When I woke up the next morning, my face was swollen and hurt. I had a headache and my mouth was dry. My whole body felt stiff and tense. I realized someone knocking on my door was what had woken me up. Shifting in Ethan’s arms, I sighed. “Oh, my God, what time is it?”
Ethan sat up and reached for his phone. “It’s nine. Shit. I’m late.” Getting out of bed, he shuffled to the door and cracked it open.
I could hear a low conversation but I couldn’t hear what was being said. Then he swung the door open wide and light from the hallway poured into my dark room, making me wince. “What? Who is it?”
“He says he’s your brother,” Ethan said in amazement.
I looked over, startled. No. It couldn’t be.
It was.
Brian gave me a salute. “Hey, Cat. What’s up, buttercup? Long time no see.”
Chapter Ten
Of all times for Brian to break our unspoken truce, he had to do it now? I crawled out of bed, wanting to punch myself repeatedly in the head until I passed out. “What do you want?”
“That’s the greeting I get?” He strolled in, because that’s what Brian did. He strolled. He sauntered. He grinned. He never had a goddamn care in the world. “Give me a hug. It’s been awhile.”
“It’s been eighteen months.” I stood there stiffly while he hugged me. I caught a whiff of alcohol on his breath. Rum, most likely. It was nine am and he’d been drinking already. Or maybe he hadn’t been to bed yet. There was no telling.
“Has it been that long? Feels like no more than nine months. Maybe six.” He either didn’t notice or didn’t care that I didn’t return his hug. “So who is your friend here, Cat? Must be a good friend since he’s sharing your room.” He winked at me.
Brian was three years older than me but he looked even more. He’d gotten too much sun in his childhood and alcohol had broken blood vessels in his nose and cheeks, so he had a ruddy complexion. His stomach was rounder now, a quintessential beer gut, and when he smiled, I could see that he was missing his incisor. Whether from a bar fight or a cavity, there was no telling. Brian disappeared and resurfaced at will, depending on how well he was able to charm and con his friends, or more likely, women.
I had no intention of introducing him to Ethan. I just wanted to hear why he was there, then get rid of him. But Ethan’s manners had him sticking his hand out.
“I’m Ethan Walsh. Caitlyn and I are engaged.”
“Engaged?” Brian’s eyebrows shot up and he gave me a grin. “Moving up in the world, eh, little sis? Good for you.” He took Ethan’s hand and shook it. “I’m Brian, Caitlyn’s brother.” His emphasis on my full name was mocking. No one in Vinalhaven called me Caitlyn and he clearly found it amusing. “So when is the wedding? Despite the fact that my sister has been a complete bitch to me, I’m happy to walk her down the aisle.”
“Over my dead body,” I told him bluntly. “You’re not even invited.”
Ethan looked astonished.
Brian turned and gave me a vicious glare that Ethan couldn’t see. But when he looked at Ethan again, he was smiling casually. “She has mommy issues. She never could stand that I was our mother’s favorite.”
My fists clenched at my sides. I forced myself to take a deep breath and not go off on him the way I really would have liked to. “What do you want, Brian?”
“I just wanted to drop by and say hi. See if you want to go to breakfast or something.”
“I have class.”
“Another time then.” He gave a cough, and it was wet and deep in his chest. A smoker’s morning cough. “Do you think you could lend me twenty bucks? Kerri doesn’t get paid until Friday and we’re a bit short.”
Kerri was apparently the sucker letting him stay with her. I didn’t want to give him anything but a hard kick in the ass, but I also wanted him to go away. So I went and found my purse and scrounged up sixteen dollars. I held it out for him without a word.
“Thanks, Kitty Cat. I appreciate it. I’ll give Mom your love since you never get up to see her.”
He didn’t either. That was a dig designed to make me look bad in front of Ethan. “Wonderful,” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. I went and opened the door.
Brian gave me a salute and walked through it. He turned and was about to say something but I slammed the door shut. And locked it. I could hear him laughing on the other side, clearly having enjoyed getting me riled up.
I swore. I stomped over to my desk and took a swallow from an old can of Diet Coke. It was flat but my throat was dry and I was pissed off.
“Are you going to explain that to me?” Ethan asked. “Since when do you have a brother? Are there any other relatives you’d like to mention to me? You know, to the guy you plan to marry?” He sounded angry.
Which maybe he had a right to be.
“I have a foster sister, Tiffany. She still lives in Vinalhaven. But Brian doesn’t count. He’s dead to me, seriously.” I paced back and forth, wondering how he’d known where I lived and what it meant. Brian wanted more than a lousy twenty. When he roused himself from his bar stool, he always had an agenda.
“Dead to you? Jesus, Caitlyn. Who talks about their brother like that?” Ethan was looking at me like I was a horrible human being. “And I just can’t believe that he never once came up in a conversation between us. Even in a you know, my brother is dead to me, kind of way.”
This wasn’t the way I wanted Ethan to learn about my brother. He couldn’t possibly understand how truly awful Brian was. “I don’t like to talk about him. He’s always been a vicious person and he’s been an alcoholic since he was sixteen. But the final straw was my dad’s funeral. He showed up drunk, Ethan. He knocked over things. He threw a vase. Then he stood up to give a speech and laughed. He f**king laughed at my father’s funeral.” I was furious having to say the words out loud, to remember. “So you tell me why I would acknowledge him as a brother. He’s a grade A ass**le and if I never see him again it will be too soon.”
“Tell me how you really feel.”
That just made me even angrier. “Don’t patronize me!”
Ethan held up his hands. “No, I’m being serious. For once, tell me how you really feel, because clearly there is a whole lot of shit that has gone down in your life that you haven’t bothered to share with me.” He shook his head. “I’m looking at you and I’m wondering if I even know you. Who is this angry girl? Who is Cat? Because all I know is Caitlyn.”