“It’s a public safety risk!”
“Hey, Mace! How’s that signal indicator working?” Ben shouts, looking over my shoulder.
I turn in time to see Mason throw an annoyed glare my way. And then he stumbles over a crack in the sidewalk and drops his keys.
“It’s a good thing that guy is so smart,” Ben murmurs with a smirk as he leads me forward, away from my two best friends, who have been wearing those same scowls since the bar. That’s the other reason I avoided the car ride—I don’t want to deal with an intervention right now.
We climb the stairs to the porch, Ben’s arm around me the way I’d imagine a boyfriend’s would be, giving lazy high-fives to a few of the guys standing there.
“Why are you still living like a frat guy?” I ask as he pushes the door open.
I get my answer immediately.
“Because it’s not a frat house; it’s a brothel,” I correct as I take in the crowd of people milling about. Some are just lounging on couches with beers in hand and college-aged girls perched on their laps while they giggle and shout over the baseball game on the television. But others are circling a small group of scantily clad and disproportionately figured women, pretending to be interested by what they’re saying, all while their pants are stretched over their crotches with hopes of what tonight may bring. “Why am I not surprised?” I shout over the shitty house music, courtesy of a guy and his mixing table in the corner.
Ben’s shaking his head in denial but he’s smiling. “These girls aren’t like that.” My doubtful stare has him elaborating, “They’re Penny’s girls. They just dance.”
“Really? And the Twinkie? Does she just dance for you?” Why is it that she’s really annoying me tonight?
People start noticing Ben and a loud roar of approval and clapping erupts.
He chuckles, pulling me in farther. “Do you remember Travis? From Cancún?” Ben asks as we come face-to-face with a tall, shaggy-haired decent-looking guy.
The guy sticks his hand out. I’ll bet the confused look on his face matches mine. At least I wasn’t the only shit-faced one down there that night. “Did we meet?”
I point to my head. “Used to be all purple, if that helps.”
His eyes widen. “No way!” He turns to look at Ben. “You finally found her?”
What? “Ben was looking for me?”
“She works with me,” Ben explains to his friend, tightening his arm around my neck until my cheek is pressed up against his chest.
“Man, I can’t tell you how pissed he was when you didn’t leave your number,” he tells me with a laugh. “He kept going on and on about you.”
Oh, this is getting better and better. “Seriously?” I manage to twist my head until I’m looking directly up at Ben’s square jaw. “Were you pining over me all this time, Ben?” I know he doesn’t pine, so this guy is clearly teasing him, but it’s still funny to see Ben getting instead of giving for once.
Ben shakes his head, but he’s laughing when he calls his friend a liar. Leaning down to press his mouth against my ear, he murmurs, “No, I just really wanted a new shirt.”
I roll my eyes and try to pull away from Ben. It’s futile. I’m trapped against him and he seems unwilling to budge. I decide to just go with it, burrowing into him and staying there while he and his friend talk about some football trade for a pool they’re in.
So when my phone starts vibrating in my back pocket, I don’t hesitate to slide it out to read the text:
Was that really you?
My heart jumps.
“No, no, no,” Ben mutters, his full attention on me again as he swiftly pries my phone from my hand.
“Nosey!” I smack his face away as he raises his arm high above his head with a grin. I don’t doubt he’d like me to scale him like a tree, but I’m not going to.
“He broke that black heart of yours. And now he’s married. Don’t be stupid.”
“He’s just making sure he has his facts straight before he has me arrested!” I snap, adding, “And I thought you were Switzerland.”
Cupping the back of my neck with his hand, he stares down at me with sincere blue eyes. “I am. I’m also a concerned friend. Don’t answer him. Nothing in writing. That’s my legal advice.” He looks over my shoulder and bellows, “Hey, Lina! Come talk some sense into your crazy friend for me.”
I glare up at him but he only smiles, dipping down to lay a quick kiss right on my lips. “You’re not leaving me like this tonight.”
“Like what?”
He tugs my body flush against his and I get my answer, a second before two fierce hands grab hold of each of my forearms. Nicki and Lina, tag-teaming to drag me outside to the porch while my eyes stay locked with Ben’s.
“Okay, spill it MacKay,” Lina demands, practically pushing me into one of the few lawn chairs available. Thankfully we don’t have an audience, now that the guys have moved their drinking shenanigans inside.
Nicki tries a slightly different approach, taking a seat next to me so that we’re eye level. “What’s going on with you, buddy?” she asks softly, handing me a beer.
With a groan, I drop my head into my free hand.
And then I tell them about everything. Even the paintball ambush, which thankfully they find more humorous than disturbing. When I’m done, I find myself facing two sets of eyes, one harder than the other, but both empathetic.
“He was sleeping with her almost the whole time you were married?” Nicki asks, her eyes widening in disbelief. “I just don’t get it. He seemed so into you. Like, there were no signs that made me think ‘cheater.’ Not one!”
Lina heaves a sigh. “I don’t know what to say about all of this, Reese. Is this healthy? No. Are you going to get hurt again? Yes. Is it worth it?” She pauses, as if to let us both think about it. “No. I mean, that bitch deserves what’s coming to her and she’s going to get it eventually—don’t you worry about that. Karma never forgets. But it doesn’t have to come from you. There’s really no point in keeping in touch with the douchebag. What you two had is gone and even if you get back together, it’ll never be the same. You won’t ever trust him again!”
“I told you, I don’t want to get back together with him!”
Lina’s face turns sour. “I need a drink to deal with your stubborn ass. Your turn, Nicki.” I watch Lina’s willowy frame march stiffly through the door, wondering why my best friend seems so angry at me all of a sudden. We’ve been through a lot together and she’s always been the nonjudgmental constant for me.
“She’s just worried about you,” Nicki confirms, reaching out to squeeze my hand. “We all are. I know you loved him but the guy’s a waste of air, Reese. I wish you’d see that.”
I tip my head back and let out an exaggerated moan. “I do see that!”
“Well, then when is this going to end? How far are you going to go with this?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” That’s the truth. I’ve played a few scenarios out in my head, but I’m not married to any of them.
“Well . . .” A wry smile curls her lips. “At least you have Ben to keep you occupied.”
“I do,” I agree, smiling as I peer over my shoulder through the window.
To see a platinum-blond hovering and Ben grinning down at her. “Shit. When did she get here?” What happened to those litigation guys keeping her entertained? I guess she’s not after just any lawyer.
She’s after mine.
I take a long draw of my beer as I try to make sense of the tightening feeling in my gut right now. Is it jealousy that he’s been with her? Disappointment that that smile’s not reserved only for me?
“Well, you’d better get in there before she puts her stripper moves on him,” Nicki says, standing. I follow suit and find myself face to face with Mason.
“Hey.” His face pinches up a bit. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I look over his shoulder, but there’s no Lina in sight. “She’s inside,” he confirms, adding, “doing shots with Kent and Travis.”
“Ooooh . . .” both Nicki and I wail in unison. “Lina plus shots equals pukey-pukey tomorrow. Make sure you have a bucket,” I warn Mason, adding, “and hold her hair back.” Mason’s not going to deal with boyfriend vomit duties very well. This may prove a true test to their relationship.
“Catch you inside,” Nicki says with a pat on my shoulder, leaving me alone with my stepbrother. I fall back into the lawn chair and he joins me, to sit silently as I watch a stray cat dart across the street, its eyes glowing against an approaching car’s headlights.
“So . . . I think I know what’s going on.”
“You’re so clever.” I reach up to stroke his head and he swats my hand away, an annoyed frown touching his face.
“You know, when you moved back, I was sure you were trying to swindle Jack out of money. But so far you’ve done nothing but work and try not to act insane. My dad’s really happy, Reese. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time.” He pauses. “And he wouldn’t be happy if he knew what you were doing.”
He’s playing the Jack card on me. And it’s working, guilt settling onto my shoulders like a dead weight. “Are you referring to what I’m doing with Ben or Jared?”
“Both.” Mason pauses. “You know, relationships aren’t supposed to be like this, Reese. I don’t know if you’re going after guys like this because you’re a glutton for punishment or because you’ve just never seen what a decent relationship looks like, but—”
“I’m not after Ben,” I snap. “And Jared was all heart and no head. That’s really the only way I can describe that.”
“And were you using your head tonight?” he pushes. “Because I get the impression that you think you have a score to settle with your ex.”
“What do you care, Mason? I get that you want to be nice to me because of Lina, but don’t suddenly try to be my big brother.”
“That’s not . . .” His lips purse together tightly. “Don’t you ever wonder why your mom is the way she is? What made her so callous? People don’t just grow up like that.”
“No, I don’t, Mason. I try not to think about Annabelle at all.” My irritation is growing by the second. Where the hell is Lina? She needs to come fetch her boyfriend.
“Well, I think it had something to do with what happened between her and your dad. I think she never got over it, and that makes her chew up good men like Jack.”
“And what happened between Annabelle and my dad exactly, Mason? Because I’d love to know and I sure as hell have no idea. Do you?” I learned at a very young age that bringing up Hank MacKay got me nowhere but sent to my room. Annabelle could have ranted about my father to me, but what she chose to do was far worse. She just pretended that he didn’t exist.
“No, I don’t,” he admits. “But I know that we’d all hate to see you turn into her.” He sighs. “I knew she was cheating on my dad before he did. I heard her on the phone, late one night. I just wasn’t sure who it was with. Then, when my dad caught them . . .” Mason’s jaw clenches. “I hated seeing him cry over her.”
A lump spikes in my throat. Jack cried over Annabelle? I certainly never saw Annabelle shed a tear over Jack. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen her cry since the day I watched her set fire to a box of my dad’s things in the driveway. She stood there, her arms wrapped around her body tight, ignoring my questions, until there was nothing left but ashes.
“Well, I’m not Annabelle and don’t ever compare me to her.”
Mason’s mouth twists up. “I really hope that’s true, Reese.”
“All right.” I stand, struggling to quash the bubble of pain rising. “I’m going to join your girlfriend for some shots.” I round the corner and step through the doorway.
And find Ben with a Twinkie attached to his chest.
Chapter 24
BEN
Shit. This really isn’t helping right now. I peer down at Mercy, at her tits pressed up against my chest, the man-made cle**age through the center. I’m betting Mercy was an A—B, tops—before her implants. “You took the entire night off?”
She shrugs and then offers me a coy smile.
Fuck. I’m halfway drunk and now I have a sure thing rubbing her ni**les against me. Where the hell is Reese? She wouldn’t have left without her phone and I’m not giving that back until tomorrow. The last thing I need her doing is responding to him. Leaving the party to go meet him. To do what? Vengeance f**k the guy?
I shouldn’t care, but I do. I’m just having a hard time figuring out exactly why. I don’t like watching my friends make stupid mistakes, but my gut is feeling off about the entire situation. I take a long sip of my beer as I try to figure out if I’m more bothered by her acting like an idiot or her screwing around with another guy when I want to be the one screwing around with her. The woman has turned me upside down. Ben Morris does not concern himself with this kind of shit. Ben Morris goes with the flow. Ben Morris is f**king Switzerland! He can get hot ass wherever and whenever he wants it, no strings attached.