Straddling The Edge

by Julie Prestsater

  “Get your hands off of her,” Summer shouts. Thank you! She comes barreling toward us and yanks his hand away from me. “You are out of control.” She jabs a finger into his chest. Then, she turns to me. “You are so right. Stand-up comedy. He was just feeding me the whole I’ll fight for you spiel just a minute ago.”

  I place my hand on her shoulder and hunch over laughing. “He’s so pathetic, you just have to laugh.” She starts cracking up right along with me and puts up her hand for a high-five.

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Matty breaks out in a speed walk to get to us. He looks at Chase and then back at me. He must sense something is up. Smoke is practically coming out of Chase’s ears and the scowl on his face is a dead giveaway too.

  “Not much,” Summer says, with a chuckle. “Just another day in the life of one of Chase’s ex-girlfriends.”

  I bust up. “Yeah, first he asked Summer to take him back proclaiming he was willing to fight for her. When she told him to fuck off, he tried the same line on me.” I turn to Chase. “Sorry, buddy. I happen to love my hot ass husband and Summer is more than satisfied with her gorgeous new beau, so it looks like you’re out of luck.”

  His eyes narrow on mine, and if my husband wasn’t standing in between us staring him down too, he might be tempted to punch me. Let him try. Matty alone could knock him on his ass. But with Matty, my brother, and Dean, the poor guy would go home in pieces.

  “Yeah, keep laughing. I feel for you, Matt, you’re stuck with one crazy bitch.”

  Holy shit! My husband lunges at him and Chase dodges his punch by a fraction of a hair. Instinctively, I jump in front of Matty. “Don’t, honey. He’s so not worth your time.” As much as I’d love to see Chase on the floor, it’s another thing for it to actually happen. I may be one crazy bitch, but I’m not the fighting kind. I’m more of the curse them with diarrhea kind.

  “You’re running out of luck, Chase. You better thank my crazy wife for saving your ass. Next time, I’m not going to let her get in the way. On second thought, there better not be a next time.”

  “What the hell? I go outside to dance for just a minute and you guys are having a private party in here without me?” Mel walks into the room, with Tyler and Dean on her heels.

  My brother catches a glimpse of my husbands flared nostrils and heaving chest and says, “What’s going on?”

  “Summer, what happened?” Dean asks. Oblivious, these guys are not.

  “Nothing, let’s just go. Shelly and I were just getting a good laugh. I’ll tell you on the way home.” Summer takes Dean’s hand and tries to get him to budge toward the door. His eyes keep flickering back and forth between Summer and Chase, who just happens to be smirking. I know that look. Nothing good can come of it. I need to get everyone moving as soon as possible.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I tell them, waving my hands toward the door like an air traffic controller. “We have more beer to drink at home.”

  “You’re laughing now, Summer, but you won’t be when you find out what your lover boy has been keeping from you.”

  Ahh, shit. Chase just had to go open his big mouth. He couldn’t just let us leave in peace with what little dignity he had left intact.

  Mel finally says something, “Chase, shut the hell up. No one wants to hear your nonsense.” She grabs Summer by the arm and starts leading her away with a quickness. Uh oh. Does Chase really know something? And Mel knows about it?

  Dean shoots Chase an evil look that screams don’t you fucking dare, and now I’m worried. This can’t end well. Because we all know Chase isn’t going to stay silent.

  “Hey, Summer. Did your boyfriend tell you that he only got with you as a payback to me? He hates me so much for stealing his girl in high school that he went slumming with you.”

  Son of a bitch.

  Dean turns back to Chase, but Summer catches his arm. “Dean, is that true?”

  “Of course it isn’t.”

  “Wow, so pretty boy is a liar too,” Chase calls out. “Not only does he keep things from you, he lies about it too.”

  “Just shut up,” Tyler shouts at him. “Shut the fuck up for once.”

  “Or what?” Chase says, puffing out his chest to my brother.

  “Or I’m going to kick your ass, that’s what!”

  Oh shit.

  “Your sidekick here already tried that but he let his crazy-ass bitch of a wife talk him out of it.”

  Matty tries to move but I hold onto him. “Nope, ain’t gonna happen. I don’t want you to hurt one little knuckle on his ugly face.”

  “Did he just call my sister a crazy ass bitch?” The look on Ty’s face is pure hatred.

  “What’s wrong, Melissa. You’re not going to jump in front of your man so he can pretend like he actually has the balls to hit me?”

  Mel puts her hands on her hips “Hell no, I’m not. You think Shel’s the crazy bitch. She doesn’t have anything on me. You go right on ahead, baby. Kick his fucking …”

  Before she finishes her sentence, there is a loud crack as my brother’s fist connects with Chase’s jaw. He bends over, holding his head, and Ty says, “That was for my sister, you dick.” And then, holy shit, he hits him again with an uppercut, and his face flings back. “And that one is for Summer, you sorry piece of shit.”

  “What about me?” Mel asks, with a fake pout.

  Ty gives him one more to the gut. “That was for my wife and just for fun. I bet you wish you would’ve kept your big trap shut.”

  Chase falls to the ground with a grunt. His lip is bleeding and his face is definitely swollen.

  “Who knew my artsy fartsy brother could throw a punch?” I say, with a light chuckle.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Ty says, pointing toward the door.

  Summer holds up her hand. “Wait. We’re not going anywhere until I know what the hell Chase is talking about.” She turns to Dean. “I know something is up with you two. Your mom mentioned something. I’ve been trying to get you to talk to me about it but you haven’t. Is it true? Did he steal your girlfriend?”

  Dean puts his hands through his hair with a loud growl. “Yes. It’s true.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I don’t know. It was stupid of me, but I just couldn’t get it out.” Dean tries to find the right words but turns into a stuttering fool.

  “Well, let me get this out.” Oh no. Tears are in her eyes. “This whole relationship is a lie. I have told you so many times how much I adore our honesty and treasure our trust because I’ve never had that before. Well, it turns out I never had it with you either. Your lack of trust in me, and your willingness to keep something from me only makes me believe that what Chase said is true. I already knew that Chase never cared about me, but I never thought I’d believe that you didn’t either.”

  “If you choose to believe that asshole over me, than I guess you’re right. Our whole relationship has been nothing but a lie, and now … it’s over.” Dean turns tail and leaves the room with such a pained expression that even my heart breaks for him. And for her.

  Chapter 21

  Summer

  “What the fuck just happened?” The words come out of my mouth involuntarily.

  “Ty. Matt. You guys go after Dean and make sure he’s okay. Stay with him. And we’ll stay with her. We’ll call you later.” Melissa dishes out orders and the guys listen.

  “Don’t worry, Summer. We’ll fix this,” Shelly says.

  “Fuck ‘em,” I hear Chase say. I look down at him on the floor. He groans, holding the side of his face.

  “Fuck him?” I shout. “No. Fuck you, you bastard. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And you ruined it. You ruin everything you touch. If I were you, I’d stop acting like such a douchebag and grow the fuck up before you end up dying a lonely and single old man.”

  “You got that right, sister,” Mel says, patting me on the back.

  “And that’s an understatement.” Shel mov
es closer to him and kneels down. “I should have let Matt beat your ass too. I don’t know why I didn’t because you sure as hell deserve it. Have you always been this rotten?” He doesn’t respond. “How sad is it that we’ve known each other practically our entire lives and you completely disgust me. Think about that for the next few weeks every time you look in the mirror and see your bruised face.” She stands and turns to Mel and me. “I’m so never going anywhere he’s invited ever again. He’s beyond every bad word I can think of right now.”

  Mel shakes her head, “And you don’t even know the half of it.”

  Mel stuffs me into the backseat of her car and we drive to my apartment. The whole ride, I cry my eyeballs out until they hurt as much as my heart does and I’m too dehydrated for another tear to fall.

  “How in the hell did that just happen?” I cry. “Sure, he lied to me, but I didn’t even give him a chance to explain. It’s not as if he’s anything like the other guys I’ve dated. He deserves more than that from me. I just let Chase’s words get to me. I don’t really believe he was with me to get back at Chase. How could I ever believe that?”

  “Summer, we know you didn’t believe it. Not for one minute,” Shelly says.

  “But Dean doesn’t. He thinks I believed Chase over him.” My words come chattering out as we walk up the pathway to my apartment and I take out my keys to unlock the door. “I was just so furious that he’d keep something like that from me. And to hear it from Chase was just wrong. Who gives a shit if Chase stole his girlfriend in high school? That was a long time ago. The crazy thing is I knew something was wrong. His mom told me that he and Chase had a shady history but she didn’t tell me what. I tried to get him to talk to me about it. I gave him opportunities but he didn’t take them. I don’t get why.”

  I drop my things on the floor as soon as I walk in and flop my sorry ass on the sofa. The one where Dean held me for the first time. The one where I feel asleep in his arms because I felt the safety I never had before and had always wanted. And now it’s gone. And it’s all my fault. And his. What am I going to do now?

  “Melly, I know you know something,” Shelly says, “so start talking.”

  I grab a tissue from the box on the end table and start dabbing my eyes. “What is she talking about? What do you know?”

  Mel looks around my small apartment and squats down to sit on the floor. “Fine. But I think I understand why he didn’t tell you.”

  I wave my hand at her, like hurry up and tell me already.

  “You didn’t give him a chance to tell you the whole story. And Chase conveniently left out most of it.”

  “Just say it already,” Shelly demands.

  “This has a lot to do with you too, Shel. So relax.” She looks just as surprised as I am to hear this. “You were with Chase when he was with Dean’s girlfriend.”

  “Oh, I guess you’re right. I didn’t even think about that,” is all she says.

  “So Dean came to see me and Tyler. He told us about Chase and Molly.” She looks at me. “She was Dean’s high school sweetheart. Anyway, apparently Chase got her pregnant …”

  Shelly and I both gasp. She continues to fill us in on the details. The more I hear, the more mortified I am that I actually spent part of my life with Chase Marino.

  “Dean felt really bad about not telling you all those years ago, Shelly. I think he still blames himself for you getting back together with Chase because you didn’t know the truth.”

  Shelly shakes her head. “That’s silly. His heart was in the right place. There’s no way he could’ve known I’d end up with that jackass again.”

  “We know that, but he’s a sensitive guy and he feels bad,” Mel says.

  This is just one big mess. “But why didn’t he tell me? I don’t understand why he wouldn’t. We talk every night before bed. During the day, we always end up chatting about random things. He’ll ask me something out of the blue or I’ll ask him something just so we can get to know each other. He could have told me a number of times, but he didn’t.”

  Mel shakes her head and throws up her hands. “Because he’s a guy and guys do stupid shit sometimes. I know he wanted to tell you but the longer he waited, the harder it got for him to just speak up and say it. He feared exactly what happened. That you would think the worst and break up with him.”

  “But I didn’t break up with him. He was the one to say it was over.”

  Shelly speaks up this time, “Yeah, but you did something far worse. You believed fuckhead Chase instead of him.”

  Mel and Shelly stay with me overnight. I tried to convince them to go but they said the kids spent the night at Mel’s mom’s house and she wasn’t in any hurry to have her grandchildren leave.

  “So here’s the plan …” Mel lays it all out while Shelly and I listen. I should be taking notes. “Now, don’t mess it up with your goofy self. As sexy as you are, you’re also a dork. He’s going to be angry, but even an angry guy can’t say no to what you have planned.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I tell her.

  “You’re not going to need it. According to Matt, he is just as torn up as you,” Shelly tells me. “We’ll lock up on our way out. So get going.” They both give me a hug and reassure me that everything is going to be just fine. I just wish I was as sure.

  I can’t help the tears falling down my cheeks on the way to Dean’s house. My stomach is upset and my heart is broken. He said it’s over. Just a few weeks ago he was joking with my dad about us getting married, and with one night of stupidity and shouting, it’s all over.

  It can’t be. I won’t let it.

  I park on the street in front of Dean’s place and sit in my car for a few minutes before I get out. I go through Mel’s pep talk in my head. What am I going to say? What am I going to do? When my mind is right, I open the door and take the walk of blame.

  I take the two steps up to his porch and before I can back down, I knock on the door.

  Time goes by like watching a turtle race. Finally, I hear the lock turn and see the door open.

  “What the hell are you wearing?” Dean takes me by the wrist, pulls me into his house, and slams the door behind him.

  “I wasn’t sure how you’d react to me showing up on your doorstep so I thought I’d try and get your attention.”

  “Well you got it, sweetheart.”

  “You called me sweetheart.” The tears that I was fighting so hard to hold back once I stepped out of the safety of my car come streaming down my face again. “I never thought I’d hear that again,” I murmur between sobs.

  He reaches out to me, cupping my face in the palms of his hands and brushes the tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “You’ll always be my sweetheart.”

  “I will?”

  He nods.

  “I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time. This makes us both laugh lightly.

  “Me first,” he says. He takes my hand and leads me to the family room where we usually sit and talk. We sit down at our usual ends of the sofa and he begins, “I’m sorry I said our relationship has been a lie. And I’m sorry I said it was over. I want very much for it to be anything but over.”

  I open my mouth to say something, but he shushes me. “I should have told you about Chase and Molly a long time ago. But for some reason, I could never find the right words or the right time. A few times, I tried to tell you but we got interrupted.”

  “Like when we had to watch the babies?”

  “Yes, like then. And there were other times when you would talk about how we could trust each other and how open we are with each other. The moment was there, but we were about to make love or we were walking along the beach on our romantic getaway and I didn’t want to ruin that with thoughts of Chase.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “And there was a small part of me that was worried that you would actually believe what Chase said. That I was only with you to get back at him, but sweetheart, that is so far from the truth. I love you so much. More than an
y words could describe.”

  I want to say something but my tongue is tied and I’m still choked up by his apology. I don’t know what I expected, but I never thought it was going to be this easy.

  “My turn?” I ask.

  He nods.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain. Instead of listening to you, I just reacted. I had been waiting for you to tell me something, I just didn’t know what. Your mom told me there was bad blood between you and Chase, but she said it was your story to tell. I kept hoping you’d open up to me, but when you never did and Chase said what he did, it was my first instinct to think the worst. I should have never listened to anything that came out of his mouth. I should have never made you feel like I would believe Chase over you. You’re my everything. You’re the one special thing in my life that I’ve been waiting for and I could’ve ruined it by reacting without thinking. I promise that I will always listen to you before jumping to conclusions. I never believed for one minute that you were just with me to get back at Chase. And I never believed that our love was a lie. Our love is nothing but true. I’m so sorry, Dean. I love you.”

  He scoots closer to my side of the sofa and pulls me into his arms. “I love you, Summer McGallian, and one misunderstanding is not going to stop that. But in the future, let’s just walk away and come home if we have a disagreement. It does us no good to let anyone else in on what we have. You mean too much to me to let anyone ruin it.”

  “Deal,” I say, and then pucker my lips really big for him. “Kiss me.” He smacks his lips to mine, making a loud muah sound. I love it when we do that. It’s so cute and playful, and so special.

  “Now, I can’t believe you came to my doorstep with my Angel’s jersey on.” He slides his hands down to my ass. “And nothing on underneath.”

  “You said it was one of your fantasies.” I nuzzle my face into his neck. “I knew you couldn’t resist me and my apology if I wore it.”

  “I couldn’t resist you even if you were wearing a Red Sox jersey.”