“Having her back” for a favor every now and then was a damn sight different than having it forever.
She wanted forever with someone. She was ready for forever. Please, God, don’t let me be wasting my time.
Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, what the fuck.”
Seth’s voice yanked Macy from a fitful sleep…if what she was doing could be called that. She never could get comfortable or relaxed enough in a car to fully achieve it. Whatever the case, he startled her so that she was upright and wide awake almost before the final k left his lips.
By all appearances, it was early afternoon, and he was nudging the GTO to the curb on a quiet-looking street lined with quiet-looking houses. They had made it to his sister’s, presumably. And he wasn’t happy.
“What’s wrong?”
“That.” He pointed through the windshield at the shiny black Tahoe with Texas plates parked in front of them. “That is my sorry motherfucker of a brother.”
“Oh. You didn’t think he’d come?”
“Why the hell would he? He hasn’t done shit so far; why start now?”
“Well…” At a loss and a grave disadvantage, Macy fumbled for something encouraging to say and gave up. Nothing her sleepy brain could conjure would magically undo what appeared to be years of animosity. “I’m sorry.”
“I can’t believe Steph didn’t give me the heads-up he was here.”
“Maybe she didn’t think you’d come if she did.”
“I wouldn’t have. I’d have at least gone straight to the hospital like I wanted to in the first place. If she’s got some kind of family reunion kiss-and-make-up shit in mind, she can hang it up.”
Here was an angle she could take, maybe. “You’re her brothers. She needs you both. Whatever’s in the past, put it aside for her and your grandmother. You all need each other now.”
“I need that a**hole like I need—”
“Yes, everyone knows that. Listen to what I said, please? Am I not right?”
He hadn’t killed the engine yet. He could still dart away and avoid this altogether…for now, at least. He’d have to face it sooner or later. She could see the calculations going on behind his eyes. And the pain. Maybe leaving right now would be for the best. She didn’t like it, but the last thing she wanted to get caught up in was drama in an unfamiliar family. Sam and Candace were only a couple hours behind them, maybe three. If Seth’s driving away right now would keep the peace until her friends could get here and rescue her, hell, she should be all for it.
“Whatever you want to do,” she told him quietly.
He deflated. His brief nap had invigorated him enough that he’d seemed okay when they swapped driving duties at the state line, but now she watched the lingering exhaustion take hold of him, absolutely sapping what remaining energy he had left. Reaching up, he turned the key off. Everything about the motion seemed like a slow defeat.
What could be as bad as that? What was waiting for him in there?
“Maybe you should clue me in a little?”
“Macy, I honestly don’t have the strength right now. You’ll find out soon enough.”
Adequately mystified, she turned her attention to the pretty white frame house beyond the small but meticulously landscaped yard to their right. As she watched, a blonde woman stepped out onto the porch with a toddler on her hip, waved and descended the steps. The same woman from the pictures at his house.
Seth popped open his door, and Macy followed suit, getting out and trailing him up the walkway. She stood without speaking while he and his sister embraced as best they could around his nephew—who was adorable—and then stepped forward into Seth’s reach when he turned back and held his arm out toward her.
“Macy, sister. Sister, Macy.”
“Stephanie,” the other woman supplied. To Macy’s surprise, she rushed forward and pulled her into a one-armed hug too. “Thank you so much for coming with him.”
“It was no problem, really. I’m sorry about your nana.” Despite the somberness of the exchange, she had to chuckle as the little boy on Steph’s hip grabbed her hair in a death grip, and Steph joined in her laughter as she worked to extricate her.
“I never have that problem,” Seth deadpanned as Macy came free. He rubbed the shadow on his shaved head in demonstration.
“Well, if that’s what I have to do to stop having that problem, I’ll pass.” Steph took her little boy’s hand and waved it at Macy. “This is Matthew, and yes, he loves long hair. And dangly earrings. Come on in, you guys. You look exhausted.”
“Hold up. You could’ve warned me he was here, you know. I mean…dammit, Steph.”
“Are you being serious? Don’t you think it’s time you got over it?”
“No, I f**king don’t. That’s not some shit you just get over.”
“Jesus, Seth, you have a beautiful, obviously wonderful angel of a girl right here.” Macy nearly jumped backward when Stephanie indicated her with a sweep of her free arm. What the hell did she have to do with anything? “So what does it even matter anymore?”
It all clicked into place. Oh, God. It was over a girl. Some other girl. Macy shifted uncomfortably, more convinced than ever this had been a very, no, excruciatingly bad idea.
“I don’t give a f**k about the girl. What I give a f—” He seemed to catch himself when Steph smacked his arm and jerked her head toward his nephew. “What I care about is that I’m blood related to someone who’d even do that sh—stuff. You should take note, you know. If he’ll screw me, he’ll screw you.”
Steph sighed with weary resignation. “I’m sure we won’t have to deal with him for long. Once it’s all over, he’ll disappear again. Just play nice for now, please?”
“I guess she’s here too?”
“She’s here.”
“If he starts up with me, I’m gone.”
“Fine. Fair enough.” His sister turned and went up the steps. Seth looked at Macy, who stared back with something akin to panic as the screen door banged shut.
“This is about some girl?” she hissed at him. “Thanks a lot for warning me.”
“It’s…” He shook his head and turned, clomping up the steps. Practically leaving her standing there. “It’s just f**ked up.” As she considered bolting for his car and jacking it all the way back to Texas, he stopped and looked back at her. “I didn’t expect all this, you know. If I had, you wouldn’t be here. I’m sorry.”
If he was trying to encourage her, he was failing miserably…but he wasn’t trying, she decided as he pulled open the screen door and stared at her expectantly. He had closed down, turned off. She’d watched it happen in the car. It wasn’t exhaustion—or it wasn’t only exhaustion. It was emotional shutdown. The grimness she’d only seen flashes of since he’d come back had overtaken all remaining good humor in his features.
Whatever this was, he definitely wasn’t over it by now. Where did that leave her?
Aching like hell, that was what. It hurt. Anger bubbled up, but as she’d told herself in the car, she had to get a grip. Now wasn’t the time, and she’d be going home blessedly soon. Maybe she’d have a good long while to step back and mull it over while he stayed here. Just a couple more hours. Hang in there.
She brushed past Seth into the house as he held the door for her, almost afraid of what she would find. No one was in the living room, but voices drifted in from what must be the kitchen up ahead. She waited for Seth to come in and lead the way, wiping her damp palms on her jeans.
And stopped in her tracks.
A man had stepped into the doorway…and he could’ve been Seth himself, only…well, with hair. Just as he’d looked in that picture at his house. Identical.
Freaking twins. God, there were two of him?
Only this guy was another animal entirely. His clothes were expensive. Not a rip or tear or even a worn spot in those starched jeans, and what skin she could see on his arms carried no trace of ink.
Wow. Just…f**king wow.
Seth greeted him, shook hands with him, but he did so coolly. Macy was waiting for her own introduction—his name was Scott, wasn’t it?—when a very tall, very beautiful blonde came in behind Seth’s brother and took her place beside him. She wore slim black pants and a flowing blue top that did nothing to hide the fact she was also very pregnant.
Macy felt Seth freeze up beside her. If that were even possible given the tension already coming off him in waves. Had he not known?
“Seth,” the blonde said, “how have you been?”
“I’ve been great. I see you’re…doing well.”
She dropped a delicate hand—her left hand, big sparkling rock on her finger—to her swollen belly and laughed as Scott settled his arm around her shoulders. “I guess if you can call this ‘well’.”
“Yeah, you…look great.”
“Doesn’t she?” Scott asked. “Brooke’s the hottest little mama around.” He nuzzled her ear and she giggled.
Brooke. Brooke?
The Brooke?
Oh, hell no.
Forget Seth acting a fool; Macy herself was ready to launch at this guy’s throat on his behalf. Fucked up, he’d said. Yeah, that was an understatement. This was all kinds of f**ked up.
And now the twin-brother-hopping Brooke was pregnant, and apparently, Seth hadn’t known.
Through the rushing in her ears, she was vaguely aware the conversation went stiltedly on. How humiliated must he be for Macy to see this? She wanted to get him out of here, because he was going through enough, and now he had to face this too. Everything she’d told him in the car was off the table. They definitely should not have come here.
But for God’s sake, he could have told her. He could have trusted her that much. Though if the tables were reversed, could she have done the same?
“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?” Scott was saying. Macy snapped out of her funk, realizing she’d let herself stand back ignored for too long. She was opening her mouth to reply when Seth opened his. Oh, did he ever open it.
“I don’t know. Is it safe?”
Macy had the irrational thought that the elephant in the room had just surged forward and trumpeted and trampled everything in its path. The painful, forced formality towered into full-blown hostility as Scott glared at Seth with a look that could burn through steel and Brooke dropped her gaze to the floor. Stephanie entered the room cautiously at their backs, looking ready to throw herself between the four of them if need be.
Macy stuck her hand out practically in Scott’s face. “Macy Rodgers. Very nice to meet you.”
He blinked and looked at her, taking her hand briefly. “Scott Warren. You too.”
She swung her hand to the blonde. “Brooke, was it?”
Looking relieved, she nodded and shook also, but Macy didn’t miss the tremor in her hands. “Brooke Warren.”