by Abbi Glines
“Well, look at you. Making it with the hottest thing in Rosemary Beach in the back of his Range Rover. And here I thought you wanted a blue-collar man,” Bethy said to Blaire.
“Climb on in, Bethy, before you fall on your ass out here,” I ordered, wishing I could shut her the hell up.
“I don’t wanna leave. I liked Earl, or was his name Kevin? No, wait, what happened to Nash? I lost him . . . I think,” Bethy muttered, as she climbed inside clumsily.
“Who are Earl and Kevin?” Blaire asked.
Bethy reached for something to grab, then fell backward onto the seat and almost on top of Blaire. “Earl is married. He said he wasn’t, but he is. I could tell. The married ones always have the smell about ’em.”
I closed Bethy’s door and then walked around to get Blaire out of the backseat. She was going up front with me. I jerked her door open and held out my hand for hers. “Don’t try to make sense of anything she says. I found her at the bar finishing up a round of six tequila shots that married Earl had bought her. She’s trashed.” I wanted to clear up anything Bethy had said or was going to say that could upset Blaire.
Blaire slipped her hand into mine, and I squeezed it to reassure her.
“No need in explaining anything to her tonight. She won’t remember it in the morning,” I told Blaire.
She was worried about clearing the air with Bethy, and Bethy was doing exactly what she always did—just without the trust-funders.
I helped Blaire down, then pulled her against me and closed the door, leaving Bethy inside. “I want a taste of those sweet lips, but I’m going to deny myself. We need to get her home before she gets sick,” I said, not wanting this to spoil what had just happened with us.
Blaire nodded, staring up at me with those trusting eyes. I didn’t want to ever let that face down.
“But what I said earlier. I meant it. I want you in my bed tonight,” I reminded her, in case it was possible she could have forgotten.
She nodded again. I slipped my hand to her lower back and walked her over to the passenger door. I wasn’t going to pretend we were friends anymore. We weren’t friends. We had never been friends. It was more than that. With Blaire, it was always more.
“Fuck the friend thing,” I told her, before taking her waist and picking her up to put her in the seat. It was high, and I wanted a reason to touch her. I closed her door and walked around to climb in, and the grin on her face made me warm inside. “What’s the grin for?” I asked, hoping I had put it there.
She shrugged and bit her bottom lip. “ ‘Fuck the friend thing.’ It made me laugh.”
I laughed. Good, I had put that smile there. I’d also made her laugh. Why did it feel like I’d just solved world hunger?
“I know something you don’t know. Yes, I do. Yes, I do,” Bethy began chanting in a drunken singsong voice.
I didn’t want her distracting us. Messing this up. It was my time with Blaire, and I wanted that. Why couldn’t she just pass out or something?
Blaire shifted in her seat to look back at Bethy.
“I know something,” Bethy whispered loudly like she had been doing outside.
“I heard that,” Blaire said.
“It’s a big secret. A huge one . . . and I know it. I’m not supposed to, but I do. I know something you don’t know. You don’t know. You don’t know.” Bethy started singing again.
She knew a secret. A sick knot formed in my stomach. I had secrets. Did she know my secrets? Did she know what Blaire didn’t know? How could I have Blaire if Bethy told her before I could fix it? “That’s enough, Bethy,” I warned.
Blaire turned back around, and I could tell I had startled her. I just wanted Bethy to shut up. I didn’t want to hear any secrets she knew. I reached over and slipped a hand over Blaire’s. I needed to reassure her, but I couldn’t look at her right now. The panic in my throat was taking over.
Bethy couldn’t know. Could she? No one knew. Had Nan told someone? Fuck. I couldn’t let this get out. I had to make this right. Blaire needed me. I couldn’t lose her.
“That was the best time ever. I like blue-collar fellas. They’re so much fun.” Bethy started babbling again. “You should have looked around some more, Blaire. It would have been smarter on your part. Rush is a bad idea. ’Cause there is always Nan.”
Motherfuckinghell!
She knew something. No. She couldn’t know. Not the truth. I moved my hand from Blaire’s to grip the steering wheel. I needed to think, and throwing Bethy’s drunk ass out of the car wasn’t an option. Blaire would never forgive me for that.
“Is Nan your sister?” Blaire asked. The confusion in her voice made me wince. She was questioning my relationship with Nan. If she only knew the truth. I wouldn’t have her. She wouldn’t be here.
I just nodded. I couldn’t say anything else. My throat was thick.
“What did Bethy mean, then? How would us sleeping together affect Nan?”
How did I respond to that? I didn’t know what Bethy knew exactly, but I couldn’t tell Blaire the truth. I hadn’t figured out how to make the past OK. How to make Blaire not leave me when she found out the truth.
She was going to keep asking me questions. I had to stop her. I couldn’t tell her anything. Not now.
“Nan is my younger sister. I won’t . . . I can’t talk about her with you.”
Blaire’s body was rigid. The tension in the car was over-powering. There had to be a way out of this. Blaire trusted me. I wanted that trust. I wanted to deserve it. Bethy couldn’t know. She wouldn’t know. Nan had never said anything to anyone. It was a secret she held close. I was overreacting.
Bethy’s snoring filled the car, and Blaire fixed her gaze on the road. Neither of us said anything. I didn’t want Bethy to wake up and say anything. She was better off passed out. I was safer that way. My secrets were safer.
The distance between Blaire and me seemed to grow by the second, and I hated it. I wanted her in my arms again. I wanted her crying out my name. I didn’t want this wall between us.
When I pulled up to the office, I didn’t ask Blaire if this was where we needed to leave Bethy. I couldn’t say anything to her. I was terrified she’d know. Had she sat there and figured it all out?
I shook Bethy enough to wake her up and help her out of the car. She began mumbling that her dad would kill her and she wanted to sleep in the office. I was pretty sure her aunt Darla would kick her ass in the morning, but that wasn’t my problem. I fished out the key from Bethy’s purse and unlocked the door, then got her inside.
The large leather sofa was close to the door, thank God, because Bethy reeked of cheap tequila, and I didn’t want to be the one holding her up when she started puking. I dropped her onto the sofa. “Lie down,” I instructed her. I grabbed the nearest trash can and set it beside her head. “Vomit in this. You get that shit on the floor, and Darla will be even more pissed.”
Bethy groaned and rolled over.
I went to leave. Just as I opened the door, Bethy’s voice stopped me.
“I won’t tell her about Nan’s daddy. But you need to.” She looked sad as her glassy eyes met mine. She knew who Nan’s daddy was. Shit.
“I will. When it’s time,” I told her.
“Don’t wait too long,” she said, then closed her eyes. Her mouth fell open with a soft snore.
I locked the door and closed it tightly behind me. She was right. I had to fix this before it was too late.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Your room is upstairs now,” I reminded her once we had stepped inside the house and she headed for the kitchen. We still hadn’t spoken. I wasn’t sure what to say to her or even how to talk to her now.
She paused, then turned and headed for the stairs. I couldn’t just let her go like this.
“I tried to stay away from you,” I said.
She stopped and turned to look down at me. The hurt in her eyes was too much. I didn’t want to hurt her. Yet I would be her biggest heartbreak. I hated my
self. I hated what I was, who I was.
“That first night, I tried to get rid of you. Not because I disliked you.” I laughed bitterly at the truth. “But because I knew. I knew you’d get under my skin. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away. Maybe I hated you a little bit then because of the weakness you’d be able to find in me.” I had known from the first moment that she was trouble. She’d break me. But I hadn’t known she’d own me.
“What is so wrong with you being attracted to me?” she asked, a tear glistening in the corner of her eye. Shit. I hated knowing she didn’t understand.
“Because you don’t know everything, and I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you Nan’s secrets. They’re hers. I love her, Blaire. I’ve loved her and protected her all my life. She’s my little sister. It’s what I do. Even though I want you like I’ve never wanted anything in my life, I can’t tell you Nan’s secrets.” If she could just take that as her answer and give me time. All the things I’d done had to be fixed. There had to be a way to right the wrongs.
“I can understand that. It’s OK. I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry,” she said in a soft voice. She meant that. She was fucking apologizing. To me. “Good night, Rush,” she said, and turned and left me there.
I let her go. She was telling me it was OK to have my secrets but that I couldn’t have her, too. How would I do this? I had tasted her in my arms. I knew what her smile could do to me and how the way she looked at me controlled my fucking moods. It was like she’d become the sun, and I’d started revolving around her. She was my center.
Yet I was the reason she had lived through hell. I had given her father a place to run to. I had gone to him when he was weak and needed to be with his daughter and his wife. I’d given him somewhere else to go. Another life to walk into. Another daughter to claim and another family to belong to.
And he’d left her. All alone. If I had just cared enough to find out who I was taking him from . . . but I hadn’t cared. I had just wanted to give Nan what she wanted so badly. I hadn’t thought of anyone else. Only Nan. It was always Nan.
Or it had been. It wasn’t anymore.
I couldn’t ignore the truth. Blaire’s happiness and safety meant too much to me. Protecting Nan was no longer my number one priority. Blaire was taking that spot. She had moved right into my life and changed it all. I should hate her for that. But I couldn’t. I would never hate her. That was impossible.
I climbed the stairs and stopped at the door to the bedroom where she was now tucked away. I had wanted her in my bed tonight. But knowing that she was in sleeping in luxury meant I would be able to rest easier. The regret in my chest would be my only companion in bed tonight.
The sound of a phone ringing broke through the sweet darkness, and I forced my eyes open to reach for the offending sound. I had lain awake most of the night. Of course, now that I’d finally fallen asleep, my damn phone had to ring. Grabbing it, I noticed the sun through the blinds. It was later than I thought. Maybe I had been asleep for longer than I’d thought.
“Hello,” I snarled into the phone.
“Are you still asleep?” Woods’s annoying voice didn’t put me in a better mood.
“What do you want?” I asked. It was none of his business if I was still asleep.
“It’s about your sister,” he said.
I sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I wasn’t in the mood to wake up and deal with Nan’s problems. I had my own. “What?” I barked.
“If she speaks to Blaire or any of my other employees with disrespect, I’ll make sure her membership is pulled. You may not care that she’s a spoiled brat, but when her venom causes a scene and embarrasses the best server we’ve had in the dining room in months, then it becomes an issue.”
Blaire? What? “What are you saying? Did Nan do something to Blaire? Or one of your servers? I’m confused.”
“Blaire is one of my servers. I moved her to the dining room last week. And your bitch of a sister called her white trash and demanded that I fire her today. In front of everyone.” Woods’s voice was getting louder. He was pissed but nothing close to the level of angry I was dealing with. “I realize you don’t care about Blaire. It’s obvious from the fact that she’s sleeping in your damn pantry. But she’s special. She works hard, and everyone loves her. I won’t allow Nan to hurt her. Do you understand me?”
I didn’t like Woods saying that Blaire was special. I fucking knew she was special, and he needed to back the hell off. And why had he moved her inside from the golf course? Had he wanted her near him? Was that it? As much as I wanted to be relieved that she was out of the heat, the idea that he had moved her inside to be near him infuriated me. And Nan. Fuck. She’d pushed me too far. I was going to have to deal with her. I wasn’t OK with her talking to Blaire that way, either. No one was going to call Blaire names. Ever. Another problem I had to fix. Yet another thing that was my fault.
“Do. You. Understand. Me.” Woods’s voice reminded me that I hadn’t responded to him. If it weren’t for the fact that he was angry over how Blaire was treated, I would remind him exactly who he was talking to. But just this once, I was going to allow him to be angry at me. Because he was right. This was my fault. I’d created the monster my sister had turned into.
“She isn’t in the pantry anymore. I moved her to a bedroom. I’ll deal with Nan,” I told him, then decided he needed to understand something else, too. “Blaire is mine. Don’t touch her. I will kill you. Do you understand me?”
Woods let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah. Whatever, Finlay I’m not scared of your threats. The only reason I’m not touching Blaire is that she doesn’t want me. It’s fucking obvious who she wants. So calm the hell down. You’ve had her from the beginning. You sure as hell don’t deserve her, though,” he said, and then the call ended.
Woods thought she wanted me. God, I hoped he was right.
I stood up and called Nan.
“Hello,” she said in an annoyed tone.
“Where are you?” I asked as I headed for the bathroom.
“The club. I’m playing tennis in ten minutes,” she replied.
It would take me thirty minutes to take my shower and get some coffee in me. “My house, thirty minutes,” I said, and hung up, not waiting for her to argue. She knew not to piss me off, and I had no doubt she knew exactly what this was about.
I would make sure my sister left Blaire alone. Then I was going to get Blaire a phone. She needed a damn cell phone. I wanted to make sure she was OK when I didn’t know where she was.
And I was going to cook for her. I wanted to watch her eat. I wanted to feed her. Make up for how badly I’d fucked things up before.
I also didn’t want her sleeping in that bedroom tonight. I wanted her in mine.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I was standing on the balcony when I heard Nan’s voice from inside. “Where are you?” she called out. She wasn’t happy about being here. Good. She really wasn’t going to be happy about it when I was done with her.
I walked inside as she came into the living room wearing her tennis skirt and looking pissed off. I was expecting her to be angry, but it pissed me off that she thought she had the right to be. After the way she had treated Blaire, did she think I wouldn’t call her out on it?
“You ruined my plans. This better be good,” she snapped.
I set my coffee cup down on the nearest table and turned to look at my sister. “Let me get something straight, because you must need reminding. Unless you want to get a job and pay for all your shit, then I have a say in how you act. I’ve let you act like a brat most of your life because I love you. I know that life with Mom was unfair for you. But I will not . . .” I paused and took a step toward her and leveled my gaze on her so she could see just how serious I was. “I will not allow you to hurt Blaire. Ever. She has done nothing to you. You blame her for the sorry excuse for a father you have. Blaire is a victim of that man just as much as you are. So do not speak to her like you did today ever
again. I swear, Nan, I love you, but I won’t let you hurt her. Do not test me.”
Nan’s eyes went wide with surprise, and the fake tears I was used to her springing on me immediately glistened in her eyes. “You’re choosing her over me. Are you . . . are you fucking her? That’s it, isn’t it? That little slut!”
I was in her face so fast that she stumbled backward. I reached out and grabbed her arm to keep her from falling and jerked her back up. “Don’t you say it. I swear to God, Nan, you are going to push me too far. Think before you speak.”
She sniffled and let the tears she could turn on like a damn faucet roll down her face. I hated making her cry. The sick knot I got in my stomach when someone hurt Nan was forming. “I’m . . . I’m your sister. How could you do this to me? I was . . . You know what she did? Who she is? She kept him from me! My father, Rush. I’ve lived this life because I didn’t have him.” She was sobbing now and shaking her head, as if she couldn’t believe I could forget all this.
She would never see the truth. She was determined to blame and hate someone, but she refused to hate the person who deserved it the most. “Blaire was a child. She did nothing to you. She couldn’t help that she was born. She had no clue you even existed. Why can’t you see that? Why can’t you see the kind, honest, giving, hardworking person your sister is? No one can hate her! She’s fucking perfect!”
“Don’t you . . .” She pointed her finger at me, with horror on her face. “Do not call her my sister!” she screamed hysterically.
Sighing, I sat down on the sofa and held my head in my hands. Nan was so stubborn. “Nan, you share a father. That makes her your sister,” I reminded her.
“No. I don’t care. I do not care. I hate her. She’s manipulative, and she’s fake. She’s using sex to control you.”
I shot back up out of my seat. “I haven’t fucked her, so don’t say that! Stop accusing her of shit you know nothing about. Blaire isn’t a whore. She’s a virgin, Nan. A virgin. You want to know why she’s a virgin? Because she spent her teen years taking care of her sick mother while running the household and going to school. She had no time to be a kid. She had no time to sow any wild oats. She was abandoned by her father for you. So if anyone should hate someone, she should hate you.”
