Marcus didn’t fear anything would happen; he just didn’t want the media to hound Lexi or Grace. Baker would prevent that from happening. Especially while he was gone on set.
The three of them had left before Bryan had come home from work. Marcus had felt like a piece of him was leaving as he watched them drive away, but he had to get another workout in and read an upcoming script.
“You want us to meet her?” Bryan spoke up, his tone incredulous.
“Yeah.” He shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it.
“You didn’t even want us to meet Katie,” Bryan pointed out. Marcus rolled his eyes.
“I honestly didn’t give a shit if you did.”
“But you give a shit about this Grace chick?” Bryan’s detective skills were starting to annoy him.
“What’s with the fucking interrogation?” he asked his little brother, who stared right back at him without blinking.
“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe that this chick was supposed to be a means to an end. What was it you said after you met her? You were just after the rights to the story? I mean, shit, man. You bet us money you would get her to give it up. Telling us you’d dip your wick in her if you needed. Anything to get her to give you what you wanted.” Marcus shook his head, disgust roiling through him about how arrogant and full of himself he’d been that night.
“Dude, you’re playing a game here, and with all this shit with Katie and Grace, it’s going to be her who gets hurt. And you are going to walk away unscathed,” Bryan warned.
“It’s not like that…” he started to say, trying to let his younger brother know how serious things were.
“Not like what?” Garrett asked as he stepped into the room and sat on the chaise part of the sectional across from him. Great fucking timing. Garrett was the last thing he needed.
“He wants us to meet Grace,” Bryan shared with their oldest sibling, and Marc kept an emotionless look on his face.
“Grace?” Garrett asked, looking like he could give a shit.
“The writer? The chick he’s all over the news with?” Bryan clarified, obviously annoyed and shaking his head. “Fuck, Garrett, do you live under a rock?”
“What the hell is your deal, B?” Garrett asked. He looked even more disheveled than normal. His beard was overgrown and scraggly. “My life sure as shit doesn’t revolve around this pretty boy’s face and who he’s sticking his shit in, so chill out.”
“He’s playing that woman. She’s a single mom, and even if she weren’t, it isn’t cool.”
“Who said I was playing her?” he asked, his head snapping to look at Bryan.
“Did you or did you not bet us—” he started back up, but Marc was getting fucking tired of it.
“I did, but—”
“Oh, yeah.” Garrett smirked as if just putting two and two together. “She giving you a hard time? That backseat fun wasn’t enough for her?” He asked cockily, sitting back and resting his head against the back of the couch, resting his arm at the top of his head. “She making you work for it?” Garrett pressed. Marcus took a deep breath, but even that didn’t calm him.
“Fuck you, Garrett. You don’t know shit.”
“I know you’re playing with fire, little brother.”
“I like her.” He actually loved her, but he wouldn’t tell his asshole brother that.
“No, you don’t. You like what she can give you,” Garrett said like a damn know-it-all, which only assisted in fraying Marc’s nerves further.
“Come on, you guys, I think he really cares about—” Donnie started to say, but Garrett sat up, leaning his elbows on his knees, and looked at Marcus with nothing but obvious distaste. “No, he fucking doesn’t. He only cares about himself. What people around him can do for him.”
“Fuck you, man. I don’t know what your issue with me is—” Garrett stood, and Marcus jumped to his feet, clenching his hands. Garrett, like always, didn’t miss it.
“Relax, pretty boy, I won’t touch your face. Fuck.” He rubbed his forehead almost as if in pain. “I’m going to bed. You want the bet off?” Garrett offered, but he knew better than to answer. “Look, you do? Just tell her the truth and the bet’s off. No big deal. I don’t give a shit”
“You’re a dumbass, Garrett,” Donnie scoffed. “If he tells her he made a bet about doing anything to secure what he wanted, she’s not going to stick around. Sorry, man, she just isn’t that kind of woman.” Marc knew in the pit of his gut Don was right. And on top of that, she sure as hell wouldn’t sign off.
Grace was sweet and soft, but she was far from being anyone’s doormat. Especially not his. A sick feeling fell over him at the thought of losing her.
“I’ll pay you,” he blurted out without thinking, sounding too desperate for his own good.
“What?” Garrett asked, scowling.
“I’ll pay you. I lost, okay?” His desperation was too obvious in his voice.
“So you don’t want the book?”
“I do.” He did, but he wanted Grace more.
“You gotta give one up,” Garrett said, looking unamused. Marc stood still. Garrett tilted his head and gave him an asshole smirk. “You can’t have everything in life, kid.”
“Why are you such a fucking dick?”
“Life is about choices and loss. You need to learn,” Garrett spouted off, but Marc couldn’t focus on anything other than the idea of not having Grace and Lexi in his life. Panic, anxiety, and dread swirled around him.
“Fuck you!” He knew it was a stupid and childish way to answer, only adding fuel to the fire, but he couldn’t help it.
“You have no idea how real life is, Marc. You don’t know how hard life can be.” Marcus knew this had nothing to do with him, but he was too pissed at himself and his older brother, too scared of losing Grace to be reasonable. His blood pressure rose as Garrett kept going on with his shit. He held a hand up to his temple. ”Life is hard, asshole. Not the easy set-up you have here! Not everything you do comes up fucking pots of gold and rainbows. You need to wake up and stop being the selfish dick—”
“Fuck you, Garrett! You hate it so much here? My easy ‘set-up’? Then why don’t you leave? Huh? Fuck. You’ve been on my back since you came home. I didn’t do shit to you. I didn’t get you discharged.”
“You don’t know shit.”
“I know you need to go talk to someone. You’ve been a pain in all our asses since you came back. We’ve given you time, but fuck, man, the more time passes, the worse you get. You’re fucking insufferable. You need to go talk to someone or let one of us in. If not, you’re going to end up bitter as shit!”
“You don’t know shit, asshole,” Garrett growled, getting in his face, but he didn’t back away.
“Hey, man, come on, let’s cool off.” Marcus hadn’t even noticed Don standing at his back, holding his forearm.
“Yeah, Don, take the pretty boy away before I fuck him up and he has to go cryin’ to Mommy,” Garrett growled. Marcus let Don lead him out of the room. Something crashed against a wall, shattering behind him, but he didn’t look back to see what Garrett had thrown, only hearing Bryan warn him to calm the fuck down.
They walked out toward the pool and sat on the lounge furniture. Marc had his elbows on his knees, his hands in his hair. Everything was too unsettled. He missed Grace. The soothing calm he felt when he was around her. He felt like a junkie needing his fix.
“He’s an ass, man, don’t worry.”
“I… fuck, Don. I’m in love with her,” he admitted, even though he knew how crazy it sounded.
He’d fallen fast. Cliff diving into it. But he knew he did. He loved her. It was more than the sexual chemistry that pulled them toward one another. More than the way she burned hot for him. It was more than the sexy way her eyes warmed for him, or the sexy grins she gave him when she gave him a smartass remark. He loved the woman, the mother, the writer, the sister, the friend she was. He loved everything about her. Inside out.
She
owned him. He didn’t know exactly when it happened. For all he knew, it was when she’d opened the door and he’d looked at her in that damn Ninja Turtles shirt.
“I should have taken the meeting with her,” Don grumbled, and he glanced at his friend with a scowl on his face.
“What the fuck is that supposed to—”
“Relax and get your thong outta your ass, Marc. Shit. I’m not Garrett.” He looked at his childhood friend, a man he was closer to than his own blood. “I just meant, I would have talked her into signing, and you two could have met in a different way.”
Thinking about how much easier that would have been, he wouldn’t have wanted to change their story. He liked how they met.
Staring out to the crystalline pool, he thought about how cute she’d been, answering the door and not recognizing him. She’d pushed him off kilter from the start. Yeah. He’d never had a chance.
“Garrett’s going to fuck it up with her.”
“Maybe.” Don sighed. Marcus tugged at his hair. Silence fell over them. “Though as much as a dick he is to us, he wouldn’t disrespect her.”
“Not sober, he wouldn’t,” he agreed, and they gave each another a knowing look. Garrett was drinking more and more.
“He’s getting worse.”
“I know.”
“You need to call your parents. Your mom and dad are the only ones who get through to him.”
“I know.” He sighed, adding another thing to his to-do list.
“Want to cancel Montana?” Don asked, but Marc shook his head. There was a need inside of him to take her there he couldn’t explain.
“No. I’ll call my parents.”
“Maybe they can talk to him.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t feel very hopeful they would be able to really get through to him. Garrett was lost, and Marcus was afraid the older brother that had left on that last tour overseas was long gone.
“I’ll talk to him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid around her.”
“Hmm…” he grunted and stared out at the water. They sat in silence before he broke it when he looked at Don and asked, “Thong outta my ass?” His lips were twitching. Even though his heart was heavy, his mind was scrounging to make light of the situation.
“Gabby said that to me—”
“Gabby?” He frowned and looked at Don. “Gabby, the blogger?” he asked, even though he had a weird feeling he knew the answer.
“What? No.” Don shook his head. “Grace’s sister.” He looked away from him and cleared his throat. Marc sat up straighter.
“Wait, what?”
“Grace’s sister,” Don shared what he feared, and he looked at his friend.
“Her little sister.”
“She’s not that little. Anyhow, it’s not—”
“I hope it’s not,” he scoffed protectively. Though Donnie was like family, he found himself protecting Gabby.
“Why not?” Don asked, his tone surprised.
“She’s young.”
“Not that young.”
“And you’re you.” He met Don’s pale green stare.
“What?”
“Dude. She’s sweet, but come on. You guys are very different.” He thought about straight-laced Don in his suits. Even now, at home, he was dressed in a crisp wrinkle-free dress shirt, buttoned to the top, slacks pressed and creased as if just put on from the cleaners. “You don’t even roll your sleeves.”
“So?”
“So… you’ve seen her, right?”
“She’s a little different.” Don shrugged, breaking their stare, and looked out to the pool.
“That’s an understatement. You’re clean cut and she’s…eccentric. Don’t fuck around, Don. Not with her.”
“I don’t fuck around.” To this, Marcus rolled his eyes.
As straight laced as Don was, he knew the guy had a sex drive that rivaled his own. He liked to get some and often. And if rumors and subtle hints were to be believed, he liked getting his in his own way. One that included tons of kinky shit Marc had seen and ignored when he’d walked into Don’s room once without knocking.
“Whatever, man, she’s young and Grace’s sister.”
“And?”
“And—”
“Look, man, no offense, but you’re not suddenly her dad too.”
“Her dad too?” He asked, slightly confused.
“What role do you think you would be stepping into when this thing with Grace takes flight?” Don asked, and Marcus connected the dots, but acted like he didn’t.
“What?”
“Grace has Lexi.”
“I know that, Mr. Obvious,” he sarcastically answered.
“That little girl looks at you like you hung the moon and she wants to hold on to your superhero cape as you cross the street.”
“Man—” He was done with the stupid superhero references from his family.
“Grace is a package deal,” Don pointed out. Marcus frowned.
“I know that.” And he did. If things got serious between them, he would be honored to claim a spot in Lexi’s life that had never been filled.
“Do you? Seriously? Have you thought about what that would be like?”
“What do you mean?”
“Lexi is her first priority.”
“I know.”
“You know I love you like family, man.”
“Don, spit out whatever the hell you’re trying to say.”
“All I’m trying to say is, you’re used to everyone putting you first.”
“What the—”
“Man. No offense, but you do. I’m not saying you’re the asshole Garrett was making you out to be in there. He has no idea how hard you work. And you do. You’re one of the hardest working actors out there. But you are used to everyone dropping everything for you. She wouldn’t do that.”
“I wouldn’t ask her to. I know Lexi is her first priority. And Don, being honest here, laying it out there, if this goes exactly where I want it to go, she’ll be mine too. They both would be.” He didn’t miss how his friend’s expression froze.
“It’s like that?”
“Yes.” And it was. Utterly and completely. That’s why Garrett threatening to take it away freaked him out so much.
“Marc, you telling me this as your best friend or your manager?”
“Both,” he answered honestly. “Look, Don, I love her. Hell, I love them.”
“But—”
“This is it for me kind of love.” He didn’t miss the skeptical look on his friend’s face, but he didn’t change his own serious one. After a while of silence, Don’s hands moved to his knees.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he said, smiling, images of what life would be like playing in his mind.
“It’s only been what, like two-three weeks.”
“I don’t care.”
“You sure? I mean, sometimes we think with our other head, if you know what I—”
“First, you’re an idiot. We’re in our thirties, man. We know the difference.” Don ran a hand over his face and looked away.
“Yeah.”
“Second, I’ve thought about it. They’re all I think about. And third, when you know, you know. In your gut you know it.”
“So, what’s this mean?
“Slower schedule. Less shit in between. I want to spend time with them. A lot of it.” He saw his friend take in what he was saying and looked out at the pool again. For a silent moment, they sat in the darkness of the night while Marc thought about what he’d just told Don. How much he wanted that.
“I can hold off your next movie two weeks. Push it slightly so that you could maybe have them on set with you or at least in the same city. Lexi should be starting summer by then. We can get rental versus a suite. We can’t have that little girl living out of a hotel.” Don was brainstorming, always coming up with the best ideas.
“Thanks, man.” Two weeks of more down time would be good. He could bulk up, go over lines, and
really get to be a part of their everyday lives.
“You scared?” Donnie asked out of nowhere. He chuckled.
“Fucking terrified,” he admitted as he looked at the water.
“They worth the fear?”
“Every ounce.” He heard his friend exhale and watched him shake his head. He was slightly calmer now and had to ask.
“Hey, Don… any chance you know how Katie knew about all the places Grace and I have been together?” Don looked him straight in the eye and shook his head.
“No, man. I’ve been trying to figure it out.” And Donnie being like his brother, he blindly trusted him.
“Okay, man. I’m gonna head in.”
“Me too.”
Walking in and shutting the door to the master bedroom of his huge house, he looked at the bed. He had a script waiting for him, but he ignored it and grabbed his phone.
“Hi.”
“Did I wake you?” he asked and heard her soft laughter.
“Not even a little.” He heard a smile in her voice and threw his tee shirt off and lay down in bed.
“Did Baker get you guys home okay?”
“You know he did.” And he did. They had texted right before Bryan got home. “Everything okay?” she asked. The clicking on the other end stopped.
“What were you doing?” he asked, ignoring her question. Listening to her voice, he was again reminded at what he could lose.
“Working. Now, stop ignoring the question. Is everything okay?” she asked again.
“Yeah,” he hoarsely answered her, lying and hating himself for it.
“Bullshit.” He softly chuckled. He should have known better than to think she wouldn’t call him on his shit.
“I’m just tired.”
“Did you get a workout in?”
“Yeah, but I’d rather work out with you.” He tried to distract her, but he heard her groan.
“Marc… you’re not fair.”
“I know.”
“What do you still have to do?” she asked, and he groaned.
“I need to read and get another workout in before I hit the hay.”
“Then you better get going, mister.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
LIE (Right Men Book 1) Page 22
