The Hat Trick Box Set

by Samantha Wayland

  “But Rhian, I—”

  He grabbed his hair in two fists. “No! You know I’m right. You two can be happy. Whole. I’d never forgive myself for ruining that. What could I possibly know about building a happy family? Look at my mother. She’s a monster.”

  He wrenched open the door and stormed out into the hallway. “Chelsea!”

  Garrick furiously wiped the tears from his face before charging out after Rhian, Savannah on his heels.

  Chelsea met them in the hallway. They must have looked a fucking mess, judging by her expression when she saw them.

  Rhian urged her toward the door. “We have to go. I don’t want to be moving into the new place in the middle of the night,” he said. He didn’t say a word to the men standing agape in the living room, just charged into the front hall and yanked the door open. “I’ll be in touch,” he said without so much as a glance in their direction.

  The note of finality damn near stole Garrick’s breath.

  He considered tackling Rhian to the hallway floor, but with Chelsea next to him, Garrick couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t make a difference anyway. All he’d make was a scene and possibly add to the panic he could see crawling over Rhian’s face.

  “Rhian, please,” he begged, without a care for his audience.

  Rhian’s answer was to shut the door in his face.

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Savannah and Garrick arrived in Connecticut early in the morning on Friday, hollow-eyed and quiet. Her parents greeted them on the porch and Savannah clung to her mother, barely choking out that Rhian hadn’t been able to make it without bursting into tears.

  Garrick tried to rally and be his usual charming self for her parent’s benefit. She was grateful for his efforts, but knew it was killing him. She couldn’t have managed it if their positions had been reversed. As it was, she was trying as hard as she could to keep her expression neutral, and still she caught her mother and father looking at her with concern all the time.

  Her mother asked what was wrong, but Savannah brushed her off, saying they were both working too hard and super tired. Then the damn woman started asking about Rhian and Savannah had very nearly burst into tears again. She pretended a burning need for the bathroom to escape before the first sobs did.

  By noon, she was a zombie. She held onto Garrick—his hand, a hug, anything—but it was a small comfort, his grief like hers, rolling off him in waves.

  At some point they were going to have to discuss what they would do next, but she wasn’t ready. She was too hurt. Too sad.

  The crunch of tires in the driveway through the open front window interrupted their lunch and her heart leaped in her chest. For one hideously foolish moment, she hoped it would be Rhian.

  She tried not to be disappointed to see Lachlan.

  He barely paused long enough to kiss their mother and shake their father’s hand before he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into their father’s office, slamming the door behind them.

  “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

  Savannah stared out the window, her back to Lachlan, and tried to remember the last time she’d heard him swear. “What do you want, Lach?”

  “You were holding Rhian’s hand!”

  Savannah didn’t bother to check her tears. Could her brother have chosen a worse time to jump on her about being too friendly with Rhian?

  “Leave me alone,” she said quietly.

  “How could you do that? How could you do that to him?” Lachlan demanded.

  Her breath hitched when she tried to gather enough air to speak. “Garrick isn’t upset, Lachlan. We have no secrets. Just leave it alone. Please.”

  “Not Garrick,” Lachlan roared. “Rhian!”

  Savannah turned. “What?”

  Lachlan blinked when he saw her, no doubt struck by how horrific she looked after crying. Again. His shoulders slumped and he dug at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “God, I don’t think I’ve ever been this mad at you. You broke his fucking heart.”

  Savannah blinked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Lachlan pinned her with another glare. “Why won’t you acknowledge him? Why do you push him away when we’re around?”

  “I-I-I don’t understand. You know?”

  Lachlan slammed his hands on his hips and looked at the ceiling for a moment, as if someone upstairs might grant him patience. “Of course I know, you idiot. So does Chance. And Kieran. How the fuck could we not notice how he stares at you like the sun and moon rise and set on your ass? And you’re no better. Neither is Garrick, the poor bastard.” Lachlan’s laugh conveyed his pity. “He looks like he wants to fall to his knees and thank god every time he sees either one of you.”

  For the first time in twenty-four hours, Savannah smiled. Garrick did tend to fall to his knees around them.

  But Rhian was gone. Her smile was lost. “You’re not wrong, Lach. But I’m not sure what difference it makes. And what the fuck do you want me to do? Tell mom I’m in love with two men?”

  “Yes. For starters.”

  Savannah tried to begin at least three responses, but no sounds would come out.

  “Oh, get over yourself,” Lachlan snapped.

  Savannah stared in shock at her brother. Man, he was a bitch when he was riled.

  “She’d never turn her back on you.” Lachlan bobbed his head side-to-side, as if conceding a point. “You might have to give her some time. And Dad. But they’ll get there. You know they will. Hell, two more boys, and both hockey players? They’ll be delighted once the shock wears off.”

  Savannah laughed. God, he was right. “Mom!”

  Lachlan smiled. He waited for their mother to open the door before he kissed Savannah’s cheek and left, closing it behind him.

  “Everything all right, dear? I thought I heard Lachlan shouting.”

  “You did.”

  “Really?” her mother asked. “What on earth for?”

  Savannah tried to smile, but nerves and the persistent ache of grief made it hard. “I screwed up. Big time.”

  Her mom took her hand. “What is it, honey?”

  Immediately supportive. That was her mom. “I have something to tell you that you might have a hard time understanding.”

  Her mom nodded, not saying anything. Just waiting for it.

  God, she should have asked Kieran how the hell he’d outed himself. Then she pictured her brother and his complete inability to hide anything, and knew the answer—he’d told the truth.

  So she did, too. “I’m in love with Rhian. And Garrick. And they love each other.”

  Her mother’s benign, encouraging smile didn’t slip an inch. “What?”

  “We’re together. The three of us. In one relationship. And it’s wonderful, Mom. Really amazing. But Rhian left. In part because I couldn’t figure out how to tell you about it. About him. I was scared and a coward and now I don’t know how we’ll get him back.” The tears started again.

  For the first time in her life, her mother didn’t try to wipe them away.

  She slowly lowered herself into one of the big chairs. The same one Savannah and Rhian had cuddled in all those weeks ago. The chair she’d been in when she’d fallen in love. Again.

  “Oh.” The sound of her mother’s voice, calm but confused, did nothing to settle Savannah’s rioting anxiety.

  “Mom?”

  Her mother stared at her hands, clenched in her lap. She didn’t answer.

  Savannah died a little.

  “I guess we better go check into the inn,” she said, trying not to believe the worse and failing miserably. “We’ll be there when you’re ready to talk or want us to come back.”

  She could barely get her legs to work, staggered by grief.

  Her hand was on the knob when her mother called out. “Wait!”

  Rhian sat on the uncomfortable, ugly couch in his new, equally ugly apartment, in the same ugly-ass hotel he’d come to loathe sometime over the past few weeks. That he’d
lived like this for months, years, made him feel a little sick. Like he’d wasted so much valuable time in his effort to be as unattached as humanly possible.

  Chelsea’s presence made it a hundred times worse. For her, it was an adventure, though she was used to far grander surroundings. To him, it was a horrible reminder of what his life hadn’t been.

  He shook out the Boston Globe he’d bought that morning on his lonely run and spread it out across the table. He was on the hunt for a decent place to live for the summer, then he’d figure out what came next.

  He found some options. A few sublets, at least, though the idea of living with someone else’s stuff freaked him out.

  Funny how that had never bothered him at Garrick and Savannah’s place.

  Shaking his head, he shoved the paper aside. “Come on, let’s go get your stuff.”

  Chelsea appeared in her bedroom doorway. “What if they’re home?”

  “We’ll get some coffee and try again in an hour.”

  She shrugged. “Okay, let’s do it.”

  The townhouse, perched near the very top of Beacon Hill, was deserted when they arrived. Rhian stood on the street and stared at the huge house he’d walked past more than once. It was the same age and design as Garrick and Savannah’s building, but where theirs had been cut into six apartments, this place was a single four-story residence. It reeked of money.

  Chelsea finally lost patience and shook him out of his stupor. “Come on. It’s just a house.”

  He laughed at himself and the countless Little Orphan Annie fantasies he and all the rest of the foster kids had hoped could come true. This place wasn’t anyone’s salvation. He took a moment to thank god his mother hadn’t raised him.

  They didn’t linger once they were inside, running straight to Chelsea’s room and stuffing her clothes and other belongings into any bag they could find. She had some luggage, which was quickly filled and stacked in the front hall. They’d just finished bundling together shopping bags full of the last of her things when the front door slammed shut.

  “Oh, shit,” Chelsea muttered.

  Footsteps thundered up the stairs, then Buddy came barreling through the bedroom door, charging straight toward his sister. Rhian had to hand it to him. The idiot was fucking consistent.

  The difference this time was that Rhian was ready for him. He dropped his bags and slammed into Buddy with all his weight and strength. The entire house shuddered when they hit the wall.

  Buddy’s head cracked against the plaster and Rhian jumped away before Buddy could recover—which he did with remarkable speed.

  Maybe it was genetic.

  Didn’t matter. Rhian dodged a punch and swung hard, connecting with Buddy’s face. Buddy came right back at him. Rhian ducked again. He could do this all day. Hockey had trained him well.

  “Stop!”

  The shrill demand came from the door as his mother rushed past him to check Buddy’s injuries.

  No, not his mother. Diane.

  The damn woman cooed over Buddy’s bloody nose.

  Rhian caught himself before he rolled his eyes. Shit, she did that all the time. He hoped to hell that wasn’t genetic, too.

  Chelsea gathered up her bags. “We’re just getting my stuff. We were about to leave.”

  Diane turned on her, the familiar mask of rage falling into place in a blink of the eye. “You’re not going anywhere, young lady!”

  Rhian sighed. He’d feared this exact thing would happen. He’d already dropped the charges, after all. They should have come get her stuff first. Damn.

  To see Chelsea’s crestfallen expression made Rhian furious. He got right in Diane’s face. “Shove it, Mom. We made a deal and you’re going to stick to it.”

  “I’m not your mother,” she hissed venomously. “I left you behind. I never even looked for you. Did you know that? Never a regret. I was pregnant with Buddy and I knew from the moment he was conceived that he was special. He understands what family means. You never will.”

  Rhian laughed. Not the maniacal laugh so often employed in the presence of fucking crazy people, but a genuine chortle of delight. “I’ve got a family.”

  And he hoped to hell they would forgive him.

  Because holy shit, it was true. He understood what family was better than this crazy bitch. Leaving him was the best thing she’d ever done for him, and giving him Chelsea was a damn close second.

  He looked at his sister and they shared a smile of perfect understanding.

  Diane sneered at her daughter. “You’re an ungrateful bitch! You think I’m going to pay for your fancy school now?”

  Chelsea crossed her arms and stared her mother down.

  Rhian smiled at Chelsea, then at the monster who had given birth to them. “Keep your money, bitch. I’ll pay.”

  He was fucking delighted to finally have something to do with the money he’d saved over the past couple years. He wasn’t a complete rube—he knew Wellesley College would be expensive. But he’d make it work. Take out loans if he had to.

  The grin of pure, unadulterated love and gratitude Chelsea sent him made him feel ten feet tall.

  They grabbed everything they’d packed and ran like hell out of that awful house, leaving the rest of their putrid gene pool behind.

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Their escape would have gone more smoothly if they’d had the foresight to order a taxi. Instead they stood like a couple dorks on the corner, waiting for their ride, piles of crap all around them.

  Chelsea was still smiling. “Thanks for offering to put me through school.”

  “You’re welcome. It wasn’t an empty promise. We’ll make it work.”

  She threw her arms around him and gave him a loud, smacking kiss on his cheek. “You’re the best brother in the world.”

  He imagined he was a fascinating shade of red now. “Uh, thanks.”

  “And very generous.”

  He nodded, not sure what to say.

  “But I’m going to talk to Grandfather about Mom’s behavior long before I drain your bank accounts.”

  “But—”

  “I won’t tell him about you if you still don’t want me to. But I think you should reconsider.” She eyed him speculatively. “He makes pretty good family. Seems like yours is still pretty small.”

  Until he begged a certain two people’s forgiveness, his family was one, and she was standing right in front of him.

  “I’ll think about it,” he allowed. “I might consider expanding, once I get my current relations sorted out.”

  She grinned. “Does that mean you’re going to stop being a dumb-ass about your…errr…friends?”

  “What?” He choked on an embarrassing nervous laugh.

  “I don’t know what happened, and if you’ve got cause to kick their asses to the curb, you know I’ll support you, but I kind of got the impression you eighty-sixed Garrick and Savannah because I was around. And you don’t need to. I get that you love them.”

  Rhian stared long and hard at his overly perceptive sister. “That’s not the reason I did it.” He stood firm against her dubious look for all of ten seconds. “Okay, not the only reason. I pushed them away because I never figured it could be for real. Permanent. I figured someday…”

  “They’d just up and leave you with Mrs. Rosenberg?”

  Shit, when she put it like that…

  “Yeah,” he admitted.

  “So, you were going to let her win, huh?”

  “Who?”

  “Dear old mom, of course. You were going to walk away from two incredibly sexy, brilliant, kind people because she fucked with your head that badly?”

  When he just stared at her, she threw up her hands.

  “Look, not that I blame you. I don’t. What do I know? I was stuck with her and I’m sure there will be more than one boyfriend in my future who will point out that it wasn’t for the best. But come on. You smiled all the time. And the way your eyes would track them everywhere? How they were always
finding reasons to touch you? Brush up against you? Hell, you three should come with a warning label and a bucket of ice water.”

  His face felt like it was going to catch fire. How the hell could he talk about this shit with his sister? She was a mostly grown woman, with an obviously active and accurate imagination, but still—she was his sister.

  Oh shit.

  Hindsight was a bitch.

  He’d been certain Savannah was rejecting him. That she was ashamed for her brothers to know about him. But what if it was just this? The basic discomfort of revealing the details of her sex life to her brothers? He’d only known his sister for a week and it was already awkward. Christ, with six nosy, intelligent, and ruthless brothers, he’d never tell anyone anything.

  At least until he was sure.

  Rhian wanted to sit his ass down on the brick sidewalk and weep over his own stupidity. Goddamn, why didn’t he tell Savannah he was in love with her?

  Chelsea put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You just figured out how fucking stupid you are, didn’t you?”

  Rhian grimaced. “How can you tell? You barely know me.”

  “Dude! We have the same face!”

  Rhian smiled. He looked at his sister and all her worldly possessions around their feet. He felt bad causing her more upheaval, but it couldn’t wait.

  “How do you feel about a trip to Connecticut?”

  She laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  The taxi pulled up to the curve and they spent the next few minutes packing an unbelievable amount of crap into the trunk before climbing into the back seat.

  “I hope it’s okay, but we’re moving.”

  “As long as I get that nice little office room and a bed, I’m good. I love this neighborhood.”

  Rhian laughed and gave the driver the address to Savannah and Garrick’s apartment—his apartment— and checked his pocket for the key.

  He pulled it and his phone out, quickly firing off a text to Sergio.