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Junie~
The sun was setting on our Saturday night, and things were beginning to feel a bit more...calmer. Everyone was gathered around the sitting room, ready to play some board games.
After Ripley and I had made up, he’d been kind enough to let me sleep for a couple of hours before waking me up for lunch. Going down the stairs, a part of me had felt a sense of relief that Leslie and Paul were no longer at the cabin, but another part had still felt...at odds over how everything had turned out. I didn’t feel guilty or bad or at fault, it just felt weird to have lost two people that I had once cared about.
What had surprised me the most was how everyone else had taken the loss in stride. Obviously, there’d been no question on where Roark’s loyalty laid, but I’d been surprised that Bruce, Sheridan, and Démon had been perfectly fine with walking away from two people that they had been friends with, too.
Sheridan had stated that she could never be friends with a woman that could do that to another woman, and she’d never been a big fan of Paul’s. No matter how well she and Leslie had gotten along, Sheridan had stated that there was no way she would ever have felt comfortable introducing her future boyfriends to someone as shady as Leslie.
Démon had echoed the same sentiment, saying how Leslie’s lack of compassion for the situation had been a real wake up call to Leslie’s true character. There was also the fact that Paul could have chosen any woman to cheat with, but he had chosen someone that I had considered a friend, and if that wasn’t the signs of a snake, then she didn’t know what was.
Bruce had been a bit harsher in his recap of how he felt about Paul and Leslie, and that had surprised me the most since he was our peacemaker. He’d said that he’d lost all respect for Paul the second that he’d heard about our breakup. He had explained that, while he had no issues with relationships not lasting, Paul should have been man enough to leave me before cheating on me with one of my friends. His take on Leslie had been much simpler. In his opinion, Leslie was batshit crazy, and that was all there was to it.
Of course, Phineas Moore hadn’t had a sorrowful bone in his body for the collapse of our little group, but the man hadn’t been invested the way that the rest of us had been. He’d only met Paul and Leslie yesterday.
After lighting his cigarette, taking a puff, then pushing the smoke out of his lungs, Roark looked down at me. “Hey, how are you doing?”
While everyone was in the sitting room, Roark had pulled me outside with him for a quick smoke before the games began. We hadn’t had a chance to really discuss everything that had happened this morning, and I knew that it was killing him. Heaven help them if Roark ever had daughters.
“I’m good,” I told him, looking out at the lake from the back deck. “I’m not sure exactly how I feel about everything, but I’m good.”
“Still processing?”
I looked up at him. “I think so,” I replied. “I think...it’s still a lot to take in. I mean...Leslie really seemed off her nut.” He chuckled. “And it still blows my mind that Paul thought I would actually go back to him. Whether dating someone else or not, how could he really believe that I’d go back to him after what he did to me? It’s insane.”
“Men do crazy shit for love,” he remarked absently.
I eyed him. “How in the hell would you know? Have you ever been in love?”
He grinned. “Touché.” He took another hit of his cigarette. “However, I’ve seen my brother in love, and the man waited for you for five years, so I’d consider that crazy.” After blowing out another stream of smoke, he added, “And that was when he didn’t think that he had a chance with you. I can’t imagine the crazy shit that he’ll be up to now that he has you.”
I leaned up against the banister. “Are you sure you’re okay with all of this, Roark?” I asked for the first time. “I know it puts you in an awkward position, and...”
His face softened. “And...?”
“Right now, I’ll pick you,” I told him honestly. “Right now, tomorrow, a few months from now, I will pick you, no question. But...what happens if there comes a time when I have a ring on my finger or a bunch of little Storms running around? I...” God, it was hard to get the words out. “How do I choose then? How do I choose between my best friend and my husband? I’d have to pick him...right?”
“Junie-”
Suddenly, my lungs felt tight, and my head felt dizzy. “Oh, God...I can’t do this-”
“Oh, hey,” Roark rushed out, his hands reaching for my shoulders before he realized his cigarette was still lit. Quickly snuffing it out in one of the millions of ashtrays that Ripley had lying around for his brother, Roark finally grabbed me by my shoulders. “Junie, look at me.”
“Roark, I-”
“Junie, listen to me,” he said, stopping me. “Ripley and I don’t have that kind of relationship. We are too close to ever let anything come between us. If that weren’t the case, Ripley would have pursued you, even after I’d told him not to.” He started rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “Junie Bug, there will never be a time when you’ll have to choose between me and Ripley. Even if things ever did get that far, we’d never do that to you. We’d work our shit out first before ever letting it touch you.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my face into his chest. “Promise?”
“On my life,” he swore. “Still, just so you know, if you are ever wearing his ring and popping out his children, I would expect you to choose him, Junie. And I want you to believe me when I tell you that I would never blame you for it, either.”
The sound of the sliding glass door opening had me turning away from Roark’s chest, and I wasn’t surprised to see Ripley walking out to join us.
However, the second that he got a good look at my face, his filled with concern. “You okay?”
“She was having a moment,” Roark chuckled.
“About what?” Ripley’s blue gaze remained on my face as he asked his brother that question.
“She was freaking out about who to choose if we ever got into it,” he explained.
Ripley just snorted. “Like we’d ever make her choose.”
“Yeah, that’s what I told her.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Ripley asked, “Can you give us a moment?”
“Sure,” Roark automatically replied. “Just don’t take too long. We got games to play.”
Ripley’s lip twitched. “Sure thing.”
Once it was just us on the deck, Ripley stepped to me, wrapping me up in his arms. “I don’t resent the relationship that you have with my brother, Junie,” he said as he dropped his chin on top of my head. “I love that you have someone else to look out for you like I want to.”
“I...I just...I think I just need to get used to all this,” I told him. “I don’t want to get this wrong, Ripley. I want to love you both with no issues.”
“Remember that promise to communicate?” I nodded. “Well, Roark and I have that same rule. Trust me when I tell you that me and Roark will always be good, Junie. You’re worrying for nothing.”
I pulled back, then looked up at him. “Maybe it’s just that whole too-good-to-be-true,” I admitted, wearing that possibility to see if that was it. “I don’t know. I just know that I want this to work, Ripley.”
“It will,” he promised. “I won’t not let it.”
“That simple, huh?” I teased, trying to lighten things up.
“Yep,” he returned. “At least, for us, it will be. I think Phineas and Sheridan are going to have problems.”
I choked out a laugh. “Yeah, I never saw that coming. Still, gotta tell you, Ripley...” I shook my head. “Sheridan doesn’t get attached, so I think this is a perfect hookup for them both.”
His brows furrowed a bit. “Maybe,” he replied carefully. “However, I’m not sure Phineas will be saying goodbye come Monday. I’ve never known him for letting a woman mark him, so I wonder.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then I wish him luck because he’s going to need it,” I chuckled.
“What about Bruce and Démon?” he asked. “Feels like something might have changed between them.”
“I think the friends-with-benefits is over,” I agreed. “And it’s about time, honestly.”
Ripley’s blue eyes filled with mirth. “Yeah, I know how the dude feels. Sucks to love someone and have to wait until they make the move to make it real.”
I stepped back, smiling. “Uh, I’m pretty sure that it was you who made the first move,” I chuckled. “It wasn’t me announcing to the room that we’d been dating for six months.”
“Best announcement I ever made,” he teased.
“Even over your decision to go pro?” I teased back.
His arms tightened around my waist. “You have no idea, baby. Now, let’s get inside before I keep you out here forever.”
Little did Ripley know that I wasn’t necessarily opposed to that idea.
