"About time you got off your ass. I was thinking I'd have to toss your ass into the pool to bring you back to the land of the living," Christian quipped from the doorway. He stood there leaning against it, smirking at me. "You ready to go home and talk to your woman now? Or were you planning on drowning yourself in more bourbon?"
My cheeks heated at the accusation. I couldn't deny it either. I shouldn't have had that many drinks. And I shouldn't have needed any drinks to realize Christian was right, that I needed to grow the fuck up and have an actual conversation with my wife. "No, no more drinks. And I'll go talk to Gabbie as soon as my head stops pounding and my body doesn't feel like it was just hit by a freight train."
Christian laughed, his smirk broadening. Then, he nodded toward the little table next to the chair I'd slept in. A glass of ice water and a couple pills were already sitting there waiting for me. "Figured you were gonna feel like shit, so I brought you some water and Ibuprofen. Should help you feel somewhat normal again."
I scooped up the two pills and downed them with the water. The icy sensation rippled through my body. By the time I'd finished the entire glass, I no longer felt like I was coated in cobwebs.
"You're not the first person to get stupid drunk over a woman," Christian said, his voice softening. "But I suggest you get your ass home and man up before you lose that woman. Gabbie loves you man, but even she can only put up with your bullshit for so long before she decides you're not worth it."
I winced at Christian's words, but he wasn't wrong. I'd had my head up my ass for so long, I hadn't even realized it. Gabbie had been going everything she could to bridge the gap between us, and I'd done nothing but push her away. It was time for me to stop acting like a royal ass and treat her like an actual person, an adult woman, not something made out of glass.
I reached in my pocket to pull out my phone and check the time, but it wasn't there. It must've still been sitting in its little holder in my car. I'd been so out of it last night, I hadn't even thought to grab it. Gabbie was probably worried sick about me, since I hadn't come home last night. And if it was as late in the morning as I thought it was, then I needed to get home before she had a full-on panic attack worrying about me.
"Thanks, man," I said, walking over to give Christian a quick hug. "I'm glad you're back in town, at least part of the time. It just wasn't the same with you on the other side of the country all the time."
Christian grinned as he hugged me, patting me on the back. "Yeah, I missed you jackasses, too. And it'll be good for us to be here once Jade has the babies. I want them growing up surrounded by family, and like it or not, you guys are my family."
By the time I made it to my car, the Ibuprofen had kicked in, and I no longer felt like walking death. My phone was still where I'd put it last night, except the battery was drained. Knowing how temperamental the little device could be, even with it charging while I drove, I'd be back at the house before it had enough power to turn back on.
Which meant I needed to get my ass there right away, since I couldn't even send Gabbie a text letting her know I was okay.
Just as I'd expected, the phone powered back on just as I was pulling into the driveway. I waited until I'd parked to look at it, then winced. There were a handful of missed calls from Gabbie last night, one after another. I ran a hand through my hair and called myself all sorts of names for being such an idiot. I'd slipped out while she was asleep, leaving her to wake up and find me gone. After her first time. Of course she would panic. Fuck.
I'd just have to throw myself at her feet and grovel for forgiveness before we had our long talk.
But when I walked into the house, it was dead silent. The house was rarely quiet when Gabbie was home. She claimed she didn't like a quiet house and always had music playing while she did whatever. The only reason for the house to be quiet was if she was still asleep or if she wasn't home. I rushed up the stairs to the bedroom and found it empty. The bed was messy still, which was unusual. Gabbie almost always made the bed first thing in the morning.
My heart hammered in my chest as I pulled my phone back out and dialed her number. She probably just ran out to the store or maybe she was out getting breakfast. There were hundreds of plausible reasons for her not to be home, all reasonable and nothing to worry about. But my mind ignored each one of them and went down more sinister paths instead.
I waited until the call connected, the ringing sound echoing in my ear. Then, I jumped when a loud jingling filled the room. My eyes narrowed in on the source immediately. Gabbie's phone was lying on the table next to the bed, still plugged in. It was exactly where she put it every night.
My phone fell from my hands, hitting the carpeted floor with a thunk. My mouth went dry and my head pounded, but this time it wasn't because of the alcohol. My body moved on its own, walking over to the closet and yanking the doors open.
Gabbie's suitcase, which was always kept front and center for when we had to travel, was gone. Many hangers that normally contain shirts and dresses were empty, far more than should have been since Gabbie had just done laundry a couple days ago. Opening her dresser revealed the same missing clothes in each drawer.
She was gone.
There has to be some explanation.
But that was wishful thinking. There was only one reason for Gabrielle to pack her things and leave without even taking her cellphone. She was done with me. I'd crossed a line I never should have crossed, and she would never forgive me for it. I hadn't treated her like a real person, hadn't let her voice her own opinions about the matter.
I loved Gabriella, more than anything on the planet. For so long, I’d tried to deny it. Or ignore it. Or pretend like it didn’t matter. The difference in our age was always at the forefront of my mind. She was so young, so naïve, so innocent. She deserved to make her first mistakes and have her first experiences with someone else her own age.
Yes, women found me attractive. Yes, I had money and power. But Gabbie was in my care, and I couldn’t use my ruthless nature against her. She deserved someone tender, not a man who took what he wanted, damn the consequences. There was a reason why I was so good in business. I let nothing hinder an acquisition.
Gabbie was the embodiment of kindness. She deserved someone else who was kind. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
But now, knowing there was a possibility that she'd be with a different man?
No fucking way.
She was mine.
She’d always been mine.
I shut my eyes. It was her right to choose. I’d respect her choice. This would all have been so much easier if I hadn’t tasted her innocence. If I didn’t know how perfectly she fit my cock.
First things first: I had to apologize. She'd left her phone at the house, and I had no idea where she'd go. There were two places I thought she might go - to Aspen's or to Jack's. I knew she wasn't at Christian's, since I'd just left there. Which meant she'd either gone to Aspen, which was her best male friend, or to Emma, who was her best female friend.
I called Jack first, but his phone went right to voicemail. Then, I kicked myself, remembering Jack was out of town for work. Even though it was a Sunday, he was probably neck deep in meetings, not at his house. Instead, I shot him a text asking if he'd heard anything from Emma and if he knew if Gabbie was there.
He responded a few moments later confirming that he was in a meeting but he'd call Emma once it got out.
I didn't have the patience to wait for that. Nor did I feel in control of myself enough to get the number for Emma and call her myself. Instead, I sent Aspen a text, asking if he'd seen her since the unfortunate run-in yesterday. Knowing Aspen, he was still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him up with a phone call, especially in the state I was in.
"Haven't seen her," he texted back a few seconds later. Followed immediately by a second tax. "Why, what did you do?"
I stared at the screen for a long moment, trying to figure out what to say to him. He was my younger brother, someone I'd always trusted
. I couldn't lie to him, I couldn't just blow it off as nothing. He was smarter than that. And more determined. He'd hound me until I finally broke and told him the truth. So why prolong the inevitable?
"I fucked up."
9
Gabbie
Emma shifted from foot to foot as she looked between me and Aspen. Then, she let out a breath. "I'm gonna go upstairs and get changed. I'm not exactly dressed for riding," she said with a smirk before retreating, leaving me alone with my brother-in-law.
Aspen let out a breath and shook his head. "I swear, you and Nick are going to turn me into an alcoholic. It's not even lunchtime and I already want a drink."
"I know the feeling," I whispered under my breath. I felt bad for Aspen though, knowing he'd been thrust into the middle of this. It wasn't his fault I'd screwed up my marriage with Nick.
"So, you wanna fill me in on what's going on?" Aspen asked. He hadn't moved from where he stood in the entryway, and I doubted I'd be lucky enough for him to turn around and leave if I told him no. Aspen wasn't the guy to let up once he'd gotten his teeth into something. And if he'd been dragged into this, then he would not walk away until he knew what the hell was going on.
But where the Hell did I even begin? How could I admit to him what we'd done last night? I doubted he wanted to hear the details of what Nick and I had done, but I couldn't just skip it.
"Nick and I slept together," I said leaving it at that.
Aspen nodded, smirking. "Well, it's about damn time. I was beginning to think his dick didn't work anymore."
Oh, it worked all right. Even with all the fallout after, I could still keenly remember how well Nick's dick had worked. Just thinking about it was enough to make me shudder. "Yeah, well. I should've just been happy with what I had instead of constantly pushing him for more," I said bitterly.
"Don't be like that. Come on, Gabbie. You know he loves you. He's just a hard-headed asshole sometimes." Aspen would want to defend his brother. I couldn't blame him for that. But I doubted Nick loved me, not after last night. But I couldn't deny that Nick was hard-headed. All four brothers were.
I let out a breath, then shook my head. Standing there arguing with Aspen would change nothing. It would just upset me even more. Today was supposed to be about clearing my head, not constantly going around in circles. "Well, Emma and I are taking Holly out riding. So, you can either come along with us or go home. Because I'm not talking about it right now."
Without another word, I turned and followed in Emma's footsteps. I had brought nothing specifically for riding, but I had clothes that would suffice. And right then, I'd have gone upstairs and changed into my wedding dress if it would've gotten me out having that conversation with Aspen. I loved him, I really did, but I couldn't face him right then.
To my surprise, when the three of us headed back downstairs, Aspen was standing by the backdoor, waiting for us. Apparently, I wasn't going to get out of that conversation easily. Because I wasn't. Like I said, they were all hard-headed bastards. But whatever. I wouldn't let Aspen's presence ruin my day with the girls. He was one of my best friends.
"I take it you told Holly about 'the spot'," Aspen said with a smirk when he figured out where we were heading.
I shrugged and returned his grin. "I figured it was about time to pass it along to the next generation. Lord knows Jack isn't going to take her out there!"
Aspen laughed so hard I thought he would fall off his horse. When I just sat there, eyebrow raised, and stared at him, he tried to get himself back under control. "Sorry, just remembering the last time Jack went out there. God, he would've been what, seventeen? Eighteen maybe? He was so damn sure of himself back then, certain he was better than all of us because he was so much older. Then, when he'd been trying to show off on the rope swing, it'd snapped and he'd gone face first into the mud!"
I tried to fight back the laughter, but I couldn't help it. I remembered that day clearly, but I had forgotten it was the last time Jack had gone out with us. After that, he'd insisted that he was too busy or too old to come hangout at the stream with us. The rest of us had gone out there for a while after he'd stopped, but eventually we'd all fizzled out, moving on with our lives.
Holly's high-pitched giggling brought our attention to her. She was ahead of us, but the look on her face as she watched us over her shoulder told me she'd been listening. Apparently she thought her father landing face first in the mud was hysterical. And I had to agree. It was too bad that was well before the age of smartphones. That would've been an amazing video to have these days, giving us something to look back on sometimes and laugh our asses off.
As we rode, Holly begged us for more stories of her dad, which Aspen and I were more than eager to provide. Holly's father travelled often for work, and these stories would help her feel closer to him. I remembered all the days I'd sat with Mr. and Mrs. Frost, listening to stories about my dad when he was younger and all the mischief he'd gotten into. Like Jack, my dad had mellowed out with age. By the time I'd come along, that rebellious young man was locked in the past, only revealed through those stories.
It helped me understand him so much better, to know there was a real human beneath the suit and tie he'd always worn.
The sun was high in the sky by the time we made it to the stream, tethering the horses to let them graze and drink as they saw fit but not letting them wander off. Just as I'd suspected, the stream was frigid, but that didn't stop Holly from stripping off her riding clothes and running into it, giggling as only a kid can.
The rest of us stood well outside of splashing range, shaking our heads and laughing at her youthful exuberance. I'd have killed to be able to go back to that age, to be so young and carefree again. Back then, nothing had really mattered. The biggest problem I'd had at her age was wondering which boys at school had a crush on me.
Though, now that I thought about it, my problems hadn't changed much. It'd just gotten more complicated since said boy was actually my husband. And yet, I still wasn't sure he liked me in that way.
Holly was right. Boys are stupid, I decided, as I sat down with my back against a tree. Maybe I should take Nick up on that offer of a divorce, then go off somewhere and become a hermit. I could get a bunch of cats and become a crazy old cat lady. I'd never have to worry about boy troubles then, since no guy would want to be caught within a mile of me.
"What's on your mind?" Aspen asked as he sat down on my left. Emma sat, on my right side, all three of us monitoring Holly from a distance. The stream wasn't deep, but we weren't going to take any chances.
I shrugged, still not wanting to talk about it. I wanted to say I'd gotten it all out of my system earlier when I'd cried in Emma's arms, but I knew that wasn't true. If I started down that path again, it would all come flooding back.
"Bottling it all up isn't gonna help," Aspen said, nudging me with his shoulder.
That was the thing I hated most about Aspen. He was hard-headed and persistent, but he was usually right, too. I wanted to keep it all contained inside me, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that wouldn't do any good. It would just stew up inside me, and when I finally did let it all out, it'd be ten times worse.
So I gave Aspen the abridged version of what happened last night, skipping the raunchy details and keeping my voice low so Holly wouldn't overhear. It all came out in a rush, a long jumble of words. I was breathless by the time I'd finished and had to wipe tears from my eyes. At least I didn't have a complete breakdown this time.
Aspen was quiet for a moment as he mulled everything over. I waited for his judgement. If he'd come looking for me, no doubt Nick had filled him in on everything. But it never came. He just turned and looked at me, his eyes sad. "Have you tried talking to him?"
I shook my head. What could I possibly say to Nick that would fix things? I could promise it would never happen again, but would I be able to keep myself to that? I still felt that pang of attraction toward him even now. Could I stay married to him, knowing we'
d never be able to take our relationship to that level?
"Look, I know my brother. He's a stubborn ass a lot of times and he sucks at opening up to people. But I can't imagine he's mad at you for what happened last night. It's not like you beat him over the head, tied him to the bed, and had your way with him. He's a grown man and is more than capable of putting a stop to something if he's not into it."
"Then why'd he leave last night? And why didn't he come back?" I wanted to believe Aspen, but all the evidence in front of my said otherwise. If Nick had been into it last night, he wouldn't have left. And he would have come back, rather than staying out all night.
Aspen shrugged. "I don't know. He's my brother, but it's not like I can read his mind all the time. Maybe you should go home and talk to him though, figure all of this out. I know he still loves you."
I snorted, turning my gaze back to Holly. If he loved me, he'd done a shitty job of showing it.
"Or maybe you should go out tonight, get your mind off everything and have a little fun." Emma smiled at me, trying to be reassuring. There was a twinkle in her eyes though, one I should've been suspicious. "Maybe a night out on the town will make Nick jealous enough to get his head out of his ass."
"Because that's not gonna backfire...." Aspen muttered under his breath.
But I liked Emma's idea. It was a good way to discover if Nick cared about me or if our marriage was just all for show. If he wasn't upset about last night, if he loved me, he wouldn't want me out hitting the clubs, dancing with other guys.
Not that I'd actually do that, though. I did love Nick, and I didn't want to go out and spend the night being groped by horny dudes. That didn't mean I couldn't let him think that's what I would do though. I could send him a text, maybe include a picture or two, and see how he reacted. But I wouldn't go out. I'd just stay at the house with the girls, maybe watch some movies or something.
"Do you still have that sexy black dress?" I asked, grinning at Emma.
The Bride's Christmas Pregnancy Wish Page 6
