying to get my ‘wild’ out or anything. I’m just looking for the right connection.”
Tossing my arm around her shoulders, I hug her to my side. “Yeah, I know. I’m trying to keep my nose out of it. For the record, it’s damn hard to do.”
She laughs lightly as I release her.
“I have to get home and grab some things before I go to meet Salem. We’re going to see the new baby and then driving out to Raya and Kade’s vineyard for the day.”
“Oh! The baby! What’d they name her?” Mom asks as I put my hat back on backwards.
“Isa. Ethan thought it’d be a hilarious play on Bella’s name—Isa and Bella. I think all the endorphins had gotten to her head, so she agreed to anything he said.”
She rolls her eyes. “It’s a lovely name. I’ll swing by their house when they get home and drop off the baby blanket I made for them. Could have sworn they were having a boy, so it’s a blue blanket. Oh well.”
After a little more chitchat about Isa—why did I bring up a baby to my mother when I was trying to leave?—I finally get out and hurry to my house. But for some weird reason, Dad’s car is in my driveway.
Confused, I get out and jog inside. “Dad?”
“In here,” comes the slurred response.
I walk through to my den to find him on my couch, a dozen or more beer bottles on the table in front of him, and the scent of stale cigar smoke lingering the air. He’s still in his wrinkled clothes from last night, and he quite frankly looks like shit.
“What the hell? Did you stay here last night?” I ask, confused. Usually if she doesn’t have Sean, we stay here, but crashed at her place last night because she had to feed the damn Devil cat, then we were just too tired to go again.
“Figured it’d be safe, since you stay with Salem most nights,” he says before burping.
Totally not my dad. He never gets sloppy drunk, and he never wears wrinkled clothes. He sure as hell doesn’t smell like death on a normal day.
I’ve never seen him like this.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask him, and he blows out a heavy breath.
“I honestly have no fucking clue,” he says, shaking his head. “I knew when I married her she wasn’t in love with me. But I fell hard for her, Maverick. Not an easy woman to love, but that’s what made her twice as special,” he explains, only adding to my confusion as I go to lower myself onto the couch next to him.
He snags a beer from the table, drinking another long swallow.
As the bottle lowers from his lips, he goes on. “I thought it was my punishment. Finally finding a woman who made my world stand still, only to learn she was the one woman immune to falling in love with me.”
He snorts, and I smirk at his joke about his arrogance. At least that sounds like him. Nothing else does so far.
“It was the times she let me in. Those moments her guard was down and she showed me the real woman no one else got to see…those moments were what made her so damn special and dragged me over the damn edge.”
Unsure where this is going and why he’s so out of sorts, I pat him on the shoulder.
“What happened?” I ask again.
“That’s just it; I don’t fucking know,” he groans. “Everything was fine last night. We had a great time. Then after you and Salem left and Sean went up to his room, Kelly found me in the study and told me that it was over.”
My skin prickles as my eyes widen.
“What?”
“I was so blindsided that I didn’t even argue at first. And by the time I got my head wrapped around her words, she’s was asking me to give her two weeks to get her affairs in order. She even packed me a fucking bag. Hell, all I could do was just let my jaw hang. I had no words. She was so fucking cold that it didn’t even look like the same woman. I still have no clue what I did, Maverick. None
.”
I run a hand through my hair, and then scrub the same hand over my face. Salem warned me this would happen.
“I’ll go find Salem and see if she can shed some light on all this,” I tell him.
“That would be appreciated,” he says on a long-suffering sigh. “And tell her she doesn’t have to move out. I know she sent a text saying the movers would be there next week to collect her things, but it’s not necessary. She’s welcome to stay there as long as she likes.”
My blood turns to ice in my veins as his words slowly sink in—as the entire situation slowly sinks in.
“She said she’s moving?” I ask quietly, knowing damn well she hasn’t sent that text to me.
“I assumed she was going to find somewhere not affiliated with my name on it, worried I’d take out my frustrations with her mother on her. But you know I won’t do that,” he says, not understanding the full gravity of this situation.
If Kelly goes, Sean goes. If Sean goes—
No!
Salem wouldn’t just leave. She can’t.
“I need to go,” I say, standing abruptly. “You can stay here as long as you need.”
“Thanks,” he says on a sigh.
I pull my phone out as I stalk toward the door. I text three Sterlings to let them know their brother needs them right now, though he’d never call them himself. They’re not as close as I am with my cousins who are more like brothers. But they’re still there for each other when it counts.
Blowing out a shaky breath, I get in my car, try to get all my emotions in check, and drive to Salem.
We can fix this. There’s always a way to fucking fix it.
Chapter 35
SALEM
Sean walks in, the door shutting hard behind him, and I wipe away my tears, pretending as though I haven’t been crying for the past thirty minutes since I left him with Mom.
“You want to grab some ice cream or something?” I ask him as he goes directly to his room, not bothering to answer me.
As I walk toward him, I notice the driver who drove him here is still idling in my driveway.
Just as I walk into his room, I see him putting Bananas in her pet carrier, her other belongings hanging out of a bag.